Here Comes the "Limited Commercial Interruption" - Discussion Topic #2

This will be my last post until next Saturday. I'm enrolled in a Field Ecology class, and the entirety of the class is spending my Spring Break in caves, collecting data. Oh well, it's better than not having enough credit hours to receive an assistantship, and having to pay my own tuition. It is lousy for two reasons though: One, I miss the season finale of The Shield. Two, after consecutive lackluster weeks of comics, I've got at least five titles coming in this week, including X-Factor and Exiles, which are pretty much guaranteed good stuff. So expect my impressions of those on the 25th.

Still, I wanted to leave you with a "project" for the week, so you'll keep visiting until I return. What I'd like is the seven member - or less - roster you would design of any team. It can be a currently operating team, like the Avengers (I know, they're the Not Avengers, just humor me) or JSA. You could be reviving the Defenders or Suicide Squad. You could make an entirely new team (in that case, let us know what kind of a "niche" the team will fill). You can use any member of the team, EVER, from any point in their history, just let us know which version of, for example, Cyclops from the original X-Men, or Grant Morrison "cheats on Jean" Cyclops. Or JLA: Year One Hal Jordan or current Hal Jordan. If you want to designate a creative team as well, go for it. Do this for as many teams as you want, go crazy, organize the entire DC or Marvel Universe.

I'll start, with an X-Men team. This is designed to deal with most problems X-problems. I think they have enough power to deal with the Hellfire Club in battle, or to go espionage-style and gather incriminating evidence on them. After I finished, I realized I had enough people that I wanted on the team, but had no room for, to create two teams of 6 members, each with a more specific purpose. So first, the single team idea:

Wolverine (around Uncanny #220; brown outfit, sometimes leader, protective of teammates)
Rouge (from X-Men in the '90s, before she could use any power she'd ever absorbed)
Nightcrawler (swashbuckling '70s and '80s Kurt Wagner)
Iceman (the Guy Gardner-esque one from Joe Casey and Chuck Austen's stints on Uncanny)
Psylocke (the '90s telepathic ninja one)
Dazzler (I think the '90s version, that was fighting Mojo with Longshot)
Colossus (definitely '70s or '80s Piotr Rasputin. Not "depressed his little snowflake died" Piotr)

Also under consideration: Shadowcat (from Excalibur: smart, self-confident, respected), Longshot (more naive '80s version), Stacy X (hey, it's MY team, I can put her on there if I want), Storm (during her time as sole leader, with or without powers, preferably with), Chamber (from Casey's Uncanny).

As for the "dual teams" rosters, we've got: Storm, Rouge, Iceman, Dazzler, Colossus, Chamber (handles more obvious, public threats, like Sentinels, Brotherhood of Evil), and Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Psylocke, Longshot, Stacy X (for getting at the people that are pulling the strings on the big obvious threats the other team is smashing).

Well, I've exhausted my creativity for the day. I'm off to sit in front of the couch until the Full Metal Alchemist finale comes on. I relinquish the keys to the blog to you kind readers. No wild parties, or at least keep the Hal Jordan-look alike strippers out of my fully stocked bar!

In either scenario, there is one -count it, ONE! - X-book. With two teams especially, you can have enough going on to do at least some six-story arcs, without the need for decompression. Oh yeah, in case you hadn't guessed, House of M never happened, which is how Stacy and Chamber still have their powers (damn Quesada).