Board 8 > Scarlet Ranks User-Created Superhero Teams

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hope Summers can be written in a way where she isn't grossly overpowered by limiting the powers of the stuff she fights, but she's always OP in a way cause she's only not OP when she doesn't need to be. I can't speak for the quality of the writing of the character since I haven't read anything with her in it but I can't say her power set strikes me as one that facilitates good storytelling.

Unless she has a Kirby-like weakness of losing the power she's copying I'm not aware of.
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Johnbobb posted...

yeah I can see that

I just like Hope Summers

she's considerably better than the rest of the Summers

Rachel and Havok exist.
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I 100% forgot Rachel Summers existed for a while there, otherwise she would've been on that list too
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If you had put Rachel and dumped the others, your list would have jumped tens of places. Rachel is a phenomenal character that gets underutilized.
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rip me
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Mana Tries His Hand:

TEAM A
- Medusa
- Mera
- Hawkwoman
- Starfire
- Miss Martian
- Phoenix
- Maxima

With Firestar, Laira, Crystal, and Rescue as potential additions. (Angela, too)

TEAM B
- Hellcat
- Siryn
- Sharon Ventura
- Barbara Gordon
- Black Widow
- Silk Spectre

With Crystal, Red Monika, Colleen Wing, Amelia Voght, Mercury, and Julie Power for adds.

TEAM C
- Wolfsbane
- Marrow
- Mystique
- She-Thing Sharon Ventura
- Poison Ivy
- Veil
- U-Go Girl

- Hollow, Rachel Grey, Big Bertha, and Diamond Lil as potentials
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scarletspeed7 posted...

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Out of curiosity, how would you work Doomsday onto a team that doesn't come in last place? I spent the day thinking about it and...well I don't have enough comics knowledge to come up with much of anything. The closest I could get would be a one-shot alternate universe set during Civil War:

Tony & Reed, having already gone rather...psychotic during the plot, go even further and create a wretched monstrosity to brutally force compliance. And then everyone dies shortly afterwards, because of course they do, there's no version of "we create and/or enslave something called Doomsday to destroy our enemies" that doesn't end that way. But, your line about building the entire team around him, makes me think you had at least half an idea to work with?

If you want Doomsday on a team, you have to create a team that is willing to manipulate someone in order to achieve their ends and also have means in place to deal with him should he shirk whatever manipulation is in effect. Also, from a story perspective, you need to dump in a title where the threats would actually not get completely bowled over by Doomsday.

I'm a big fan of Psycho-Pirate, so I think he's a great option to control and manipulate Doomsday. I can just imagine him being sort of unhinged and frolicking around Doomsday while controlling all of Doomsday's extremely base emotions in order to achieve whatever ends he desires. Of course, you need someone who can control and manipulate Psycho-Pirate, and I think a solid John Constantine is a great choice. Constantine cares not a whip's stitch about the morality of his goals, so working with Doomsday would mean nothing to him. I'd likely want a couple heavier hitters on the team in case Doomsday gets out of control, so I'd put together the couple of Mary Marvel and Jesse Quick for that purpose. I've always thought they have a really great potential as a romantic item. I'd also include Bulleteer and the Thinker to round out the team. Bulleteer is a great character you can build over time, and Thinker fulfills that utility position and adds a little of that shade of villainy you need to keep the team in flux morally. My final addition would be Faith, a minor character who has a shady past but also very angelic/ethereal powers. Minor character that could be used as a Constantine love interest but also develop as her own character.

But that's just off the top of my head.

Neat! Also thank you and sorry it took so long for me to react, I kinda had to look up a few of those since as I said I'm not that well-informed when it comes to comics and didn't have time to research until now.

...okay so I still don't have much to say, but I really am appreciative for all the effort in that and for the chance to learn more comics stuff!
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#60 - Poker Night at the Inventory Created by: Mega Mana

The Thing
Human Torch
Wolverine
Cannonball
Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers)
Guy Gardner
Booster Gold
Blue Beetle (Ted Kord)
Renee Montoya

We're now coming to a group of teams wherein I don't see the potential for chemistry. This was a very unique little team on the list, and I credit Mana for coming up with something with a little bit of creativity. However, and I hestitate to say this, poker in comics is an afterthought. Any team can play work with one another; what's more important is what you'll be doing outside of the occasional three-page scene once a year. My issue here is that this is a very large team, and it's going to be divided into these little cliques of influence. You have a chunk of the Superbuddies here, you have half of the Fantastic Four hanging out, and you got a couple mutants in another corner. That leaves the sort-of outlier female characters chilling on their own. All of these disparate quadrants are going to have a hard time coming together in the end.

I don't see an easy access way to bring this group together, especially given that the concept appears to be cards. None of the characters who would be fun in a card game are included in the group, so this relies on personality to propel itself forward, but the problem is that the different spheres of influence are going to turn inward and interaction is not going to build to deeper or more interesting relationships. Ultimately, I think this group will come across as some fan favorites almost but kind of not almost completely not working together.

Membership Drive: I think the Superbuddies are the step in the right direction. I would probably nix the rest of the roster and focus on the Poker aspect of this. In fact, I'd also nix Guy Gardner, too. Get rid of the clique aspect of the team. Instead, bring in Gambit. Roulette would be a good choice as well. Maybe a modern rendition of the Gambler. I'd like to also see Saturn Girl here. That's a six-person table, and about as full as I would want the game to get with regulars before you plunk down a couple guests every story to keep things fresh for readers. With such an overly large roster, the characters will quickly stale because there isn't enough room for poker to remain interesting when everyone has to "get their shit in" each issue. Instead, we'll have a rotating block of guest characters, and the interactions from the regulars will develop based on new functional input from these external forces.
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#59 - Starcrossed Created by: Eddv

A bold editorial choice - a superhero comic constructed mainly to be a soap opera for doomed couples

Gambit + Rogue
Batman + Catwoman
Nightwing + Starfire
Wildfire + Dawnstar
Cyclops + Jean Grey

In a bold editorial choice, I, the editor of this list, have chosen to doom this doomed couples concept. It's not because I think the team itself is uninteresting. I actually just think this book works better as an anthology series, and that's the polar opposite of a team-up title. Good relationship drama becomes immediately less interesting when you mire it in the exact same sort of good relationship drama from other couples. Consider that the CW superhero shows all have bled audiences when most of the shows began running the same types of boneheaded romances. So, in this title, we will gather the dysfunction together into one small room and attempt to explain that somehow there's a difference between these various fail-couples?

The only truly "doomed" couple here, by the way, is Dawnstar and Wildfire. I guess you can also make the argument for Rogue and Gambit. The other pair-offs all doomed themselves thanks to markedly idiotic decisions. And I don't want to reward stupidity with potential popularity. How can I accept Nightwing as starcrossed? The only stars Starfire crosses are those between New Tamaran and Earth. So, in the end, I reward you no points because you didn't even adhere to your own distinction. Jean Grey and Cyclops are starcrossed. Lol. "Cheating." "Doomed." Okay. Maybe if this team was called "Made Their Own Bed" my response would be different.

Membership Drive: I'm only going to keep Wildfire/Dawnstar and Rogue/Gambit to start with here. We'll scrap the rest of these so-called couples and begin the replacement process with Alanna and Adam Strange, a fantastic romance that is subject to the whims of a science experiment consistently going awry. From there, I'll add Hawkman and Hawkgirl. You can't get much more doomed than constantly being murdered and re-murdered by the same asshole throughout history. Blink and Mimic might be a consideration if I didn't have Rogue and Gambit, but I also like the idea of keepting this team tighter in roster size. Also, I think you could have a great villain in Hath-Set for the overarching series baddie.
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Explain the poker theming?
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I mean, I can't. That was someone else's decision. I just tried to rate the team if the concept is that they play poker.

EDIT: I assumed that the idea was that these characters would play poker in each issue.
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Even though it's not the worst team Starcrossed is probably the comic series I'd be least interested in reading so far. It's not something I think comics do well for the most part and 4/10 of the members are doing things you've already seen in X-Men so it's already going to feel like the worst of X-Men as a starting point (well to be fair Gambit/Rogue isn't the worst of X-Men-- Jean/Cyclops might be though).

At least with the earlier bad teams you're seeing a potentially enjoyable implosion, or a dumb gimmick that has never really been tried (with good reason).
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Well I wanted a bunch of different kinds of romantic problems.

People being stupid is different tha the problems rogue/gambit and Wildfire/Dawnstar face haha
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I refuse to accept "people being stupid" as the definition of star-crossed. Plus, comic fans want to root for someone. The other problems could eventually be resolved in great storylines. You can't fix dumbassery, meaning Cyclops.
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scarletspeed7 posted...

I refuse to accept "people being stupid" as the definition of star-crossed. Plus, comic fans want to root for someone. The other problems could eventually be resolved in great storylines. You can't fix dumbassery, meaning Cyclops.

This is fair

I actually wanted to just do a Dawnstar/Wildfire book and then overdid the window dressing.
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Dawnstar/Wildfire was, as you can see, my favorite part of this team! What a great dynamic. Legion of Super-Heroes characters will generally get a little bump from me because I always believe they have tons of unexplored potential.
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#58 - Mustachioed Men Created by: Raetsel Lapin

Commissioner Gordon
Green Arrow
Dum Dum Dugan
Red Hulk (Robert Maverick)

I want to like this team. I really do. I really, desperately want this to work. We live in an age of Mustache Mountain. Apparently, facial follicles fulfill the prerequisites for fandom. Yet, here I stand in somewhat of opposition to this group because I think it falls apart on execution thanks to the small size of the roster and one singular choice.

There isn't really a good team leader here, and the chemistry between four members, all of whom have roughly the same amount of credit for a leadership role, means this group is just going to involve several curmudgeonly 'stache-sporters arguing over who should be in charge. Furthermore, Jim Gordon isn't really in the game of under-the-mask heroics (at least when he had a mustache), so the bigger issue is revealing identities to a non-combatant. Also, three nonpowered individuals being forced to take a backseat to one guy with relatively uninspired powers means that (I think) readers will look on the non-Hulks a veritable Team Flash. And no one really wants that in comics. Support teams are generally met with disinterest.

So let me try to make this concept more interesting.

Membership Drive: First and foremost, I'm cutting off Jim Gordon and Dum Dum Dugan. This is a superhero team. Not a convention for facial hair. Let's get some real superheroes onto this team, shall we? With Arrow and a Hulk already established, we need to find a tech guy for this group, and Iron Man is a perfect choice. You also need someone with some versatility in the group, a more utility player. I'd recommend Sinestro in this instance since he can easily flip over to the light side for a little while if necessary. We've done it before, after all. I'd round out the group with Dr. Strange fulfilling the mystical role in the team. Now we've got a Justice League-quality group with as much variety as you can get from a bunch of mustached men. For a comedic purpose, I would add in someone like Beast Boy, a character who keeps trying to skate by on like a pitch-fuzz level 'stache. He can try a variety of tactics and disguises to bamboozle the various members of the team, only to be caught each time sporting a fake mustache.

And the obviously villain here is Grant Morrison's Beard Hunter.
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What abot Omni-Man for the mustache team?
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I kept Hulk and that pretty much precluded Omni-Man. Too samey. He was my second thought after Iron Man and probably a better choice than Hulk. But I'm trying to improve teams and not wipe them out.
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I'm now picturing Amadeus Cho trying to join Team Mustache similar to your Beast Boy example and resorting to more and more complicated tech solutions to try and fool them.
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Cho is a great choice also.
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#57 - The Bullpen Created by: Lopen

Colossus
Wolverine
Ant-Man
Human Torch
Cannonball
Deadpool
Gambit
Domino
Friendly Floyd

I hope Lopen doesn't take this the wrong way, but this team ranks so lowly because I have no fucking clue what this team is nor do I understand why it exists. In a lot of ways, this is one of those "characters I like groups". I have so many undefined questions for this group. Why is called The Bullpen? If it's a reference to the Marvel bullpen, some of these characters really didn't exist in that era of Marvel. If it's not, then I have little understanding of what ties this group together in the first place. It's a bunch of mid-tier strength characters. They theoretically have great chemistry thanks to the vast majority of them being mutants, but Human Torch and Ant-Man being included just makes no sense to me.

I guess on paper, others will say that this is a well-crafted team. However, I look at this group and just don't see a point to it at all. Why does this team need to exist? The short answer is: it doesn't. A team needs a reason for being, and I can't just pretend there is one here. If I put together several magicians, for example, and include one or two non-magicians, I can at least say, "This is a team that combats magical threats." Here, I have a ton of mutants, but the fact that there are non-mutants kind of makes it a non-mutant title. Even the mutants included don't really combine for anything special. Some are from 90s excess, but the majority of them are just mainline X-Men. And that's already a team. Called the X-Men. So, I guess, when there's really nothing to say in regards to a team's purpose, it results in the team getting ditched pretty early on.

Membership Drive: I'm not even going to bother on this one because I have no idea what this team is supposed to be. At least some of the lower teams have purposes; this one just seems... there.
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I thought that might have a chance of happening but I also didn't want to explain my teams too much and just let you interpret them unless there was some very important detail I needed to include.

The gimmick is it's a bunch of heroes for Colossus to throw. And when that fails, it's up for Gambit to throw random objects he found thanks to the luckhax of Domino or Friendly Floyd randomly showing up and selling him some worthless item that he can throw.

Was hoping the name (it's just a baseball reference) + the innovators of the vaunted Fastball Special being the first two entries would be enough hinting but then I guess the last 4 don't obviously fit that criteria.

Basically it's a gimmick team but more subtle than "these guys all do the same thing"
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My Bullpen consists of Bullseye and that's it.
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Also I admit I probably should have just went with one of the two halves of that gimmick but I hadn't made any large teams at that point so I felt like I wanted to make one. Also I think the Colossus side of the gimmick works better but the Gambit side is how I shoehorn my Friendly Floyd cred in so you know.
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Lopen posted...

The gimmick is it's a bunch of heroes for Colossus to throw. And when that fails, it's up for Gambit to throw random objects he found thanks to the luckhax of Domino or Friendly Floyd randomly showing up and selling him some worthless item that he can throw.

Was hoping the name (it's just a baseball reference) + the innovators of the vaunted Fastball Special being the first two entries would be enough hinting but then I guess the last 4 don't obviously fit that criteria.

So it's...Lopen posted...

"these guys all do the same thing"

I actually might rank it here still because everyone doing the same types of attacks is actually super-super boring.
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Well not really. Throwing a fireball is not the same as throwing a dude who grows and shrinks or throwing a guy who cuts things. They have different applications and different roles to fill once thrown, so I feel like it's a more combat ready and diverse team than a standard issue gimmick team.

Like I said it's a gimmick group at heart, won't argue against that or even that it objectively should be higher, but if it really was quite as simple as "these guys all do the same thing" you would have got what it was trying to do without me explaining it!
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Throwing a guy who grows or shrink is the same as throwing a guy who cuts things, in that if I had an arrow that grew or shrank or an arrow that cuts things, both would end up in Green Arrow's quiver.

I mean, it's a cute idea. It could have used just a little explanation just because it was a long list and it didn't really occur to me that that was the direction you were going. And even with the explanation, I don't still know what they would do. They just feel very basic even with that concept. I don't really see anything for them to do that's unique just to this team. I did try to make most of these teams work conceptually, but some of them just didn't leave me a lot of room to play around with.

Not trying to harp on it or anything, I just enjoy discussion.
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scarletspeed7 posted...

For a comedic purpose, I would add in someone like Beast Boy, a character who keeps trying to skate by on like a pitch-fuzz level 'stache. He can try a variety of tactics and disguises to bamboozle the various members of the team, only to be caught each time sporting a fake mustache.

That may be the greatest thing I have ever read.

And yeah, I probably should have added some more powers to it. It started as a very low powered team; Ollie (the greatest facial hair in the multiverse) was my first choice and then I wanted to focus on characters that wouldn't completely overshadow him... then I took a Hulk anyway at the last minute because I couldn't resist him.

In retrospect, since I had extra nomination slots, I should have gone with a Superpowered 'Staches team and...some sorta team created to show off Green Arrow where he could be the star.

...in further retrospect, Team Arrow would probably devolve into being a comic version of the Arrow show (doubly pointless since I'm pretty sure I've seen some comics of the show), so it's probably best I didn't try going that route. </.<
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All in all my vision for the team was sort of a light hearted thing, with important issues arising during confrontations like Human Torch being like "why the hell are you even throwing me at them you know I can fly and throw fire right" and Deadpool volunteering to be thrown for no real productive end and discussions about "why are we called The Bullpen-- we're more important than things for Colossus to throw-- and who made him team leader anyway"

I think you've got a pretty good mix of humor with potential to be serious when needed and the basics needed for a cohesive team, which is all I was really going for there. It's probably my most "normal" team of my submissions in that it's kind of just an all purpose group and I suppose in a loose sense it is a Lopen's Angels team in a way because I do like all the characters, but I did try to observe things I thought were important for solid team fundamentals to some extent (lack of redundancy, ability to cooperate and get along with one another, and a not super varied power scale that makes the members for the most part all able to be useful) and most of these aren't anywhere near my favorites or anything
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#56 - Actually Real Characters Created by: Karo

Arm-Fall-Off-Boy
Dogwelder
Condiment King
Codpiece
Fruit Boy
Color Kid

Here's a team created purely for stupidity and comedy, and I can get behind that concept for sporadic guest appearances. Grant Morrison might write them into a scene in Comic Book Limbo or something. Maybe Keith Giffen comes across them and throws them into an issue of Justice League for a humorous juxtaposition. Ultimately, it functions well enough for the purposes of a quick joke before moving on.

Which is to say, this team is terrible but the right kind of terrible. The kind that makes you think, "You know, that was pretty amusing." The reader might tell a friend about a scene that made them laugh in a particular issue, and that's how those sort-of underground hidden gems become made. At best, however, you've created Section Eight a la Garth Ennis in Hitman. There is such a low ceiling here that you might as well call it a floor. Super-obscure, super-limited, and super-mediocre.

Membership Drive: I wouldn't change a thing, honestly. This is a tight membership and achieves its understood goal. It's just that the understood goal is pretty much the bottom of the barrel.
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Fun fact about The Bullpen.

It has a better chance of taking out Hawkman than that one bruiser comp that was ranked second to last.
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It also has a better chance of taking out Hawkman than Actually Real Characters. List is a sham.
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LOL

That's true, Wickle
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Raka_Putra posted...

Explain the poker theming?

I'm not completely certain myself exactly my reasons for creating it, or at least following through when I hit a roadblock. The Thing, Human Torch, Wolverine, and Cannonball all played poker in a crossover issue I remember, and Carol Danvers was playing in something fairly recent, and I thought Booster Gold and Guy Gardner and Renee Montoya were good fits. It was less about poker, even though that's the name, and just a clubhouse JLI kind of team.

It definitely required more thought than I put in, and Gambit would likely have been kicked out for cheating (Booster too).

Man, I really don't remember this one. Definitely a low ranker for the off-the-cuff throwaway nom.
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Mega Mana posted...

ADD: I also want to see Actually Real Characters take on Justice League Antarctica

They have to get by the Inferior Five first.
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Oh, and we ALL know that no one tops the Legion of Substitute Heroes as best joke team!
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Lopen posted...

It also has a better chance of taking out Hawkman than Actually Real Characters. List is a sham.

Truly the only list criteria that matters.

And yeah creative roadblocks leading to just vomiting poor fits onto team submissions is something I am guilt of on a couple of my lists.
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Eddv posted...

Lopen posted...

It also has a better chance of taking out Hawkman than Actually Real Characters. List is a sham.

Truly the only list criteria that matters.

And yeah creative roadblocks leading to just vomiting poor fits onto team submissions is something I am guilt of on a couple of my lists.

I'll say this. The best lists here had unique concepts that were exemplified in the roster. One poor fit on a great concept is sometimes a good thing. Think about how Grant Morrison added Plastic Man to his Justice League out of nowhere, a character languishing in relative obscurity. Plaz ended up being a wonderful fit for the team and rounding out the roster in a way that hadn't really been recognized until, in fact, it was. Groot is, on paper, a bad fit for the Guardians, but it ended up paving the way for a role in the group. There's always value in a surprise so long as the character can 1) play well with the others and 2) add something that isn't already found on the team.
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No write-ups today.
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:(
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I only do write-ups if I'm at work and it's slow!
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I'm also not at work today
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At least you may be at work tomorrow.
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Last day of my three-day weekend.
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Oh, nevermind then.
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scarletspeed7 posted...

Last day of my three-day weekend.

what a stupid topic. No surprise considering the source of it
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DoubleOSnake posted...

scarletspeed7 posted...

Last day of my three-day weekend.

what a stupid topic. No surprise considering the source of it

What a stupid post. No surprise considering the source of it.
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#55 - Animal Masters Created by: Snake

Heroes & their beloved pets join forces to battle the wild & rough side of the Marvel and DC universes.

- Atrocitus & Dex-Starr
- Power Girl & Stinky
- Batman & Ace the Bat-Hound
- Robin (Damian Wayne) & Bat-Cow
- Hawkeye & Pizza Dog

Conceptually, Snake provided these rankings with something unique, and I applaud that. However, the feasibility of this team to be compelling is a different issue. Pets are stuck in a pretty damn tough racket in comics; there is an air of archaic irrelevancy to them that very few writers can pull off. Generally, a pet-related team is going to fight to shake off the stigma of a Legion of Super-Pets or Pet Avengers, and with this group, you're looking at a comic that's trying to focus on just one aspect of a very niche character type - the relationship between pet-owner and pet. That limitation pigeonholes the comic Snake is pitching even further and makes it a pretty difficult situation for a writer to create a compelling title.

As a group, there could be cohesion, but I don't see that step above basic team dynamics into the next level of potential storytelling. Part of the problem is that some of these pets don't have real personalities. Dex-Starr is likely to overshadow the rest (which is sort of the nature of Dex-Starr as a character) on the basis of being the only one who can communicate. I don't really see the spark on this roster that would help all of these characters reach new limits as a group much like a great comic would. It feels more like a quasi-successful thought experiment and less like a real title. But it's good that I'm talking about storytelling potential here instead of basic team dynamics. We've really stepped up from the bottom-tier teams.

Membership Drive: I don't know if this is really a membership situation, but there isn't a spark that really excites me here. I wonder, honestly, if turning this concept into a pre-existing team with a new gimmick would work better. I know the drive of this team is to push Dex-Starr and Atrocitus, but that makes me think you should get only absurd 90s-style characters and their respective pets instead of pushing the safer choices like Batman. Damian could still kick around on that version of the team. Throw in Lobo and his dog and The Boys' Butcher and his dog, and I think you have something with some real flavor and a hilarious of utter alpha male testerone laden killers with their cute little pets.
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I think this team has potential but it needs more Animal Man
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