Working on a combined DC/Marvel universe

[Doug McCrae]

Re: Working on a combined DC/Marvel universe

 

Looks good. It's not a bad idea having 1985 be the cutoff because that's when things really started going crazy with endless cosmic crossovers, superheroes taking over the world and mutant ninja cyborgs all over the place. Personally I like that crazyness but I can see how it's not to everone's taste and maybe a bit too weird for a game universe.

 

Some of the 40/50s stuff looked a bit Roy Thomas-y. Is it?

 

What's the deal with The Guardians of the Universe?

[Guest Champsguy]

Re: Working on a combined DC/Marvel universe

 

Looks good. It's not a bad idea having 1985 be the cutoff because that's when things really started going crazy with endless cosmic crossovers' date=' superheroes taking over the world and mutant ninja cyborgs all over the place. Personally I like that crazyness but I can see how it's not to everone's taste and maybe a bit too weird for a game universe.[/quote']

 

Well, after '85, you've got to deal with Post-Crisis DC continuity, and Marvel introduces a whole lot of characters who are harbingers of Image. So it's easier to stop here, even though I like some of the later stuff.

 

Some of the 40/50s stuff looked a bit Roy Thomas-y. Is it?

 

Oh yeah. We stole from his Golden Age storyline, from John Byrne's Generations, and several other things.

 

What's the deal with The Guardians of the Universe?

 

I believe we had that race split into 3 groups instead of 2. Instead of just the Guardians and the Controllers, we've added in the Watchers. We haven't worked on cosmic-level alliances all that much, though. But that's okay, because the Guardians were strange enough that they never seemed to have a logical reason for the things they did. So if they sit around and let Galactus eat planets without interfering, that's actually in-character for them.

[Agent 13]

Re: Working on a combined DC/Marvel universe

 

Some of the 40/50s stuff looked a bit Roy Thomas-y. Is it?

 

All that stuff with the Ultra-Humanite and Americommando and Hitler's brain? James Robinson's The Golden Age

[Guest Champsguy]

Re: Working on a combined DC/Marvel universe

 

Good! Now we can have Superman and the Hulk duke it out ALL THE TIME! On top of that' date=' how would Punisher and Batman get along in the same world? Seems to me, Punisher would kill all of Batman's nemesis' and put him out of a job, or lead Batman to hunting down Punisher to stop his spree of ultra-vigilante justice.[/quote']

 

We've had the Hulk calm down a little. With people like Doc Sampson and Professor X, we figured there was no reason to leave him a rampaging beast. He's still going to change form and everything, but it's more along the lines of "get mad, stomp bad guy" than "get mad, smash city".

 

Well, characters like the Punisher and Scourge will definitely steer clear of the Bat. But we've tried to keep Batman busy. He hasn't just been hanging around Gotham for 50 years, lurking on rooftops. That gives Punisher some time to operate. Now that Bats has disappeared to the Secret Crisis of the Infinity Hour, I'm sure a few Bat-villains will get a bullet in the brain.

 

Oh yeah, and since the Punisher will be starting to slow down from his age, we've had him looking into getting the Power Broker treatment to soup him up to a USAgent level guy.

 

How would Green Lantern view Galactus or Thanos?

 

As villains. Of course, Thanos has been dead for a while (until just recently), and Galactus is a bit beyond the GLC's power level.

 

Justice League and the Avengers? So many possibilities. =)

 

We've been trying to figure out exactly who we want in each team. Superskrull has been itching to combine the two, and I've been wanting to keep them seperate. We haven't quite got it ironed out completely where one team ends and where the other begins.

 

And which people in the Marvel universe get to discover Kryptonite first? =)

 

Oh, I think we've left that one to Luthor. Of course, we've got 3 Luthors.

 

The first is Alexei Luthor, from the golden age. He's the evil arms-dealing supergenius. The second is his son, Lex. Lex was not going to be a criminal. He was a good guy, until a lab accident killed his father and left him bald, and crazy. He's the one who fights Supes in the 60s and 70s, and has a battlesuit, and does the crazy schemes to take over the world. He's not evil, as in a guy who murders kids or anything. He's the crazy evil that gets sharks with laser beams on their heads, and tries to launch nuclear missiles that make California fall into the sea. He's also got a big fat sidekick that says "Sure t'ing, Mistah Lu-t'or." Then, there's his son, the billionaire industrialist. He's evil in a Bill Gates kind of evil, but there's no real evidence of him committing any crimes (in fact, we haven't decided how evil we want him to be yet).

[Guest Champsguy]

Re: Working on a combined DC/Marvel universe

 

All that stuff with the Ultra-Humanite and Americommando and Hitler's brain? James Robinson's The Golden Age

 

Did Roy Thomas not write that? I thought he had. Ah well.

[Guest Champsguy]

Re: Working on a combined DC/Marvel universe

 

On a more humorous note, if you've got so many heroes running around, some of them would undoubtedly "save" others from their origins. Green Lantern protecting the FF from the Cosmic Rays, Batman stopping the mobsters before they could kill Frank Castle's family, etc.

 

Well, we've tried to leave major characters' origins alone, but certainly some lesser heroes are gonna get crowded out. I think we've completely done away with Stryfe and the MLF (though that hasn't happened yet, it doesn't look like it will), due to Jean's staying dead and Cyclops' brief stint with the Avengers.

[ShinDangaioh]

Re: Working on a combined DC/Marvel universe

 

Three Luthors? There were four for Superman

 

'The Luthor' was a cult leader and had a rock called the Powerstone that made him Superman's equal in power. He was also a bit of a mad scientist.

 

 

There is still the Gemworld question. Is there anything being done with Gemworl? Mordru is originally from Gemworld. A planet shuffled to a side dimension to keep as much magical lore alive would seem to be important.

[Guest Champsguy]

Re: Working on a combined DC/Marvel universe

 

Three Luthors? There were four for Superman

 

'The Luthor' was a cult leader and had a rock called the Powerstone that made him Superman's equal in power. He was also a bit of a mad scientist.

 

Well, we'll probably have to throw him in then. I'll have to check with Superskrull, as his KS: Comic Book Lore is higher than mine. Though I seem to remember something about the Powerstone.

 

There is still the Gemworld question. Is there anything being done with Gemworl? Mordru is originally from Gemworld. A planet shuffled to a side dimension to keep as much magical lore alive would seem to be important.

 

I have no idea what we're doing with Gemworld. Honestly, other than thinking "Oh yeah, Mordru's from there", I hadn't even given it any thought. Superskrull probably has an idea for that.

[Superskrull]

Re: Working on a combined DC/Marvel universe

 

Three Luthors? There were four for Superman

 

'The Luthor' was a cult leader and had a rock called the Powerstone that made him Superman's equal in power. He was also a bit of a mad scientist.

 

 

There is still the Gemworld question. Is there anything being done with Gemworl? Mordru is originally from Gemworld. A planet shuffled to a side dimension to keep as much magical lore alive would seem to be important.

 

I'm fairly sure that the Powerstone was the one used by Alexei Luthor to fight Superman back in the 40's. That is, assuming that it's the same Powerstone that the Ultra-Humanite recovered and welded to his current body's head in that All-Star Squadron story that Infinity Inc showed up in. That was the one with the connection to the Villain From Valhalla's bonbori-looking hammer.

 

Anyway, as to Gemworld, well, I hadn't thought much about til now. In the comics, Amethyst and Gemworld didn't really interact much with Earth til the Crisis left Amy stuck on Earth in her Amethyst form after the big sorcerer spellweaving in the Crisis. Before that, she'd met Superman once when Carnelian got ahold of a Kryptonite jewel in DC Comics Presents. After the Crisis, Dr Fate took her back to Gemworld once a Shadow Demon had blinded her and she was discovered to be the daughter of a Lord of Order that had been watching over Gemworld. After that they didn't do a whole lot til Geworld got yanked out of the demiplane it was in and become Xerox, the Sorcerer's World in the Legion storyline.

 

Now, since we do have the whole Atlantean sorcery connection, we can postulate that there would be the inevitable crossover with Dakimh the Enchanter, Dr Strange, Jennifer Kale and Howard the Duck. Frankly though, while it's a cool place, my idea for the campaign is set primarily on Earth. Gemworld is a sidetrip, like going to Asgard or or Earth S(quadron).

[Sketchpad]

Re: Working on a combined DC/Marvel universe

 

I had played around with a combined universe at one point and had made a JLA team that was government sanctioned, while the Avengers was closer to the Outsiders and funded by former JLA Member Iron Man/Tony Stark. IIRC, the teams were ...

JLA: Wasp, Flash II, GL II, Storm, Hawkeye, Thor, Aquaman

Avengers: Iron Man, GL IV, Hercules, Green Arrow, Quicksilver, Hawkman

 

Basically, the Avengers were JLA members that were booted out due to attitude ... so they banded together to become a dysfunctional hero team

[Superskrull]

Re: Working on a combined DC/Marvel universe

 

I had played around with a combined universe at one point and had made a JLA team that was government sanctioned, while the Avengers was closer to the Outsiders and funded by former JLA Member Iron Man/Tony Stark. IIRC, the teams were ...

JLA: Wasp, Flash II, GL II, Storm, Hawkeye, Thor, Aquaman

Avengers: Iron Man, GL IV, Hercules, Green Arrow, Quicksilver, Hawkman

 

Basically, the Avengers were JLA members that were booted out due to attitude ... so they banded together to become a dysfunctional hero team

 

Heh. I like that one. I'm still chewing on just where to position the two teams. I was thinking of stealing the post-Crisis take on JLA and shifting them to a more international team. I may go so far as to eventually swipe the talent pool concept from Justice League Unlimited with an expanded roster incorporating the various international heroes worth mentioning for global-level events. I could also lead into the various govt teams like Avengers, Alpha Flight & People's Protectorate (and yeah, I noticed that most of the international teams are Marvel heavy in origin) and how they all interact.

[zornwil]

Re: Working on a combined DC/Marvel universe

 

Pretty good, Champsguy, nice melding.

 

Without giving away secrets, are lots of old-timers reputed to be gone sneaking around under-cover, or are heroes who are gone by and large just plain gone?