Marvel Migration - Part 1

Marvel is supposed to be set in our world. While the events of DC Comics occur in fictional locales like Metropolis or Gotham, Marvel stories primarily take place in New York City. Because the Marvel offices were located in New York, Stan Lee decided it would be convenient to have all of his heroes live in the city he knows best. Consequently, fifty years later, 95% of superheroes, supervillains, and superhuman events are concentrated in New York City. For those of us in the rest of the world, this can seem a little unfair. If this continues, Marvel will have to schedule an event to explain why New York City is a magnet for supernatural events.

Marvel has announced that, following the upcoming Secret Wars event, the old Marvel universe will be gone and replaced with something new. At this time, its unclear what that means and the comic community is just hoping its planned better than the New 52. However, my hope is that they make an attempt to diversify their lineup by expanding into new areas of the country and the world at large. Personally, I've never been to New York City, but I'm already sick of it from comics and television. I'd love to read more stories that take place in diverse environments.

So I propose a Marvel Migration, a publishing initiative designed to connect with a wider world by moving their star characters outward. Imagine how much Chicago or Seattle or Las Vegas would appreciate their own local heroes. You could create direct marketing campaigns in each region, but the challenge is choosing the right hero for the right town.

NOTE: I left out some popular heroes for good reason Spider-Man and Daredevil are perfectly suited to New York City, Hulk and Namor are perpetual wanderers, and Avengers can gather anywhere they want. 

The Solo Heroes

Captain America - Washington, DC

This one is pretty obvious. Although Cap is from New York, he represents America and he should operate from our nation's capital. This would surround him by politics and the intelligence community. Whether its Steve, Sam, Bucky, or any combination of the three, it'd make us all feel safer knowing that Captain America is protecting our nation's capital. 

Iron Man - Detroit, MI

Why would America's richest man go to its poorest major city? To buy it.

Imagine if Tony Stark bought every piece of land he possibly could in Detroit and vowed to transform our nation's poorest city into the world's leader of industry. Now, can he do it?

With the help of Pepper Potts, James Rhodes, Bambi Arbogast, and all of his best and brightest, Tony micromanages his new city with the goal of creating a lasting utopia and an example to the world. As if that weren't difficult enough, his greatest enemies are determined to do everything possible to see that he fails.

Strangely, Wolverine is on a lot of Bulls merchandise.

Wolverine - Chicago, IL

While Logan fits in well both in New York and San Francisco, I think it would be fun to see him with his own city to protect, and I can think of no place better than Chicago. Its associations with organized crime, proximity with Canada, and population of angry hairy men make it the perfect fit.

Joined by his best sidekick and Chicago native, Kitty Pryde, Logan discovers evidence that the Weapon Plus program has reopened in the windy city and is selling "custom-made" superhumans for unique clientele through the black market. While Logan and Kitty can hurt their operation badly, the situation is rapidly spiraling out of control toward superhuman gang war.

Doctor Strange - Boston, MA

Doctor Strange is the perfect image of the mid-Atlantic New England sophisticate and there is no major city that fits that image better than historic Boston. The old world architecture lends an air of mystery and the rich (often violent) history of the town could serve as the basis for ghosts, witches, and demonic rituals.

I'd love to see a series where Doctor Strange really lives up to his names, so I'd create a story about a curse that affects the citizens in unique and unusual ways. Doctor Strange arrives to quarantine the area, treat the victims, and eliminate the disease. However, he soon realizes that there is a method to this madness and he needs to figure out what malevolent force is behind this before he loses the battle.

Thor - Seattle, WA

When it came to Thor, I immediately thought of the rainy city. Its like a halfway point between viking fishing villages and the splendorous spires of Asgard.

I imagine yet another reintroduction of Don Blake. Much like Watson in the BBC's Sherlock, Don Blake would be a military doctor who has returned from the Middle East with PTSD. He's opening up a new practice, but he's haunted by images of war, particularly the near death experience that injured his leg and requires him to walk with a cane. As his delusions become more realistic, he sees images of Loki and dreams that he is Thor, god of thunder. The memories of his battles on Earth and his battles on Asgard become inseparable. Eventually, he finds Mjolnir, disguised as a humble stick, and transforms into Thor, but he cannot return to Asgard and has no memory of its fate.

Dazzler - Las Vegas, NV

The mutant Dazzler is a successful pop singer and mutant who transforms sound into light. She practically is Las Vegas.

If Celine Deon can have her own stadium built in Vegas, Dazzler could easily become the regular act at a 5-star casino. Since she's a known superhero, its great publicity for the casino in two ways. Of course, once one casino gets a superhero, then the other casinos will want one. Soon, Daimon Hellstrom is performing stage magic down the block, a new Mr. Fixit is playing across town, and more are sure to follow. Pretty soon the town is overloaded with two bit heroes and villains, all of whom are trying to make a quick buck in the glamorous world of Sin City.

Nova - Miami, FL

For America's biggest party town, we need a young and energetic hero. When you include the amusement parks of Orlando, the space program at Cape Canaveral, and just the general inbred weirdness of the rest of the alligator-infested state of Florida, it is a perfect location for an off-beat hero like Nova.

Since Marvel's always looking to diversify racially, the largely Cuban population of Miami would create an interesting environment for the half-Mexican, Sam Alexander, the current Nova. This might just be the perfect place for him to go to college.

Ghost Rider - Phoenix, AZ

Like Hulk before him, Marvel's demonic biker belongs in the deserts of the American southwest. The imagery of biker culture is closely tied to the region, so it would strengthen the imagery (as demonstrated in the best moment from this awful film).

Arizona is also the site of a lot of discriminatory legislation and hostility regarding the Mexican immigrant population. This could be the basis for great storytelling with a message. Not to mention that the long highways of the national border are great for showing chases featuring illegal immigrants, border patrol, minutemen, and drug smugglers.

The Teams

X-Men - San Francisco, CA

Following the Decimation event when the population of mutants was temporarily reduced, the X-Men briefly relocated to San Francisco. And I loved it.

While the X-Men were constantly discriminated against in New York, San Francisco has a history of embracing diversity with open arms. This changed the dynamic of the X-Men drastically. Suddenly, they were working with their community against threats from the outside. They could still face broad discrimination outside of the city, but inside San Francisco, they were home.

Unfortunately, this lasted only about a year, but I'd love to see them return. The last time the X-Men were in town, San Francisco faced riots, military law, and invasion by Sentinels, so they might be a bit more hesitant about having them back. Then again, there are probably a lot of people in San Francisco who appreciate that kind of chaos. This is a home for those who are feared and different, and the X-Men have always seemed most at home when they are there.

I'm sorry, but when I searched "Fantastic Four"
and "Texas," this is the best that I got.

Fantastic Four - Austin, TX

When it came to the Fantastic Four, there were a lot of choices. Little known fact, the team first debuted in the fictional city of Central City, which was mapped at Stockton, CA. I thought their celebrity might be ideal in Los Angeles, then the space program in Houston came to mind. Whenever I think of Texas, I think of the strange liberal bastion of Austin, known for being the antithesis of the largely conservative state. What better place for a post-nuclear family?

Reed Richards purchases a closed NASA facility just outside the city borders and starts retrofitting it as the new headquarters for Fantastic Four Inc., an exploratory and development company. Sue manages the book, Ben is in charge of security, and Johnny lives rent free, as always. Of course, their insatiable curiosity and colorful past has a way of bringing the adventures to them, even though they spend most of their time exploring the universe, as always.

New Warriors - San Diego, CA

As for Marvel's classic junior superhero team, San Diego is a great city for exploring adolescence, and as the home of Comic Con International, it just makes sense to stake a claim to it.

With youth teams, the first thing you have to ask is "Do they have a mentor?" An adult-sanctioned team like the original X-Men or New Mutants has a bit more legitimacy, but lacks the autonomy of an independent group. Since Runaways and Young Avengers have the independent youth team covered, I'd recommend the more traditional route.

I could see orphan and perennial sidekick Rick Jones volunteering to mentor a group of teenage superhumans with ambitions of being a hero. Jones might even choose San Diego because of the relatively low incidents of superhuman crime, but little does he know that a low-level crime boss had the same idea.

Next in Part 2!

We continue with teams, both national and international. No "Avengers West Coast." These are distinct teams with their own brands (even if I borrowed the name from some defunct titles).

Marvel/DC Continuity Song

SPOILER ALERT: Iron Man 2 review

In case the title didn't make it clear, this is NOT a spoiler-free review so if that concerns you, come back after you've seen the movie.

Are we good? Okay.

So I just saw Iron Man 2. I've been reading the original Iron Man comics and watching several superhero movies (especially Marvel) to get a sense of the Iron Man character and how the superhero genre translates into film.

It seems to me that the superhero genre is all about the beginning, not the end. The origin (or "premise") sets the character's defining elements and then the creators find as many different ways of looking at that premise as possible. However, unlike a traditional self-contained story, the superhero story isn't going anywhere. That is to say, unlike Luke Skywalker who had a character arc where he develops into a Jedi and defeats the empire, superhero stories don't have a natural place for the story to end. Due to the way they are marketed, it actually becomes important that the story has no end. This is the difference between a serial story and a contained story.

All of this is to say that the first movie in a franchise is most likely to be the best. The story focuses on the most crucial character development, going from a guy to a hero. This was the storyarc of the first film as we saw the arrogant and self-absorbed Tony Stark abducted by terrorists. From this experience, he questions his life and changes his ways.

In Iron Man 2, Tony is still arrogant and flighty and irresponsible. Granted, that's how we like him, but his self-destructive streak goes to far and he just becomes obnoxious for the majority of the film. This culminates in Tony's birthday party where he is unbelievably drunk and hanging out in his armor to impress his shallow "friends." Pepper and Rhodie arrive and are apparently the only ones concerned for him. Pepper tries to talk him into ending the party, but fails so Rhodie puts on a Iron Man suit and solves things with a fist fight.

When this scene started, it was hard for me to tell who was being stupider - Stark or Rhodes. At least Stark was drunk and just showing off. Rhodie was stone-cold sober and intending to get in a fight with a high tech battle suit... at a busy party... with a drunk guy in another battle suit. It was just dumb and macho.

Hmmm... what else... Black Widow was kind of disappointing. She didn't even have a Russian accent! Half the fun of having a Russian spy is the accent! I understand she was undercover as an American, but I expected her to slip into Chekov-speak after her cover was blown. I was also hoping for some sort of connection between her and Whiplash. I think that would have helped her motivation. I also wanted to see her versus Iron Man. I would have liked to see at least one fight before she helped the good guys. She did start off as a villain, after all.

Speaking of which, "robot battle suits versus robot battle suits" is getting a little old already. I know it is only the second movie, but it is getting a little familiar. I liked that Whiplash didn't have armor, but then at the end, he has armor so...

But the "Wha- huh?" moment of the film was the end where Tony Stark finally wants to be in the Avengers Initiative when Nick Fury rejects him by saying, "Iron Man is approved, but Tony Stark isn't."

So... are you saying Robert Downey Jr. won't be in the Avengers? Will Don Cheadle be in the Iron Man armor? Is it a contract negotiation thing and you are trying to save on budget? Or is this some sort of tease?

Well, if Robert Downey Jr. isn't going to be in the Avengers, I'm pretty disappointed on a few levels. Mostly, when I think about an Avengers movie, it isn't that I want to see all the superpowers together, I want to see the characters together. If this movie is about Steve Rogers and Thor meeting... Col. James Rhodes, it won't be nearly as much fun. Steve Rogers is an old-fashioned guy from a more classical time. Thor even more so. They contrast well with Stark who is so uniquely contemporary and possessing dubious morality.

All of that aside, I enjoyed the film, but I agree with all of the reviews I've seen that say it doesn't hold up to the original. The action is pretty uneven with a lot of mediocre and kind of tedious character stuff at the beginning and most of the fighting happening in the last half-hour. There is a completely gratuitous cameo appearance by Captain America's shield that is played as a cheap joke which will only get cheaper with time. And if you stay after the credits, you will get to see Thor's hammer, Mjolnir.

Getting to my point in a round about way, the second movie is always going to be harder than the first, and if I can tolerate some godawful comic books, I can tolerate a somewhat uneven action film. I just hope the next one offers something a bit new. Mandarin might be a hard villain to make work (because he uses magic and is little more than a racist stereotype), but Iron Monger and Whiplash aren't exactly A-list villains. I would say that the next Iron Man movie needs a bit more to it in order to keep this franchise alive.

Marvel's marketing department has lost their minds

I'm currently suffering from marketing fatigue and no one is more guilty of it than Marvel Comics. One of their latest dumbass moves is to release a bunch of Iron Man variant covers as a movie tie-in. Now, this doesn't sound too dumb... except these covers are on non-Iron Man comics... featuring different variations on the concept of Iron Man like Iron Man in different time periods, genres, and/or dimensions... each cover is by a different artist... but not the artist of the book they are drawing the cover for.

So... you are releasing a bunch of comics with covers that do not even vaguely resemble the content inside. I am guessing that you want people to leave Iron Man 2 thinking "Wow! Iron Man was awesome! I should stop by that skeazy little comic store that looks like the bedroom of a 13 year old in 1992 and see if they have any cool Iron Man comics!" So he goes to the comic store and sees dozens of Iron Men... all of them are different and none of them look like the one in the movie... the one he liked. Maybe he buys the comic with the coolest looking Iron Man on it... then he goes home and he realizes he bought a copy of She-Hulk.

... You don't really want new fans, do you? Is this some sort of undercover, anti-capitalist, indie-snob guerrilla operation you have going there? Did I seriously misjudge you and you are just afraid that going mainstream will ruin your integrity?

Yeah. Right.

So the new X-Men event is on... and I almost wrote a few things about it, but event fatigue kicked in and I just thought, "Fuck it." But today this image greeted me and I felt compelled to respond. Supposedly "one of these X-Men will die!" Assuming it isn't the one under the sheet (which would make sense but be a total cheat), I thought I'd run the odds, the pros, and the cons of each.

Colossus

Pro: Um...

Con: He just came back from the dead by none other than Joss Whedon. Not only would it be redundant to kill him, it would sully one of their best recent books. Not that they haven't done it before. Also, Kitty Pryde is coming back and they work as a pair.

Odds: 1:96

Magik

Pro: Still drawing a blank...

Con: Also just came back from the dead, albeit in a much less popular series. She also has a history with Colossus and Kitty so expect her to be around for a bit.

Odds: 2:96

Emma Frost

Pro: Emma is still largely untrusted by the X-Men since she spent so much time as a merciless villain and still acts like one much of the time. Martyring herself would go a long way to changing the way people think about her. Plus, with Jean Grey coming back as Hope, Scott is going to be put in an awkward position between the two psychics that he deeply loves.

Con: Emma is the coolest X-Man since Wolverine and her potential has only started to be tapped. Plus, Jean Grey is coming back so why sidestep some conflict with obvious storytelling potential? As much as Jean might be Scott's true love, Emma makes him far more interesting. If Scott was like any red blooded heterosexual American male, he'd be trying to figure out how to have them both... at which point Scott would become cooler than Wolverine and women would start banning X-Men for being sexist.

Odds: 1:32

Nightcrawler

Pro: Although most X-Men have died at one point or another, Nightcrawler hasn't. It may just be his turn. Plus, it seems like writers haven't really known what to do with him. Nightcrawler hasn't had much good character development since the eighties. The afterlife might inspire Kurt to take a closer look at his beliefs.

Con: I don't see any real advantage in it. What kind of stories will it inspire? The X-Men miss their friend? Been there, done that. Nightcrawler in heaven? Nightcrawler in hell? Nightcrawler returns with magic powers? Bleh.

Odds: 1:16

Iceman

Pro: Like Nightcrawler, Bobby Drake has yet to die even once. He is also a character who really hasn't shined in years... if ever. So he could be the next to take the plunge.

Con: Again, I don't think this would add anything to the X-Men. Also, artists seem to enjoy Iceman because he builds ice slides and sculptures where ever he goes.

Odds: 1:8

Archangel

Pro: Warren has recently received some attention in X-Force as the "angel of death." He seems to be harboring a dark alternate persona with a new power set. He could very well go through a transformation involving martyrdom then re-emerge later with a new power set. The character's weakness has always been that flying with wings is not nearly as impressive as all of the other characters who can fly and do other shit.

Con: Warren already has a new power set as the aforementioned "angel of death."

Odds: 1:4

Cable

Pro: His death would help to wrap up dangling plot threads from over twenty years of X-Men history. Recently, Marvel seems to be trying to streamline Cyclops by removing elements that wouldn't translate well to film. For example, they recently killed his father who he thought was dead but really became an intergalactic pirate. If they killed his son from a clone of his previous wife from a possible future, it would help to streamline the character. Also, with the end of the recent Cable series, he raised Hope, the mutant messiah, thereby possibly (hopefully?) fulfilling his role of saving the future.

Con: Cable recently gained popularity from the Cable & Deadpool series and he is still popular amongst fans of hardcore, X-treme 90s shit. I don't see Marvel killing off anyone if they think they can still milk a few sheckles from someone by keeping them alive.

Odds: 1:2