Editor: Gabriel Wong. Wednesday 22nd June 2005.
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Editor: Gabriel Wong. Wednesday 22nd June 2005.
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So last time I suggested five year's worth of Marvel Vs. expansions, including teams they might contain and a ton of goofy names for them all. I even went as far as identifying some potential themes and keywords (although I stopped short of working out the nitty gritty involved). This time, I'll be turning my attentions to DC. I have to admit from the outset that, while I'm growing increasingly fond of DC's iconic and almost mythical approach to their characters and stories, I know a lot less about them than I do their Marvel counterparts. Some of the following will therefore lack the detail of the Marvel column. Anyway, these columns aren't going to help you play better, build better decks or anything else of value, but I do hope they are a bit of fun and show that the comic book universes at the core of the Vs. game have plenty of gas to carry them well into the future. The following is in no particular order.
DC EXPANSIONS …
Power of SHAZAM!
I think Captain Marvel would make an excellent focal point for a DC expansion. He has lots of supporting characters and tons of history. Captain Marvel is also one of DC's most powerful guys, possibly even stronger than a certain Man of Steel. That alone has to be worth a bit of a run in the Vs. System. Similarly, Uncle Sam and the heroes of the Freedom Fighters (many of whom appeared in a recent story arc in Superman/Batman) offer up some very flavoursome elements for the Vs. game. It might seem a little cheesy if not done the right way, though. Overall, I see this set as having innocence and wholesomeness as its central themes. Both of the hero teams are kind of nostalgic in their flavour…remembering the good old times. Meanwhile the villains are typical of the kinds of stock-standard bad guys (stinkin' Nazis) that proliferated comics and other pulp-style stories in times past. I think a game mechanic working off the flavour of "rally" would be good for this set, representing your characters being able to get behind (no innuendo on that one, please) an iconic hero.
The Speed Force
The Speed Force would be a hot set and I think the heroes of the title team could provide one of the most powerful in the game if handled correctly. Readying and reinforcing are already standard abilities for speedsters, but I'd expect something a bit new from UDE. A keyword based on speed would be essential. Arguably the highlight of this set, though, would be the villains. The Flash has one of the most loved and lauded Rogues Gallery in comicdom. Meanwhile, Kobra and his empire of assassins would give the set some army dudes. I don't know very much about the Challengers of the Unknown, so I won't try to bore you with vagaries. I do know that they are human adventurers, so a thrill-seeking feel would be appropriate for them.
Legion of Superheroes
The Legionnaires are soooooooooo numerous that they make the entire X-Family look like an intimate grouping. There have been tons of these guys, many of whom are particularly powerful. I guess these guys are really the Teen Titans of the future (only intergalactic), so I'd like to see strategies and themes that embrace teamwork and synergies. A "tag team" mechanic that worked off team-attacking (obviously) would suit these guys to a tee. The Blight are essentially techno-zombies as best as I can tell. While I don't know much about them, I do like the Borg in the Star Trek universe … so I guess that's why I thought these guys would be good "baddies" for a Legionnaires set. Meanwhile, R.E.B.E.L.s would give us Lobo. Who cares about the rest (I don't even know the other characters)? Lobo is gas…and probably has gas. He's the guy who smashed Superman while drunk as twelve monkeys. He's the guy who killed Santa in a knife fight. Lobo is so cool that he deserves a Vs. card immediately.
Finally there's Doom Patrol. Again I don't know much about them except that they were a team of mutants fighting to protect a world that hated and feared them before the X-Men were even a gleam in Stan Lee's eye. Writer-extraordinaire Grant Morrison has recently done of bit with these misfits, which I'm sure would offer up some kooky cards, perhaps more in line with the flavour of X-Statix.
Emerald Archers I haven't read much Green Arrow, but thanks to Pasquale "Pez" Laria I've read some…and I love it. Ollie is such a smart-ass and flawed dude that the stories about his adventures seem to almost write themselves (I doubt that they do, though).
I'd like to see a "marksman" mechanic to reflect Ollie and Roy's pin-point accuracy. Much like Green Lantern, Ollie's rogues don't really work together very often so they would need to be cobbled together in a loose team affiliation. Among the few villains I have seen in the comics I've seen, I like the look of The Shade and Onomatopoeia especially. I'm probably stretching things with the Thanagarian and Rann teams, since I only thought of them because of the current storyline that has them at war, but it'd give this set a real army-feel. The Thanagarians would include versions of the Hawkmen and Hawkgirls that have graced the pages of DC, while Rann could give Vs. life to Adam Strange.
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is tuff. How tuff? Well, her sidekick Donna Troy, up until recently, was the biggest character at both the two and six-drop level. What's not to like about chicks who kick butt? Villainy Inc.…ummmmmm, evil chicks who kick butt. Female Furies…more girls who smash face. I'm picking up a theme here! Finally, I thought I'd include some good, old-fashioned evil Martians. The other characters in this set are very powerful, so it's only proper that this team should feature characters who almost effortlessly took down the JLA. These guys are the full package…they fly, shoot laser-like stuff from their eyes, turn invisible, shape-shift, read minds, have super strength and the list goes on. Shame about that vulnerability to fire.
Kingdom Come
Much like my suggestion for Marvel's Ultimates and Age of Apocalypse, I'd like to see Vs. open up into some of the alternate realities of the DC universe. This is one of my favourites. I guess it'd be too much to hope that Alex Ross would do the art for all the cards, but I can dream. Like my previous suggestion, I don't think the Kingdom Come Superman should be able to power-up his normal continuity counterpart, so some mechanic would have to be developed for that, I think. I think Kingdom Come was one of the richest stories ever told in comics, so I'd be very excited about a set like this, regardless of what the cards actually ended up being.
Justice Society of America
The JSA looks cool. I plan to pick up some trade paperbacks of their recent run very soon. These are the old-school heroes of the DC Universe. Hal Jordan is a punk - Alan Scott was Green Lantern ages before him. Who cares about Barry Allen or Wally West, when Jay Garrick was the original Flash? These guys are the GOLDEN AGE, for which the Vs. format is named after … so they should be appropriately powerful. I've already mentioned how powerful Captain Marvel is, and it should be noted that the Specter is also in the roll. The Enemies of Justice and Champions of Evil are many, so there will be plenty of baddies for our older heroes to bash. Among the loose affiliation of Enemies of Justice, you might have noticed Hank Hall <> Extant. Many Vs. players without a comics background mightn't realise it, but this staple Teen Titan becomes one of the worst villains of the DC universe. In one foiled potential future, Hank manages to take over the world as the evil Monarch. Keeping in theme with the golden age for this set, I figure Sergeant Rock and Easy Company would be a nice addition. These humble soldiers might seem out of their league against titans with super-powers, but that's the kind of thinking that enables Batman - a mere man - to take down cosmic threats. These guys are tough and brave, and embody the strength of the human spirit…or some such crap that you'd read on an army recruitment poster.
Extreme Justice
I envision this set as a random grouping of coolness. While I decided to make Captain Atom's group the title team for the set, it doesn't necessarily mean they would be the stars. Captain Atom is pretty cool and powerful in his own right, but I think I'd be drooling for some Bizarro action in the lead up to this set. With Bizarro versions of all the DC Universe big-hitters (did anyone see the cool Bizarro Batman in Superman/Batman # 20? It also introduces another possible Vs. team in the Maximums - a not very subtle take on Marvels Ultimates), this team could be the most flavoursome of any in Vs.. I would want to see lots of kooky stuff along the lines of Bizarro's mirror image foil in the Man of Steel. I'd soooooooo dig a card with text written in Bizarro-speak (like The Demon, Etrigan), but that might be too confusing. The Outsiders would return two fan-favourite characters - Dick Grayson <> Nightwing and Roy Harper <> Arsenal to the fore-front of Vs. There are a lot of other good characters in this team too. I think a keyword themed on "scramble" would be cool. Maybe it could allow you to move a character at the start of the combat phase. I don't know much about Metal Men, but I did see them in a comic when I was very young. I think they look cool and would make interesting additions to the Vs. universe.
Lords of Atlantis
I'm going to admit right up front that I think Aquaman is lame. Sure there's some cool Arthurian-esque elements (heck, the Lady of the Lake is even a character in his comics), but ultimately I don't find him overly cool. I haven't read the latest comics about Villains United and the Seven Soliders, but these would be more likely to interest me in this set. Villains United in particular features Deathstroke. This guy is pretty cool…I mean he's already a ONE-MAN TEAM in Vs.. That makes him unique in itself. I know there are people out there who are already trying to utilise Reign of Terra (poor bastards) so that they can get the most out of Slade, so I'm sure this would be a popular direction for Vs..
Birds of Prey
I think I mentioned somewhere earlier that tuff chicks rule. When they are hot (especially when Ed Benes pencils) as well, I think they deserve a Vs. team. I can't see anything bad in giving the Birds the Vs. treatment. I think of these ladies as a network of crime-fighters, especially with Oracle holding them together, so I'd have that worked into their mechanics and themes.
I was told by someone who knows that the Birds of Prey mainly fight against Batman villains, so I thought we could give the Clayfaces a better run then they have gotten so far (Matt Hagen is sooooooo bad). There have been four Clayfaces, so they should be a bit of material there for a team. "Morphing" would be an important ability for the mudmen, which could help them to utilise a unique strategy in the game. There have been heaps of calls (well, mainly from kman) for some of DC's Vertigo characters to be represented in Vs.. Many of the Vertigo characters are creator owned (like those in Preacher), so we're less likely to see them in our game, but there are plenty of others who are owned by the publisher as far as I know. I think these guys have a "network" of there own, although it's more mystical in nature than Oracle's communication technologies. Dark Guardians would be a loose affiliation of mystical heroes like John Constantine and Swamp Thing, while The Endless (I'm cheating because I think these guys are creator-owned…but I don't care) would give use access to the powers of Dream, Death, Delirium and Destiny among other things. Who wouldn't want to control them?
Other Possible Teams As for a few of the teams that could put in an appearance in a support row near you, there's All-Star Squadron, Suicide Squad, Sea Devils, The Blasters, The Conglomerate, The Onslaught, The Dominators and The Hangmen. Most of these I know nothing about, but they have cool names. More exciting would be cards based on some of DC's imprints, like Wildstorm and ABC (America's Best Comics). Consider Astro City, WildCATs, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Preacher and similar properties. It's enough to make my head spin…but I'm a huge nerd. Anyway, that's enough today…I'll catch you guys in the funny papers.
Bamf!
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