So here I am and I have about twenty minutes, give or take, before my sister shows up and we have to head out to do Food Lion. And by “doing Food Lion”, I mean pick up their donations for the local food bank at which I volunteer. It’s a dirty job, but someone has to help feed the masses and the folks at Hope In Christ Ministries do an amazing job each and every week. Big kudos to Sue, Pastor Larry, Bill, Mr. Nelson, David and everyone else. Ya’ll are some amazing and wonderful people. ‘Nuff said!

And anyhow, now let’s get back to what I’m here for. We all know that I love to write, be it wrestling articles and commetary, political rants, talking about my adventures at work and in life and sometimes, the occasional fan fiction story. I’m into Dark Shadows, NCIS, wrestling and Marvel Comics with the occasional extra side item thrown in for good measure. If you’d like to read some of my fan fiction stories, over forty of them are posted at: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1847290/TSFiction19.

Anyhow, since now I have only about fifteen minutes left, I’d like to very quickly talk about the top 5 comic book characters I’d love to have the chance to write about on a professional level, just to see what I can do with them and be a part of their history. This was going to be a top 10 list, but time isn’t on my side, no matter what Mick Jagger constantly says. Oh what the hell, you want a Top Ten? So do I. So let’s do this Top Ten style. And away we go…

Top Ten Comic Book Characters I’d Love To Write About….

10) The Suicide Squad: This is one of the few DC titles that I absolutely fell in love with when it debuted back in the 80’s and the concept has so much play with it, it’s just too good to pass up. The idea was, for the characters involved, that you go on this mission for the Government. You survive and keep your trap shut, then you have your criminal sentence commuted to time served and are released. This allowed for super-villians such as Captain Boomerang, Poison Ivy, The Penguin and Deadshot to work alongside such heroes as Nightshade, The Bronze Tiger, Speedy and Nemesis in an uneasy alliance to take care of the world’s problems, by almost any means necessary. People died almost every issue and the world of DC comics went from the usual black and white to varying shades of gray with this group and concept. Allow me to pick and choose my own characters and I could have a helluva good time with this group and concept. I’ve actually started on a couple of fics with my own “Marvel version” of the Suicide Squad, but unfortunately, those stories (rough drafts actually) were lost when my computer fried and died. But the ideas are still there in my head and waiting to come out and be heard.

9) Northstar: This long time member of Alpha Flight (and occasionally the X-Men) is just fun to write. He’s an asshole, pure and simple. He’s bitter, spiteful, and doesn’t have much use for anyone save his sister and a few friends. He’s also gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that… lol). I just love the character and the complexity of his life and all that it beholds.

8) Captain Cold: For reasons I can’t explain, this character has always been one of my favorites. I know he’s a villian and his only “powers” are a special gun that radiates cold, but there’s something about Mr. Leonard Snart that fascinates me and makes me feel that he could be a fun and interesting character to write about. He’s a bad guy, but he has character and morals and isn’t someone you can define with black or white. He’s one of those shades of gray that I spoke of earlier. I’d love to play with this character and see what my inner muse could come up with. It would be fun and interesting to be sure.

7) Mantis: To be really honest, I just love writing dialogue for her and using her unique manner of speaking in the third person. Anyone who refers to themselves as “this one” has potential to be sure. And then when you add her role as the Celestial Madonna, a former Avenger, the former love interest of the Silver Surfer, the empathatic powers and the ability to communicate with plants,,, wow! There is so much untapped potential there just waiting to be used and touched upon. And that’s not even including the things you can do with her “son”, the Celestial Messiah, her former lovers (Swordsman, the plant-aliens Cotati, Silver Surfer, etc). She’s a million stories waiting to be heard.

6) The Avengers West Coast: The Avengers are without a doubt the premiere super human team. But unfortunately, if you’re dealing with the Avengers, you have to adhere to certain guidelines and there are certain characters that have to be included such as Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Wasp, etc. And while working with those characters would be fun, there’s only so much that you can do with them and so many places you can go. That’s why I wouldn’t want to use the main Avengers team from New York. That’s the A-Team and things are more formal and under the spotlight.

But the West Coast Avengers (or Avengers West Coast) was different. They were looser and had a lot more fluidity with their membership and the missions that they went on and the potential for chaos was / is so much more there and ready to be exploited. With characters like Tigra, The Living Lightning, USAgent, the original Human Torch,etc and Hawkeye as the go-lucky, act before thinking leader, it was a great comic and I’d love to see it back again.

5) The Wonder Twins (Zan and Jayna): There is so much ground left to be covered with these two minor characters from the 70’s cartoon series, “The Super Friends”. How did they get to earth? What was their life like away from the Hall of Justice, when they weren’t being mentored by and helping out the Super Friends? What about their relationship and dependency upon each other to activate and use their powers? What happened to them after they grew up and were no longer teenagers? And that’s just the start of the questions I’d like to look into and attempt to answer. The powers they have could be kick-ass with the proper use and training and the right attitudes behind them. So much wasted potential here just waiting for the right person (me) to jump in and stir the waves a bit.

4) Casper the Friendly Ghost: How did Casper become a ghost? How did he end up living with the Ghostly Trio? What was the extent of his relationship with Wendy? I’d love to explore this character and bring it to the real, modern world and see how his friendly ways interact with the negativity and saracasm of today’s society. Admit it, you’d like to read about that. It’s a party waiting to happen.

3) The Defenders: A non-team that consists of a magician, a death-goddess, a gargoyle, a couple of costumed athletes, the Prince of Atlantis, a super strong but nearly mindless mass of muscle, the Son of Satan and just about anyone else who happened to drop by for the weekend. It was all about taking the most unlikely of team characters and making them work together to handle whatever strangeness and chaos that came along. I loved the characters such as Hellcat, Moondragon, The Gargoyle, Damion Hellstrom and so many others considered too off-beat for the regular Marvel Universe. Anything could happen and it was never boring. That would be a great atmosphere to work with and play with. It would be, to paraphrase the Miz, “Awesome!”.

2) Hercules: You can have your Thor’s and other noble entities. I like the Olympian god that drinks too much, doesn’t think things out, has a quick temper and ego larger than the state of Alaska, not to mention the most dysfuntional “family” that anyone could ever imagine. There is no end to what kind of chaos and trouble that the “Prince of Power” could get into and then, when you throw the whole “god” thing and his Olympian relatives, it just gets crazier and crazier. In the Marvel Universe, Hercules is often seen as just a second rate Thor and he deserves far better than that. I’d love to be able to do that for him and play with his character and show why he was seen as such a legend and hero in the ancient myths and why it still holds true now thousands of years later. The potential is there – it just needs to be tweaked and tapped into more often.

And finally…

1) Dr. Druid: I”m a big fan of the show “House M.D.” and I realized just a few days ago that one of my favorite comic characters, Dr. Druid, is just like Gregory House. I think that’s what makes him so appealing to me, although admittingly I was a Druid fan long before House ever appeared on TV. Both men are aloof, cold, sarcastic and unhappy and see people more as mysteries waiting to be solved than as people. Picture House with the powers of telepathy, telekenetics and some magical prowess and you’ve got Dr. Anthony Druid. The potential for chaos and drama is overwhelming. Druid doesn’t like people and for the most part, people don’t like him, but they need each other. I love writing this character and now that I have a model to base him upon with Dr. House, I’m even more excited about it. Druid is one of the oldest characters in the Marvel Universe, but also one of the most undeveloped and misused as well. The things I could do with him… can I get a hell yeah!

And there you go. The top ten characters / groups that I’d love to have the chance to write about (and actually get paid to write about). But it’s not about the money anyhw. It’s about the characters and these are some of the very best. I might not be getting paid, but expect all of these characters to appear at some time in my fics. And it will be great. It’s inevitiable. ‘Nuff said!

Got to go to work now. Have a great day!

Ubuntu!