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.

And now, here is it several months later. I never finished this piece which was started on April 10, 2013. It’s now October 4, 2013. I’m going to finish… lol. So I did the first five. Here are the other five characters / groups I’d love to write about.

5) The Wonder Twins: Technically, Zan and Jayna aren’t so much comic book characters as they are cartoon characters. They were created to be part of the Super Friends cartoon in the late 70’s and aside from a few appearances in Super Friends and Justice League comics, they’re not really part of the mainsteam DC Universe. But I like the characters. Two teenagers who come from another world and have to have physical contact to make their powers work. And their powers, the abilities to become the shape of any animal and to take the shape of water, while portrayed as kind of wimpy on the cartoon, have the potential to be major kick-ass abilities. There is so much uncharted territory with these two. How did they come to earth and why? What happened to them after the “Super Friends” disbanded. The potential that’s there is limitless and waiting to be explored. I had them appear briefly in my “Avenging Shadows” universe over at the FanFiction site as a link between Magneto and Barnabas Collins. I’ve been meaning to go back and do more with them.

4) Dr. Druid: He’s the master of the unknown. He’s a mystic and a psychologist. And he’s also an arrogant ass-hole. I think that’s what makes him so appealing. So much potential there and assholes are the most fun characters to write. If I write a super-hero fiction story, he’s going to make an appearance. Druid has been around since the early sixties and even pre-dates the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spiderman and Avengers as a Marvel Comics superhero, but he’s still so largely untapped and has so much potential and character available. He’s definitely one of my favorites.

3) Barnabas Collins / Quentin Collins: These two characters from Dark Shadows are not really comic characters either so much as they are TV characters and book characters, but they’re so awesome and so much fun to write. And there was a comic published based on the Dark Shadows title and Barnabas in the late 70’s so they qualify as comic characters as well. I’ve used them both so often and plan to use them far more often in the future. There are so many directions I can fo with this tortured man with the vampire curse and his immortal cousin, who just happens to be a werewolf. And the history and allure of the Dark Shadows magic, the spectre of Collinwood, the supporting characters of Julia Hoffman, Willie Loomis and Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. Just too damn good to ignore.

2) Magneto: Is he a good guy or a bad guy? Who knows? His methods are wrong and evil, but do the means justify the ends? His goals are noble and he is so complex and so detailed, it just makes him so fun to play with and write. He can be your best ally at one moment and your worst nightmare come true the next and none of it would be out of character for this man. So many levels and all of them appeal to me as a writer when looking for a character that has meaning and depth. Magneto is definitely among the top of the line.

1) The Defenders: A non-group, led by Dr. Strange, who’s members have included The Beast, Iceman, The Angel, Hellcat, The Son of Satan, The Gargoyle, The Valkyrie, The Hulk, Nighthawk, The Submariner, Moondragon, Cloud, The Devil Slayer. Anyone could be a member and probably was at some point. The only requirement seemed to be that you knew Dr. Strange or one of the other “core” members and showed up for a battle, or a cook-out as the case may be. If there was a lot of fluidity with the West Coast Avengers, then the Defenders were a absolute title wave of membership changes. But the group was cool and off-the-wall and I liked reading their adventures. And I like writing about their adventures too. Just a great title to use as motivation and influence when writing. ‘Nuff said!

And there you go. The top ten comic book groups / characters I like or would like to write about in my fics. What do they all have in common? They rock! And that is definitely ’nuff said! I’m going to bed. Good night and good luck!

Ubuntu!