Marvel Apocrypha Thread

[The Out Of World]

Marvel comics is a neat franchise with plenty of interesting concepts and an interesting cast of countless characters, but not all the ideas put to work are ones we enjoy. I'm aware there's quite a bit of dislike for stories like One More Day and pieces of the Ultimate universe. These stories we love and hate inspire us to envision different narrative execution within the medium as per our individual preferences as readers and writers alike. Please don't go so far as to consider this a 'rebuild' of canon or a way of doing things 'better'; there are plenty of good ideas already put to use in Marvel that are done, well, marvelously. To claim to be 'rebuilding' those works would be a disservice to their authors by implying the stories they produced were broken and in need of repair. Consider this thread a space for your personal preferences, headcanons, storylines and other concepts floating around in your head for the Marvel continuity, where you can write freely about your own stories made from the existing groundwork.

This is Apocrypha as opposed to Canon; reexamination and reinterpretation by new authors that remains respectful toward the effort of the original artists and writers. Sufficiently fleshed-out ideas will be threadmarked for convenience. Come now and let us write tales of suspense together.

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[The Out Of World]

It may seem a bit odd, but the first thing I really started expanding on in my mind for Marvel Apocrypha was not a superhero, but a supervillain. Strangely enough, it was Magneto. I was never very educated on the X-Men series but this character really called out to me. There is plenty of narrative potential lying therein.

Max Eisenhardt is the man behind the bright red-and-purple costume. He later assumes the name Erik Magnus Lehnsherr as a forged identity, one by which some readers known him better, but I can't imagine him letting go of that smoldering piece of 'Max Eisenhardt' that burns in the very core of his heart. It's a chunk of his youth, the pillar that serves as the foundation for his personality and motives.

Max was a Jew growing up in Germany under the reign of the Third Reich, a survivor of the Holocaust and its many horrors. Moreover, he was a Holocaust survivor with superpowers. This grants him a level of agency that ordinary men can seldom understand, a tool to break free of a prison of learned hopelessness and despair. The sheer amount of content that can be hewn from this mold is staggering.

Of course, he is the foil to Charles Xavier. While Charles promotes a message of peaceful integration and coexistence, Max is an anti-hero at heart and can't break away from that way of life no matter how hard he tries. Whereas Charles is calm and collected, Max unleashes his emotions as a human and fully embraces them to achieve goals. Charles is the peaceful breeze and Max is the raging tempest, the force of nature that moves with a purpose and overwhelms with its momentum.

His story is one of love and hate, of passion and violence, of bloodshed and murder. He's always fighting and killing for the oppressed; those who are beaten and starved and crushed and ignored and subjected to all sorts of inhumane, horrible cruelties. Max finds himself among a minority time and time again, waging war both for personal reasons and to liberate his fellows from their unjust treatment.

Such is the reality of the world he has come to terms with. The weight of mankind crushes him harder than any single supervillain could ever hope to, no matter what kind of exotic power the demented supervillain of the month may arm himself with. Max lives at both the crest and the valley of humanity simultaneously, searching for the greatest good that can be done while living among its worst evils. It's pretty damn depressing and amazing all at once.

Now let's focus on Max Eisenhardt: Magnetic Avenger. Yes it's a cheesy title that could use some work, but that's kinda what you'd expect from an old comic book, right?

As we see Magneto in Marvel Canon, he's a symbol of power and force. He can rip buildings and other large structures apart with a gesture of his hand, peel the indestructible adamantium from Wolverine's bones and even fly (the ultimate expression of freedom through newfound mobility that humanity yearns for). He puts the "super" in "superhuman" thanks to a powerset that allows him to establish himself as something above the likes of humanity - homo superior. Magneto invokes the essence of an all-powerful force of nature from which there is no escape. Objects and even people bend to his will, which is made manifest through an invisible, unavoidable force.

It's amazing how something as elementary as magnetism can be used so effectively to invoke spiritual imagery, isn't it? A principle force of the universe, unseen and pervasive like the will of an all-powerful omnipresent deity when pushed to such extremes.

But that's Magneto, the Master of Magnetism. He hasn't ascended to that lofty height yet. For now he is simply Max Eisenhardt, Erik Lehnsherr and so many other mask-names. He's the Magnetic Avenger, a youthful man who has discovered the power to warp and move metal in miraculous ways. He's still developing that power. Max lacks much of the intense force of Magneto, but you can still see bits of the precision at work here and there.

He can crush the barrel of a gun before his foe can draw their weapon - an intimidation and disarmament tactic that loosens the lips of an S.S. officer Max intends to pry secrets from as part of some larger goal. He can push the flight paths of bullets away from himself, but can only affect so many before he reaches the limit of his concentration and cannot divide his power among so many targets. Large-scale firefights against lots of foes will almost certainly result in his death.

So he takes a less blunt approach. Instead of the raging storm, Max becomes the winding river. It is fluid and still moves with a purpose, sliding across all obstacles smoothly until it reaches its destination. He uses tactics of infiltration, forgery and disguise to accomplish his missions of sabotage against agents of the Third Reich. As a protagonist, Max progresses through the plot in an investigate fashion.

It's less a case of cape-clad wonders battling it out and more a suspenseful spy drama that unfolds in the shadows. The Magnetic Avenger relies on subtlety and secrecy to get the job done, and you'd be hard-pressed to find much information or rumor of his activities during this period. His stories usually revolve around him trying to assassinate some important Nazi officer, sabotaging critical documents to the German war machine, dismantling supertechnological weapons, liberating oppressed prisoners, etc.

Sneaking aboard a German U-boat under disguise is an especially interesting prospect. In an environment made of metal, his power flourishes. However, this vehicle is underwater. If he does something to compromise the integrity of the hull, he will meet a watery grave. Max must be more mindful of his surroundings than usual in such a situation. So naturally this point must be exploited. Perhaps the U-boat swims through just the wrong stretch of ocean and causes Fin Fang Foom to stir from his aquatic slumber or maybe Namor the Sub-Mariner decides to dish out some Atlantean justice on these humans who are getting too deep in the seas for his comfort. Max must grit his teeth and protect the vessel, maybe even cooperate with the Nazi crew of the boat to preserve all their collective lives. Having to save the executioners of his people would piss him off more than anything else and serves as an excellent side-conflict in the plot.

There's plenty of room for crossovers, too. As a WWII-era superhero, there's no reason not to have him encounter Captain America, Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos, or even team up with Moe Berg to take down sorcerers from the Thule Society.

 

[Ψυχή]

As someone who only recently began to delve much deeper into comics (relative to my age)—despite being a giant fan of 'em—I'll have to dig in with my new roots and ramble on about Spider-Man.

Or in my particular case, the Web Warriors of the Spider-Verse.

See, with Morlun's return, followed subsequently by the War against his family (The Inheritors) spanning multiple universes, my frustration became how quickly the new paradigm was set up to fall with the coming 'end of days' that would be BattleWorld. Not to mention the fact that with all these amazing Spider-Totems—fundamental cornerstones of the universe for some unknown reason—most would perish without us knowing where they went or their ultimate fate.

Now, of course there's the marketing strategy to consider: show off the wide variety of characters, and we'll see who's big enough to make full comics with. But for me personally, there's such an unadulterated loss of material that I cannot help but mourn the fallen.

And then pick up the pieces and start anew.

Spider-Gwen of Earth-65: The obvious 'winner' of the Spider-Verse in terms of popularity, Gwendolyn Stacy as Spider Woman filed the Gwen-shaped hole in the fandom's hearts since her demise in ancient Spider-Man history, while providing a close redemption experience and the back-and-forth of her struggle to be honest with her father, the Parkers, and New York as a whole, while juggling basic crime and the world-ending threats of the Spider-Verse, the rise of the Avengers trying to take her down, and dealing with Mary Jane on a daily basis as a drummer trying to make it big.

Spider-Man Noir, 90214: The past winner of multiverse Spider-Man shenanigans come back for a victory lap, Peter Parker as a grown man in the Great Depression with far more spiritual powers, technical know-how, and an appreciation for darker tactics has plenty of potential that continues to be explored in comic-form, and makes the best fit for OOW's particular Apocrypha.

SP//dr (Peni), 14512: In short, imagine a world where every mecha pilot ever all attend the same academy alongside other SciFi series like Ghost In The Shell in the universe. Take that (Earth-14512) and give a young girl named Peni Parker the chance to fight crime like her father as she bonds with a radioactive spider that runs the SP//dr suit's programing.

Lady Spider (non), 803: the close second behind Noir in terms of OOW's thoughts, May Reily's brand of steampunk and intellect go above and beyond what most expext, especially as she lacks the trademark powers of a Spider-Totem and yet can repair and upgrade Lepardon to defeat Inheritors where even Spider-Man 2099 failed.

Superior Spider-Man, 616: Whereas most people (rightfully) hated Otto Octavious' stint in Peter Parker's body, it's ironic that his focus during the events of the Spider-Verse was received far better, even though 'Superior Spider-Man' had only received a limited-time extension in existence...

Karn the Inheritor, 000: Goddamn timetravel self-fulfilling prophecies... Karn remains too awesome for the lot he receives in life, and would be incredibly fun to see in action.

Spider-Bitch (tt), 807128: 'tis always a shame to see the good of parents and grandparents go wasted. One of Superior Spider-Man's recruits as he called upon other Totems to do more with themselves and their Power (being responsible), Ashley Barton goes from Bitch to Badass as she makes her father (Clint) and grandfather (Peter) proud.

That's all for now I suppose, since I've exhausted my core favorites.