Avengers: The Twisted Image

[Anwar]

Hi,

I've been thinking about this for a while but the whole "Dr Doom is the new Iron Man" thing got me thinking about what if there was a full-fledged AU about a Marvel world where the usual heroes (Captain America, Iron Man, Dr Strange, etc) were different people altogether.

I've been working on this with folks from other forums and I thought I'd share it here.

So far we've come up with a history for a world with this cast list:

Iron Man - Victor Von Doom
Captain America - Erik Lensherr
The Spider (a fusion of the Punisher and Spider-Man) - Ben Parker
Sorcerer Supreme - Loki (with a twist)
Hawkeye - Scott Summers
Ms Marvel - Rogue
Mastermind, Black King of the Hellfire Club - Charles Xavier
Flag-Smasher - Helmut Zemo
Titanium Man - Ben Grimm

And others, but this is the starter list.

Does anyone want to hear the history we've made, or maybe contribute?

 

[M.A.C.O.]

Who is we you speak of?


Marvel did do a series called Dark Avengers and Dark X-Men back in 2008-2010. That was pretty cool.

Dark Avengers

Captain Marvel - Noh-Varr
Sentry - Robert Reynolds
Ms Marvel - Moonstone: A Ms Marvel villain
Iron Patriot - The Green Goblin: Norman Osborn
Ares - The God of War
Wolverine - Daken: Logan's son.
Hawkeye - Bullseye: Daredevil's villain
Spider-Man/Venom - The Scorpion: Mac Gargan

Osborn's Dark Avengers worked out so well, that he decided to franchise out and make Dark X-Men too.

Dark X-Men

Mimic - Calvin Rankin
Wolverine - Daken: Logan's son. Daken had dual roles for the Avengers and X-Men
Namor - The Sub-Mariner
Black Queen - White Queen: Emma Frost
Weapon Omega - Michael Pointer
Cloak and Dagger - Tandy and Tyrone

Not in photo
Mystique - Raven Darkholme
Dark Beast - Hank McCoy from another universe.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Ms Marvel - Moonstone: A Ms Marvel villain

She's more of an Avengers villain. I don't think she's fought the Carol Danver's Marvel.

 

[Anwar]

Who is we you speak of?

Some guys from other forums like Spacebattles and Other Media on rpg.net.

Our idea is similar to Gods and Monsters, where people who are usually villains ALWAYS were the heroes and/or minor characters have become other heroes.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

You know, there was a comic book for that sort of questions and musings.

 

[Anwar]

You know, there was a comic book for that sort of questions and musings.

Yeah, "What If?" was one of my faves because of how far writers could push the envelope.

But I was going for one where the world WASN'T objectively worse off due to the changes (and let's be fair, What If? did that 99% of the time).

I'll start:

- At some point in the past, Odin chooses to banish Loki instead of Thor to Earth in hope this will either teach him compassion/humility or Asgard will be rid of the Trickster for good.

- During World War II, Dr Abraham Erskine is able to escape Nazi Germany and tries to bring as many Concentration Camp escapees with him as he can. One of whom is a young man named Erik Lensherr. Erskine witnesses Erik use some kind of power to incapacitate the Guards so they can escape. Seeing the boy has lost his family, Erskine sympathizes and asks Erik if he wants to use his gifts to keep the Nazis from harming anyone else.

Once in America, Erskine's team (Peggy Carter and Howard Stark) nurse Erik back to health and start testing his abilities. Erskine contacts fellow scientists Brian Xavier and Nathanial Essex and concludes that Erik is one of the proposed Homo Superior, a new breed of Humans with genetic abilities beyond that of normal humans. Erik volunteers for the Super-Soldier Treatment Erskine create and the process augments him physically although it has an inhibiting effect on his X-Gene. Thus he still HAS his magnetic powers, just not to the level his 616 self has them. Erskine is killed by a bomb in the Laboratory planted by a Nazi Agent. Dying, he asks Erik to use his powers to protect the weak and innocent. Upset at the the loss of his Mentor and Father-Figure, Erik adopts his new Homeland and becomes Captain America. He's able to use his powers to manipulate his Vibranium shield for added combat effect and control.

Erik is more brutal and vicious than Steve Rogers is, and long plans his revenge on the Nazis who destroyed his life and his family, particularly Heinrich Zemo. He unambiguously kills Johann Schmidt and Arnim Zola (who were in charge of the Concentration Camps in Erik's home) when he encounters them again. He's somewhat affected when Zola states that all the traumas inflicted upon him have turned him into the Super-Human he is, and that he is just as much the child of Heinrich Zemo as he is the Lensherrs. His friends try to convince him otherwise.

He forms close friendships with the Howling Commandos, encounters a band of fellow mutant soldiers (James Howlett, Victor Creed and Raven Darkholme) and falls in love with his Field Partner Peggy Carter. His life in that era ends in his final battle with Heinrich Zemo, who manages to launch a super-Warhead before Erik kills him. Erik and Peggy board the rocket and are able to disable it, but it still explodes and separates them over Arctic waters. Erik never learns Peggy's fate as he submerges and is frozen in the waters.

Moving onto the next point in the timeline soon, the birth of Charles Xavier.

 

[Anwar]

- Charles Xavier is born to the wealthy Xavier Family in America. Charles' father Brian is a Scientist married to Sharon Xavier, and one of his superiors is secretly the immortal Geneticist Mr Sinister who Brian learns the idea of the Homo Superior from. Brian suspects his own son Charles could potentially be one of these Homo Superior and records his suspicions in his journal as well as confiding in his colleague Kurt Marko. Brian later perishes in a Lab Accident. Dying, he asks Kurt to look after his family.

Kurt honors his friends' request, and he ultimately ends up marrying Sharon after genuinely falling in love with her. He introduces Charles to his own son Cain, who here wasn't cruel to Charles at all and was happy to think of him like a brother. Charles found Cain boisterous and annoying though, while Cain was just trying to be friendly.

Kurt discovered Brian's journal and figures the best thing to do would be to make Charles aware of his abilities and nurture them. However, he also spoiled Charles and frequently told him how unique he was and how with his powers he would change the world. Charles took this to heart and decided to try out his powers. When Cain played a harmless prank on him (merely to get a laugh out of Charles), Charles responded by taking control of Cain and seeing how total his control could be. Having tasted real power, Charles realized how much he ENJOYED this and embraced that he would indeed "change the world". He then repaid Kurt Marko's kindness by taking total control of both him and his Mother (when she tried to intervene and appeal to Charles' Humanity), making them sign total control over the Family Assets to him. He made his Mother and Stepfather into his puppets until he came of age, then he had them effectively imprisoned in "Personal Care" until they passed away. He kept Cain on as his personal servant, a prisoner trapped in his own body.

This Xavier never bothered traveling the world for other mutants, or forming a school for them, choosing instead to dedicate himself to a life governed solely by his self-interest and hedonism. Mutants he otherwise would've encountered and protected others from, like the Shadow King, remain unchallenged and their victims remain victims.

He ends up invited to the Hellfire Club, for the wealthy and the powerful. There he discovers the deeper Council of the Chosen, and that it's comprised almost entirely of his fellow Homo Superior. He quickly applies for membership and is accepted. From there, he uses his abilities to advance in power and popularity until he has disposed of his rivals within the Council and assumed Leadership of the American Branch for himself. Recreating the Council into the Lord Cardinal with himself as the Black King, Xavier has certainly begun making his mark on Humanity. He now desires to find other Homo Superior like him, to serve him as loyal soldiers in a New Army he wants to create. A King should have his Knights and Men-At-Arms, should he not?

Fortunately for the world, Xavier's secrecy is threatened by none other than his life-long "servant" Cain. On a trip to another country, the two of them discover an ancient Temple Xavier had learned supposedly contained an object of great power. Not willing to risk himself, he sent Cain in to find whatever this object was meant to be.

What Cain discovered was his salvation, the Gem of Cyttorak. It imbued Cain with it's energies, transforming him into the Human Juggernaut. But most importantly, it gave him Mystical Armor that protected him from his Stepbrothers' Mental Powers. Free for the first time in a lifetime, Cain fled from Xavier into the foreign wilderness. Deeply traumatized from the years of tyranny and being forced to commit atrocities in Xavier's name, Cain has absolutely no desire to harm anyone. He merely wants to warn the world of Xavier and his plans.