Pretty simple. Someone proposes a comics character that was either an utter failure, a laughing stock, a Mopee, a character that's had a hard time finding a good direction, or something similar. Someone else takes their best shot at breathing life into said character and making him/her more interesting. Then that poster tosses out a new character. If you want, you can completely reinvent the character, or simply come up with a new direction. To start, I'll throw out a personal favorite that most people revile: Razorback.

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  • Razorback: instead of CB radio jargon, he talks in Tweets now. He's all about myspace, facebook, twitter, etc. In his 18 wheeler, Big Pig, he travels the country along with his faithful companion Bear seeking adventure and helping people.

    Next challenge: Jack of Hearts
  • Jack Hart was a gentleman thief who always left his signature card (the Jack of Hearts, duh) at the scene of his crimes. Framed for a murder he didn't commit, Jack now searches for the real killer(s) while avoiding the police and making the journey from crook to hero.

    Next up - Vibe

    John Dunbar said:
    Razorback: instead of CB radio jargon, he talks in Tweets now. He's all about myspace, facebook, twitter, etc. In his 18 wheeler, Big Pig, he travels the country along with his faithful companion Bear seeking adventure and helping people.
    Next challenge: Jack of Hearts
  • Paco Ramone is a popular radio DJ in Detroit who goes by the name DJ Vibe. He was rescued by the Detroit branch of the JLA and has since become one of their biggest supporters. He als has the league members on his show occaisonally as guests. He also has an on again off again relationship with JLA member Vixen.

    Next challenge: Miracle Man
    Here's a little bit about Miracle Man incase you haven't heard of him http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_Man
  • Miracle Man has been making a fortune by putting high-paying clients into hypnotic trances in which they seem to experience the realisation of their fantasies. He has also been taking advantage of insider knowledge gained thereby. The law can do nothing as his clients submit to his hypnosis voluntarily.

    A miscarried experiment leaves Dr. Doom in constant pain. He has MM brought to Latveria to provide him with hypnotic pain relief.

    We learn MM was the magician who released Doom from a hypnotic spell back in Fantastic Four #39, and bears a grudge over Doom's treatment of him afterwards. Seeking to gain an ascendency over Doom he offers to provide him with the realisation of his fantasies, but Doom rejects this, knowing that the experience would be like a drug.(1) He maintains an iron control over MM, records their sessions to monitor what MM says when he has him entranced, degrades him as is his way, and staffs MM's section of the castle with robots to prevent him using his hypnosis to escape.

    However, he becomes more and more dependent on MM's hypnotic treatments, and MM begins to surreptitiously induce fantasy experiences through subtle suggestion, claiming that they're an effect he can't prevent of the ever-deeper trances that Doom requires. This develops into a contest of ingenuity and treachery between them.

    In the sequel, MM is in prison in the US and raking in money by providing fantasy experiences (of escape, sex etc.) to his fellow prisoners. The prison authorities cannot stop him as there is no law in that state against prisoners hypnotising other prisoners. Some of the guards at the prison have also been corrupted. He has been investing the money he's been making in Nigerian start-up companies that he learned about through email. He expects that when he leaves prison he will have a fortune, which he will use to destroy the Fantastic Four.

    In reality, the "Nigerian start-up companies" are a scam run by an Wakandan revolutionary terrorist group, which has been using MM as its source of funding. To stop this the Black Panther has himself arrested so he can infiltrate the prison and squirt a special liquid into MM's eyes which will make his sight a little blurry, negating his hypnotic powers. Unfortunately, the revolutionaries find out and tip off MM through email, spinning him a line that T'Challa is an undercover operative of the IRS. T'Challa finds himself in a prison wholly controlled by a hostile MM.

    Looking at the story from Fantastic Four #3 it occurred to me that MM, as portrayed there, is arguably a villainous Mandrake the Magician. The Black Panther owes a debt to the Phantom - both are African rulers with costumed identities handed down from father to son. So in a sense this would be a Mandrake vs. the Phantom story.

    In his next appearance MM has been released from prison, but barred from again hypnotising people. So he has become a hypnotic pet therapist in Washington, DC. He has been corrupting the pets of DC's elite by providing them with the realisation of their fantasies. Through control over the capital's pets he plots to gain wealth and power, which he will use to destroy the Fantastic Four.

    Next challenge: the Matador, from Daredevil.

    (1) I'm in debt here to a story from the series The Trigan Empire about black boxes which allowed people to apparently live out their fantasies, and addicted those who used them. It was only while writing this that I realised this was a coded story about drug use.
  • Long retired from crime, the Matador is stirred to resume his criminal career by a visit to his ill mentor in an impoverished home for retired bullfighters. He has two goals: To obtain funds to direct to such homes, and to restore the social standing of his sport by raising its visibility and associating it with daring. Hence his crimes are designed attract publicity. He puts an ad in a newspaper stating that he's going to rob x next, robs the safe during a reception for a superhero, commits a robbery when he knows Spidey will likely spot him after making sure the media will be present to photograph their fight, and anonymously offers a substantial reward for his own capture that he publicises with a billboard campaign.

    Or: Bitterly rejecting the modern age and its values, the Matador arranges to have select individuals he has grudges against kidnapped and brought to his estate, where he fights and kills them in an area using bullfighting techniques. (I'm imagining this depicted in moody Gene Colan art.) In bullfights the bulls are weakened by picadors and banderilleros before being pitted against the matadors, so when he captures Captain America he deprives him of his shield and forces him to fight his way through a punishing obstacle course designed to injure him and tire him out before confronting him in his private arena.

    Next challenge: The Banner Bot (as the GCD calls it) from Tales to Astonish ##60-61, which the Hulk knocked into a "bottomless" pit.
  • You've not made this easy Luke. Photobucket

    Poring through internet records, Ultron comes upon the story of Odin's Destroyer, and notices similarities in the Banner Bot. He resolves to find the remains of the Banner Bot, and resurrect the robot for his own purposes. He builds rudimentary robots to search out the remains, little knowing that the spy who originally stole the Bot has survived all this time in suspended animation. The spy plays along with Ultron's plans until the repairs are completed--including upgrading the exterior armor to adamantium--then turns on him, destroying his laboratory in the process and taking the robot away.

    However, the long time in suspended animation has warped his brain, and he cannot accept the idea that the Soviet Union is no more. He vows to keep fighting until the Capitalist Americans are under the thumb of Comrade Kruschev. He immediately attacks the current Gamma Base, and when the Army is unable to stop him, the Avengers are called in. He completely routs the Avengers, including the complete atomization of the Iron Patriot, leaving only Osborne's head (hey, this is my revamp. I'm gonna go Geoff Johns on the so-called Avengers). With Osborne dead, the Sentry quickly returns home and hides under the sofa.

    The Banner Bot continues his rage of destruction through the Southwest, until he's confronted by a reunited group of original Avengers, including the Hulk...

    Since we're working with Hulk villains now, let's see if someone can do something with Boomerang.
  • BOOMERANG GOES LEGIT: Boomerang retires from super-villainy and becomes a commentator on super-battles for a TV network. He turns out to have a knack for this, and his slots become popular. Before long he has a fan club. His popularity gets him a chance to do some baseball sportscasting (he has a background in the sport), he dates minor starlets, and so on.

    When the opportunity presents itself he slants his commentary against the heroes out of malice, but in contrast to the Daily Bugle he is always careful to maintain a façade of apparent fairness. He even turns down the paper’s offer of a column to avoid compromising his image as an even-handed commentator. He merchandises his boomerang devices as a line of toys and gets very, very rich.

    Or

    BOOMERANG TAKES UP GAME THEORY: Boomerang takes a course on game theory and writes a paper on the opportunities available to one who, instead of siding with either the superheroes or the supervillains, threads a course between them. Subsequently he puts this theory into practice, avoiding overt criminality but remaining wholly on the look-out for himself (and willing to break the law when it suits him). The stories turn on the ways in which he analyses situations in terms of game theory and tries to turn them to his advantage.

    Next challenge: Machine Man.
  • Aaron Stack has been living quietly in Antarctica, having chosen to isolate himself from humanity. He's tracked down by Norman Osborne and the rest of H.A.M.M.E.R. Osborne tells him that he has a self-destruct mechanism that can destroy his one-time love, Jocasta, if he doesn't perform tasks for H.A.M.M.E.R. Stack reluctantly agrees.

    His first task is the clandestine assassination of Henry Pym. He manages to infiltrate the headquarters of the Mighty Avengers and attacks Pym. During a pitched battle, he manages to critically injure Pym and is then confronted by Jocasta. He tells her why he is attacking, and she tells him that Osborne and H.A.M.M.E.R. lied to him, that she has no self-destruct apparatus, and that she would be happy to allow him to examine her to prove that such is the case. He gives her a thorough diagnostic and proves that she is in no danger. However, his attack has caused Pym to go into a coma. Stack is livid, but realizes that it would be best to ensure that Pym seems to be healthy, so he disguises himself as Pym until such a time as Pym can recover.

    He also finds himself getting closer and closer to Jocasta, and when Pym finally revives, she has some very difficult decisions to make...

    So, who's up for the Condiment King?
  • " He gives her a thorough diagnostic"

    Wait, don't they have to get married at that point?
  • They're a modern couple. They don't feel like they have to follow society's rules.

    The Baron said:
    " He gives her a thorough diagnostic"

    Wait, don't they have to get married at that point?
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