User blog:Uncanny X-Factor/Earth-166 Preparations 00001

Greetings to you, my Marvel Fanon cowriters. I am Uncanny X-Factor, and it has been quite some time since I've written a blog, so forgive me if I'm a bit rusty. (NOTE: this blog is LONG, especially for me. So if you don't want to read it, I understand. I'll gladly give a TL;DR upon request. This is sort of a look inside my head in case anyone wants to see my process/know what's coming up.)

I recently posted a forum/poll asking if I should resume my creative contributions in addition to performing my administrator duties. The response was overwhelmingly positive, as not only did everyone vote for me to contribute, but the overwhelming majority (75%) voted to add ideas as they come to me, which I (and I assume the 75% do as well) assume will produce the best ideas.

So...if the point is spontaneity, why am I making a blog? You can't plan spontaneity.

You're right, you can't. I will certainly add characters and thoughts as they come to me. But I like to have a plan, and since you can't plan spontaneity, I've come up with a system.

My Process
See, I'm a very linear individual. I am what is known classically as Type A: quite logical, plan based, moves in order. And so shall I. I am going to add to Earth-166 (my mainstream universe) as many characters as I can. I'm looking at all 62,302 (as of 4/11/19, the date of creation) characters. I hear you all gasp. Why? I'm a glutton for punishment, that's why. And Marvel has a ton of possibly great characters that they've regrettably let slip through the cracks. So the only way to go is to look through every character in the Database. I'm considering doing some additions in chronological order (in-universe, meaning characters like the Celestials would come first here), but I prefer to go alphabetically, for the most part. This is why 2-D showed up seemingly out of nowhere. His Database page starts with a 2, so he came early.

Quit rambling, X, get to the point.

OK, OK. So what I do is I find a character page, and I see what their history looks like. Do I like it? Does it give them the kind of role in-universe that they deserve? For big characters like Spider-Man or even medium-popular characters such as Iceman, the answer is obviously yes. For other, smaller characters, the answer is often no. And so I'm forced to improvise. I look at characters of similar origin that might mesh well. Characters with similar powers. Similar codenames, etc. Find things that could mesh well together. Some are obvious, like 2-D's Initiative participation with Squirm's paranormal backstory and Army encounters. (This came, of course, after observing they were the only two African-Americans with elasticity powers, which limited my options. Fortunately, I think it worked out.) Some are obvious, and some are...less so. (See Electron, below.) I try to fit pieces together, and some I will have to smash together. Ultimately, I go for what makes a similar character to 616, but hopefully better, or at least having a nice twist on their mythos that works in my style. Maybe this will be clearer with a visual aid.

Spider (Virginia Dare)
The very first character alphabetically on the Marvel Database is "Spider-Girl", the mutant/spider clone from Earth-616. Creating a one-off character that was seemingly a clone of Spider-Man, Gwen Stacy, and Cyclops seems to be a massive waste of potential. I knew that the first thing that had to occur was a more extended tenure at the Jean Grey Institute. I still think she should be a background character, but in my universe, just about everyone is part of a student squad (like they have on Earth-616), so she becomes a member of Northstar's squad, the Alphas. She won't fit in though, because she's a massive monster from New York, and she has no memories because she's a faulty clone. She ends up taking the name Virginia Dare, a reference to her Earth-311 counterpart, who can also shapeshift into animals (like spiders). But her fellow students only see her as the Spider. She'd be seen a time or two either in the background or training with the Alphas. But it wouldn't last. Eventually, she'd develop a strong philosophy of her own, which would lead her to start disappearing from the Institute for various periods of time. Secretly, she is moonlighting under the dual identity Abby Levine (also a reference to her fellow Earth-616 clone Abby-L. I won't spoil here what she's doing, why she's doing it, or what becomes of her as a result, but it involves her last inspiration: the mutant Spider-Clones. I wouldn't be surprised if some dedicated user was able to piece it together, but this should at least give you a peek into the method behind my madness. So here you have Virginia Dare!

Electron (Rheinholt Kragov)
This one is going to seem like the most far-fetched piecemeal of them all, even more so than the Spider. But bear with me, I promise it works.


 * Q: First of all, why am I putting an Amalgam character in my main universe?
 * A Because every Marvel creation has value, or at the least potential. Even the seemingly awful, short-sighted ones that make no freaking sense (stands up from seat and knocks over the seat) umm, ahem (rights the chair and sits in it) Next question?


 * Q: Will he still be an Amalgam character?
 * A: Of course not! Some might take inspiration, but this one won't because it's such a ridiculous combo that deprived both characters of an interesting fusion that just (clenches fist, exhales slowly)... No. He will not.

It was not a good amalgam. (Can you tell that's my stance on the matter?) What he contributes to this idea is merely a core concept: a version of Electro, from the future, in space, as a young(ish) hero, clad in blue and yellow. That's all. So how to beef him up from that? Well, this was almost a personal challenge to myself. I had recently read an incredible article by MarvelousMarty that centered around a future version/descendant of the Chameleon who ends up being a hero, a noble and self-sacrificing one at that. It was great, an excellent read. So I thought a heroic Spidey villain of my own would be fun. Enter Electro. As I looked on the Database's disambiguation page, I found another personal challenge of mine: find a use for Rheinholt Kragov. For those who don't know, this is...arguably the strangest version of Electro, even more than the Amalgam version. Russian son of the Red Skull...hot train wreck. Really bad. Some nonsense about movie rights and God forbid Electro appear in a movie and not a TV show, as if a movie wouldn't boost desire to see him in a cartoon and then make him part of it, and Max Dillon is nowhere to be found...yeah, so I wanted to try to make him actually a convincing character. So we've got a blue and white Electro, descendant to supervillains, a hero, in space. The final piece was a holdover from Earth-5. Initially, Living Lightning was going to be a Guardian of the Galaxy. Why? I have no idea, thought he'd be better in space than as a misused Avenger. But in hindsight, it was just a spitball I thought could work. It couldn't.

So now we have Rheinholt Kragov, a descendant of both the Dillon and Kravinoff families, in the far future. Peter Parker's identity is long-past public knowledge, and there's no Spider-Man anymore. His entire mission in life is a hollow dream of the past. This isn't even mentioning the fact that Earth is long-since uninhabitable (after all, this is the Guardians of the Galaxy's future, and so Earth is overrun by Martians). Rheinholt has to spend his life hiding, and is often used by various resistance groups as nothing more than a self-sustaining battery. He hates it. And so his solution is to leave the Earth and go to space, seeking anything other than what he had back on Earth. What he finds is another violent alien race: the Badoon. Furious at his luck, he starts zapping the creatures left and right, and proves to be a magnificent fighting force. This draws the attention of the Guardians of the Galaxy, also fighting against the Badoon. Impressed, they end up enlisting him as a member, where he finds he enjoys the life of a hero. What happens next? I... am not there yet. But if you have ideas, feel free to share!

Splinter (A'Kurru U'mbaya)
The final character that I've fleshed out for this post is the Wakandan supervillain known on Earth-616 as Icon. This was another one-off character that was undeserving of his fate. In essence, he is a Wakandan biochemist who discovers a way to transform himself and others into living wood, and attacks Black Panther and Excalibur to seize the throne. Will he appear in the Black Panther sequel? God, no. But he could still be quite interesting. To that end, I decided that instead of a random experiment producing him, why not some wood from everyone's favorite sentient tree? To turn back and forth, though, he'd probably need the aid of Terrigen crystals, ala Jolen, another plant-based character, and you have a potentially interesting base to work with. In addition to popping up again from time to time to try to attain the throne again, I figured he'd need some either side missions, so I teamed him up with the criminal team I.C.O.N., whose main motus operandi is obtaining Frankenstein's Monster...for some reason. I dunno, they're both afraid of fire, could be interesting. Don't mistake him for a major player, though...some characters belong in the shadows, whether they are good or not.

Characters I'll be incorporating later...

 * 'Spinner (Earth-616): I'd like to believe that Spinner has a place in my universe, perhaps a supporting character in the Venom Spaceknight series. The whole Galactic Alliance of Spider-Man is too good an opportunity to pass up. But Spinner, I'm not sure where he belongs. Maybe as a Technarch?
 * Legion subpersonalities that will be subpages of his page:
 * 107 (Earth-616)
 * 115 (Legion Personality) (Earth-616)
 * 14 (Earth-616)
 * 181 (Legion Personality) (Earth-616)
 * 302 (Legion Personality) (Earth-616)
 * 762 (Legion Personality) (Earth-616)
 * 933 (Legion Personality) (Earth-616)
 * 99 (Earth-616)


 * 3.14159 (Earth-1191): As you'll come to know, I cannot STAND Sentinels with names. They are supposed to be nameless and faceless (outside of Sentinel Squad O.N.E.). But the idea of a Sentinel from Bishop's future who is sentient and decides to wipe out humanity because HE DECIDES TO? That's too hard for me to pass up. I probably won't name him Pi, but he should be around. And since he's the first one that is different on my list, I should mention:
 * This blog series covers all of Multiverse X, not just Earth-166. I'm merely naming it this due to it focusing on everyone's primary counterparts, unless they don't have one (Electron, for example). This also doesn't include characters who are straight-up OC's, like the Offspringverse.


 * w:c:Marvel:4107 (Earth-24201): The X-Men's strategic computer, who serves the role of deciding who goes where and does what, with minor powers of its own? Kind of sounds like Danger, don't you think? Well, I do.
 * 8-Ball (Hobgoblin) (Earth-616): First of all, I'm probably going to switch the monikers of the Goblin Family around, so the Franchises would work for Roderick Kingsley, but not necessarily the Hobgoblin. Secondly, I like for supervillains to have secret identities. I'm always reluctant to have an identity that remains unrevealed indefinitely. I might have to here, but I'll hold off on creating him until I can make that decision. Either way, he'll definitely be in given how important he has been to the Marvel universe.
 * 8-Ball II (Earth-616): See Jonathan Gallo.
 * 89P13 (Earth-199999): See Rocket. (He's named Rocket, and he happens to be a raccoon. I'm not sure where they pulled 89P13 from.)
 * A'di (Earth-616): She seems to be a pretty cool character, I just need to see her developed more before I can make a version of her that's unique and interesting.
 * 2-D (Earth-616): Has the distinct pleasure of having already been started and nearly completed.

Characters I'll not be including...

 * 'Selka (Earth-928): Lack of potential. An old woman informant, might as well go unnamed.
 * 01100010...HIS NAME IS BRUTE (Earth-616): Unnecessarily complicated. Despite his being a one-off, I was all set to use this character, perhaps even merging it with another. However, I read his sole appearance and it is boring. Not only that, but translating everything he says in binary doesn't even produce words. Too frustrating a character to give much thought, even if he does look like a Sentinel...
 * 11-Ball, 6-Ball, and 9-Ball (Earth-166): Unneeded. 8-Ball does not need a gang of lackeys that he discards after one issue.
 * 1X, 2X, and 3X (Earth-616): Lack of potential. These three stooges appeared once, near when Marvel started out, and there was nothing unique or interesting about them. We'll chalk them up to an early mistake they made when finding their footing.
 * 26 and 27 (Earth-616): Unneeded. Gamma boars. I was skeptical at first, then I read what they do for the Hulk mythos...and I'm still really skeptical. When Hulk and Banner were separated, Banner decided he wanted the Hulk back. Stuck on an island, he decided to gamma up the wildlife, including 26 and 27. I kind of get it. Unfortunately, I mostly don't, and I'm not sure what I can do with them, so they're denied entry.
 * 2600 (Earth-928): Lack of potential. If/when I do my take on Ghost Rider 2099, it's going to be way different than this. And will not be including 2600's gang, the Hotwire Martyrs. Oh, the Nineties were magical...thanks to the drugs everyone else was taking.
 * 6R (Earth-616): See my far above point about named Sentinels.
 * 7-X9 (Earth-616): One-off supporting character for Howard the Duck.
 * 803 (Earth-616): Unnecessary. A suicidal robot who aids Venom in space? That's a bit too zany, even for me.
 * 88 (Earth-616): Morally questionable. Now go ahead and jump on me for this one if you like. And I may sound like a hypocrite if I say Red Skull is my favorite Cap villain. But this guy's more than just a Nazi. He's the only Nazi... that anyone will be allowed to breed with... in the new world order? If I want to make just a Nazi super-soldier, I'll pick somebody more important and give them the codename 88 instead of the name. But if I were to use this guy as-is, people would have my head. And honestly, I'd give it to them on a silver platter. 88 is where I draw the line. Unless...could he be a Legion personality? I mean, he has the Nazi Doctor...no, this is enough.
 * A Friend (Earth-616): Morally questionable. Before you jump on me, I'm not comparing Jesus to Nazis. All I'm gonna say on this one is that not everybody wants to see a Jesus in their Ghost Rider comics. Hell, darkness, sure, that's good. Not...forget it, he just doesn't work for me.
 * A La Mode (Earth-9047): Joke character. No one from Earth-9047 is getting anywhere near my universe. Sorry if that bothers you, but I'm a serious Marvel fan. The only guy I'm adding relating to ice cream is Eye-Scream. Yes, I'm serious. Stop laughing.
 * A'ishah (Earth-616): Unnecessary. Another character like Selka who could just as easily go unnamed.
 * A'kane (Earth-616): Lack of potential. I honestly can't come up with anything for her past the dead mother trope, so it's just as fitting that she be unnamed, just Vibraxas' mom, and move along.

Oh, and P.S.
I will also be including pages that are referenced in the pages I include. For example, with Virginia Dare, I will also be adding the Alphas, as well as the Mutant/Spider Clones.

That's all for now, folks, this took me over two hours to write, so I'd better wrap it up. Until next time, true believers!