Marvel Minimates Series 50: The Reality

[Mirymate]

"Whut we hayve heyuh is failyuh to communicate."

[battlecat]

Well I think Zach said he referenced the recent new characters poll here while compiling his list, so here's the top-voted (20+) characters from that poll:

B-listers

41 - Falcon

41 - Winter Soldier

32 - Banshee

31 - Mockingbird

30 - Morbius

29 - Black Knight

26 - Songbird

25 - Heimdall

25 - Volstagg

24 - Deathlok

24 - Fandral

23 - Tigra

23 - Hogun

22 - Squirrel Girl

21 - Darkhawk

20 - Uatu

20 - Sasquatch

20 - Rocket Raccoon

Villains

45 - Zemo

35 - Blob

32 - Toad

31 - Pyro

29 - Silver Samurai

28 - Mojo

26 - Enchantress

26 - Wrecker

26 - Bulldozer

25 - Thunderball

24 - Jack O'Lantern

24 - Spiral

24 - Piledriver

23 - Baron von Strucker

21 - Avalanche

[Jatta Pake]

I'm gonna say Winter Soldier fairs better than most of those Supporting choices. If he isn't already in an upcoming wave, i'd venture he's an absolute guarantee, and that isn't the campaigner in me talking, that's just sheer fact.

The rest is pretty close i would say.

I left Winter Soldier off my list on purpose.

[mcg031]

Wait we still have waves 48,49 sdcc and nycc so I think it's possible some will be made. I just wonder when another Luke Cage is going to be made.... I'm consistent people!

[lemonfreshviper22]

Glad I'm not alone in enjoying Revenge of the Sinister Six, Slipstream! Since half of the Marvel Universe seems to have guest starred in it by the last issue it'd be a great way to get characters like Sleepwalker, Ghost Rider, Solo and even the way obscure originally-intended-to-set-up-an-X-Factor-storyline Cyborg X!

If he ever makes it out, than DST deserves a medal in supreme obscurity. I think we'd see just about every other character suggested on this board before they'd make him. We can dream, right?

Jatta Pake, I'm going to raise you Songbird in the support just for fun. We're a ways from it yet but I'll say Annihilus for the villains side too.

Personally, if I get at least one character I'm passionate about, I will consider this a wild, runaway success. I'm not crazy about Team X Wolverine, as the X-comics of that period did more to turn me away from the property as a kid than anything else. But, if he makes it through someone's going to be happy and I won't begrudge them that, especially if he has some cool gear that I use for other characters. Cap-Wolf is a story so ridiculously awful and dumb I can't even appreciate it from the standpoint of ironic 90's excess but you can't deny that it's unique even if it's something I'd like to pretend never happened. None of these were picked at random to offend people and I remain positive that there'll be plenty of Thor and Deadpool minimates to come in the future since the former has a movie presence and the latter is a mainstay of merchandising.

That being said, while I want the Wrecking Crew I'd be paranoid the others would take their time coming out if we got the Wrecker first. Same for the Warriors Three in that I think they're very likely possibilities in the future but I don't know how splitting them up would affect things. That being said, I'd be thrilled if any of these characters from the poll listing Battlecat posted made it in as an option.

As an aside on what qualifies for A-list, I'd say if you've starred in a movie you're there. Deadpool has gotten about as popular as he could ever be but I think Marvel's cooled off with putting him everywhere (like they did a few years ago) until anything actually happens with the movie they've wanted to make. Until then, he'll be the guy who gets made in every toyline not directly aimed at kids because he's got fans who make many casual purchases. I'm still surprised the Deadpool Corps set didn't light the world on fire but maybe it's because people didn't really like the actual story very much?

Also, if Winter Soldier's in the poll, don't forget to give him an interchangeable arm Zach! You're guaranteed to get at least double purchases from most of us here that way

I'm having great fun with this, letting friends know to go vote and generally just enjoying the speculating. I hope this is a big enough success for DST to consider a second round for wave 75!

Edited May 25, 2012 by lemonfreshviper22

[Jatta Pake]

Zach - Can I make a serious suggestion for the army builder pack? As I tend to buy multiple packs of army builders, can we have whoever gets packed with it come with some alternate costume options? Giant Man / Ant Man was brilliant as I put together four distinct versions of Pym and have 4 Kree Sentries.

[sha_ckwave]

My choices are at #2 and #3... so I'm happy enough with that. Seems like Blue GR is inevitable though. Why do I feel like despite the polls, Cyborg Spidey is also inevitable?

[DSTZach]

Zach - Can I make a serious suggestion for the army builder pack? As I tend to buy multiple packs of army builders, can we have whoever gets packed with it come with some alternate costume options? Giant Man / Ant Man was brilliant as I put together four distinct versions of Pym and have 4 Kree Sentries.

Great idea. I'll put that bug in people's ears. Not sure 47 or 48 will be like that, but I think the parts alone will make them worthwhile.

[Mirymate]

Glad I'm not alone in enjoying Revenge of the Sinister Six, Slipstream! Since half of the Marvel Universe seems to have guest starred in it by the last issue it'd be a great way to get characters like Sleepwalker, Ghost Rider, Solo and even the way obscure originally-intended-to-set-up-an-X-Factor-storyline Cyborg X!

If he ever makes it out, than DST deserves a medal in supreme obscurity. I think we'd see just about every other character suggested on this board before they'd make him. We can dream, right?

Oh, you mean Larson's Super-Patriot 1.0? Yeeeeah, good times.

Cap-Wolf... well it should be a textbook example of a writer staying on a title too long, an being pushed too hard. Poor Gru, he wrote some of my favorite Cap stories. But he himself admitted he wanted to stay on Cap until he exhausted all his initial ideas for stories when he was first handed the title because he was curious to see where he could go next and what else would occur to him. Combine that with the pressure his buddy Defalco put on him each summer to double his per month output for 4 months and you get the "fun" that is Cap-Wolf. And it rolled straight into the Infinity War after that. Ah the 90's. Decompressed story telling, regularly scheduled events, company wide crossovers... not too unlike today sadly.

[DSTZach]

That said, ANY Ultimate looks, even Wade, are absolutely fine by me.

Zach, if you can manage to get the rest of the original Ultimates (Clint, Tasha, Wanda, Pietro, Hank, and Jan) it would be absolutely AMAZING. Begging here.

Is the Ultimate Universe even relevant at this point? I loved Ultimates 2, but it doesn't appear to be setting the world on fire anymore.

[undeadpool]

That said, ANY Ultimate looks, even Wade, are absolutely fine by me.

Zach, if you can manage to get the rest of the original Ultimates (Clint, Tasha, Wanda, Pietro, Hank, and Jan) it would be absolutely AMAZING. Begging here.

Is the Ultimate Universe even relevant at this point? I loved Ultimates 2, but it doesn't appear to be setting the world on fire anymore.

all 3 of the new Ultimate titles has been amazing so far, Hickman has brought back the great side of the Ultimates, Bendis has given the world a new Spiderman that rivals Jaime taking Teds place. And the X-men title does a great job at really starting new after the whole ultimatum mess.

also there is a big event coming up in Ultimate thats the climax of stuff thats been building up, so that could be big

[Twisted Two-Face]

That said, ANY Ultimate looks, even Wade, are absolutely fine by me.

Zach, if you can manage to get the rest of the original Ultimates (Clint, Tasha, Wanda, Pietro, Hank, and Jan) it would be absolutely AMAZING. Begging here.

Is the Ultimate Universe even relevant at this point? I loved Ultimates 2, but it doesn't appear to be setting the world on fire anymore.

Ultimates is still my favorite book, consistently. And modern Ult. Hawkeye is my favorite incarnation of the character by far.

Popularity has slipped, but would finishing the team be that bad? A mean, a box set of heavy hitters in fairly relevant costumes would surely sell regardless, no? (Especially considering that the movie drew reference from the Ultimates for Fury, Widow, and Hawkeye) And you are releasing two Ultimate characters this year (Miles and Cap), as well as released Ultimate Spider-woman.

Regarding the books, 616 Spider-man is crossing over with Miles, and the Ultimates have another self-contained "big event" coming up. So i'd say they're quite relevant.

Edited May 26, 2012 by Twisted Two-Face

[battlecat]

Yeah, I like Hickman's Ultimates run even more than the original series. I hope he gets Avengers after Bendis leaves the book.

[hellpop]

I'm afraid Zach's probably right... the books might be good (I honestly don't know, I haven't read them) but the Ultimate Universe is basically dead. The books sell at a small fraction of what they used to do, and even Ultimate Spider-Man cooled back off once the novelty of Donald Glover Miles Morales wore off. Jeph Loeb's Ultimatum series might be the most poorly-considered "event" book ever, as it basically served as a huge jumping-off point for much of the readership.

I have a theory that Marvel is only able to really make their readership care about one area of their "universe" at a time... for years, it was the X-Men; then the Ultimate Universe became the trendy new thing, but then all those creators that made the Ultimate books seem so fresh and important moved to the core Marvel Universe books, and the Ultimate books never recovered. You might see a sales spike from the Spidey crossover, but at this point that's about the last trick arrow in the Ultimate quiver.

[lemonfreshviper22]

Oh, you mean Larson's Super-Patriot 1.0? Yeeeeah, good times.

Cap-Wolf... well it should be a textbook example of a writer staying on a title too long, an being pushed too hard. Poor Gru, he wrote some of my favorite Cap stories. But he himself admitted he wanted to stay on Cap until he exhausted all his initial ideas for stories when he was first handed the title because he was curious to see where he could go next and what else would occur to him. Combine that with the pressure his buddy Defalco put on him each summer to double his per month output for 4 months and you get the "fun" that is Cap-Wolf. And it rolled straight into the Infinity War after that. Ah the 90's. Decompressed story telling, regularly scheduled events, company wide crossovers... not too unlike today sadly.

For sure! I don't know why Larsen likes cyborgs so much but they're fine by me.

I'm a big fan of Gru and of his run on Cap but man oh man... Cap-Wolf is something else. Part of why I dislike that story is I know Gru was capable of much better (even if he did write that crazy story with Superia where Paladin and Cap were almost "feminized" One of my first Cap comics ever was Captain America #397 with Blackwing and Jack 'O Lantern hunting Cap underneath Skull House which was my first introduction to how the Scourge showed up across multiple titles! Having the Bloodstone Hunt in TPB really made me think there was no way the same guy could have written Cap-Wolf but this was long before I knew anything about the Gru's overall work at Marvel. Those Summertime bi-weekly six parters were fun but uneven, to be sure.

The 90's are way in from a comic standpoint! I never thought there'd be nostalgia for some stuff around that era but things surprise me all the time what with stuff like X-Cutioner's Song getting an omnibus release...

[hellpop]

I have a fond place in my heart for Gru's Cap as well. Cap-Wolf was pretty out there, but I still enjoyed it. It wasn't until Fighting Chance (his unfortunate swan song) that I really gave up on him. Fortunately, Waid and Garney turned things around real quick, just in time for... this!

[Twisted Two-Face]

Liefeld says that anyone who hates his art is a hipster and needs to stop wearing tight pants.

Apparently i need to go buy some thick glasses, tight pants, and listen to old vinyls, because that is without a doubt my favorite worst piece of artwork of all time. Every time i see his awful Cap, my eyes bleed, vomit, and crap at the same time. It's a gruesome experience.

[Nessex]

Someone was circulating a pic of what that cap would like like naked a while back. it was . . . unsettling.

I can't believe how bad his work often is. . . and yet - i just last year read the first 20 issues of X-Force and loved it. Maybe nostalgia was playing tricks on my mind?

Still - i like ensemble casts with bright colours. All those 90's teams hold a lot of joy for me, even though there were some truly dubious characters created and stories told.

[Mnemosis]

So let's take a stab at the Support Team:

* Quasar

* Guido

Primary Targets (Villains):

* Zemo

* Toad

Army Builders:

* Phalanx

* Female Shield Agent

Jatta, based off of your list and assuming we still vote for 2 each time, these are who I'd pick.

Quasar offers up the variant possibilities of Wendell Vaughn/modern

Guido could be packed both in his current look and X-Factor uniform

and of course Zemo has a number of options, but Helmut/Heinrich seems the best way to go

THAT said, my perfect breakdown would be:

Team X Wolverine

Team X Sabertooth

Blue Danny

Son of Satan

Team X Maverick

Purifier

Maverick

Purifier

[DSTZach]

Ultimates is still my favorite book, consistently. And modern Ult. Hawkeye is my favorite incarnation of the character by far.

Popularity has slipped, but would finishing the team be that bad? A mean, a box set of heavy hitters in fairly relevant costumes would surely sell regardless, no? (Especially considering that the movie drew reference from the Ultimates for Fury, Widow, and Hawkeye) And you are releasing two Ultimate characters this year (Miles and Cap), as well as released Ultimate Spider-woman.

Regarding the books, 616 Spider-man is crossing over with Miles, and the Ultimates have another self-contained "big event" coming up. So i'd say they're quite relevant.

Obviously, finishing the team would be great, but if we're trying to get Ultimate Hawkeye, Giant-Man, Wasp, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch made, it's gonna be tough. Maybe we could sprinkle a few into TRU waves here and there, but beyond those first two it's a tough sell. Although I'd take an ultimate Valkiyrie.) At least we have Miles Morales in the works...

[Mnemosis]

Oh, and, if I'm guessing at the 3 remaining sets of 8? Each set offers up a counterpoint to one of the a-listers, and I tried to spread out which "franchise" doubled up in each case. Asterisks next to who I'd be pulling for, though in some of these cases, it'd be a difficult choice for me.

Support Team:

Winter Soldier* (with two hair pieces and two cybernetic arms)

Falcon

Maverick* (again, as the variant, with both Team X and 90s era looks)

Son of Satan

Doc Samson

FF She-Hulk

Cyborg War Machine

Deathlok

Primary Targets:

Baron Zemo

Team X Sabertooth* (head gear/unmasked head with pony tail and business suit)

Mojo

Blackheart

Abomination

Dragon Man

Grey Gargoyle

Carnage

Troop Builders:

Mandroid

Purifier*

The Angels from Heavens on Fire

Hulk Dog

Moloids

HAMMER Agent

Spider Slayers

Mr. Negative's Inner Demons

Deathlok, Doc Samson (especially if offered with a bulked up suited body and pony-tailed hair), Mojo, and Carnage would ALL be hard to pass up, though.

[Mirymate]

I have a theory that Marvel is only able to really make their readership care about one area of their "universe" at a time...

I remember getting into a heated argument with someone at my LCS when the Ultimate universe was first starting. He called it the future of comics. I said at best it's the new 2099: it'll start strong, spawn spin offs, but will get worse when the original creators start leaving and by the end be unreadable. I was only partly wrong; I didn't think it would get a second wind after Loeb tried so very hard to kill it. Not sure it will be enough to save it, but we'll see. Not saying I hated Ultimate comics from the start, just that by then I'd been a collector long enough to have seen Marvel try the alternate universe lines before and knew the likely outcome.

Of course, he wasn't wrong either, as DC and the New 52 proves. Of course hints are dropping that the clock may be ticking on that universe too.

[battlecat]

The Ultimate line is a bit different than anything previous, only because it wasn't supposed to be an alternate universe when it was created, though it's basically turned into one at this point. It was just supposed to be a way to make Marvel comics accessible to newcomers by taking out all the continuity. Of course there's a pretty big design flaw in that concept, since after a few years there's just a bunch of different continuity keeping the supposed masses of new readers away.

It's also been wildly successful compared to 2099, which limped along for what, four years? Five if you count that single book it eventually turned into? On the other hand the Ultimate line's success and longevity is basically due to only two titles, and Marvel have made two attempts now to boost its status with the stupid alt-universe stunt of blowing everything up and the regular comic stunt of renaming/renumbering, neither of which have really worked on other struggling lines (and the latter giving us insane book titles like Ultimate Comics Ultimates). Plus, as mentioned, jumping-on points are seen more as a good place to jump off these days.

I don't know how relevant it is anymore, but the books are currently better than many 616 titles and I'm happy we're getting a Miles mate. I figure we'll probably see at least Hawkeye at some point too.

[Mystery Man]

Of course, he wasn't wrong either, as DC and the New 52 proves. Of course hints are dropping that the clock may be ticking on that universe too.

Clock is ticking on the DCnU? As I tried it and loathe it, tell me more.

[undeadpool]

Of course, he wasn't wrong either, as DC and the New 52 proves. Of course hints are dropping that the clock may be ticking on that universe too.

Clock is ticking on the DCnU? As I tried it and loathe it, tell me more.

thats too bad, gotta say i was against it, but JLA, JLI, Batman, Batman inc, Action Comics, Earth 2, Animal Man and others have been great GREAT titles