If you were to create a Lair Legion using established fictional characters , who would you pick and why? Try to come up with seven protagonists who could fit the general niche of the Parodyverse's mightiest, yet also weirdest, heroes.

I'll post mine after I run my errands.


And here we go. Lining up the new Lair Legion:





Who: Metamorpho. Formerly Rex Mason, an adventurer/archaeologist changed by a mystic artifact into a being with vast transmutative powers.
Where's he from: DC Comics (created by Bob Haney)
Why he'd fit: If there is any "real" superhero who could be transplanted whole cloth into the Parodyverse, its him. Weird look, cool powers, William Bendix (dating myself here)-like personality, and a fun supporting cast.




Who: Doctor Byron Orpheus, necromancer.
Where's he from: The Venture Brothers (created by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer)
Why'd he fit: He's an overly melodramatic sorcerer entrusted to protect our world from Horrors Beyond in addition to being a single parent. Already a parody.




Who: Atomic Robo, an adventurer/scientist built nearly a century ago by Nicolas Tesla
Where he's from: The comic book you should be reading (created by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener)
Why he'd fit: He's a super-strong, super tough, super smart robot with a wry sense of humor. Runs his own think tank.




Who: Wonderella. Imagine Elaine from Seinfeld as a superhero
Where's she from: "The Non Adventures of Wonderella" web comic by Justin Pierce.
Why she'd fit: She's got the standard Superman type power set with an incredibly snarky attitude. Once made Batman cry.





Who: Ultimate Warrior
Where's he from: Parts Unknown (actually the World Wrestling Federation)
Why he'd fit: He's a battle crazy quasi-mystical bad ass who gave some of the most bizarre promos in wrestling history.





Who: LOLBat (pictured here with his sidekick Retweet).
Where's he from: Scott Kurtz's "PvP" webcomic
Why he'd fit: By day he's a staid and sober hypercompetent butler named "Butler". By night he fights crime while spouting various internet memes. Plus, Retweet!





Who: The Snow Queen, the personification of Winter
Where's she from: Trudy Cooper's NOT SAFE FOR WORK SO BE CAREFUL GOOGLING IT webcomic "The Adventures of Oglaf"
Why'd she fit: The Legion has a history of characters who are a blend of innocent ingenue and sexpot, which the Snow Queen is.

I have my list in-progress and I had mentioned Dr. Orpheus as my first choice for the magic-user role on the team, but decided to pass on him because I was sure he'd make some other people's lists. He is my favorite character from the Venture Bros, however, and a perfect fit for the Parodyverse.

I've never read anything with Metamorpho in it. Well, I suppose he might have been somewhere in that JLA/Avengers crossover since most every character was, but you know what I mean. Visually alone, though, he'd be a great fit.

I like the look and description of Atomic Robo. I may have to check that out sometime.

I'll have to look up the Non Adventures of Wonderella as well. I do love free webcomics.

Speaking of which, I was already familiar with the Snow Queen, and can see how she'd work with the PV. I'm quite fond of the former apprentice and his Lizard of Guilt from Oglaf as well.

I've read PvP in snippets but never get into it as much as I should.

While we're on the subject, one web comic I just started reading recently that fits well with the board is Atomic Laundromat, about the staff running a Super Hero/Villain laundry service.


Fun and clever choices!

Orpheus is my favorite character from the show as well, and a natural fit for the PVB.




I think a fun movie could be made with the character honestly. The only thing he suffers from is a lack of a good villain (besides his girlfriend's father and his neanderthal flunky).




I really can't stress enough how much I love the series. There are five trades collecting the series they've done so far and the second issue for the sixth just came out. If you're interested you can take a peek at some of the stories here: http://www.atomic-robo.com/free-comics/ .




They seem to be the wave of the future, though I know there are printed collections of Wonderella as well.




See, this was the one strip I assumed no one would have heard of. Very funny and surprisingly well drawn.




PvP alternates for me being laugh out loud hysterical and dull as dishwater. But I love the LOLBat stuff. He's like a 21st century version of the Tick.




I'll have to check that out.

#1) Team's Average Guy turned Hero: Bill Murray's Peter Venkman from "Ghostbusters". The tone of 80's Bill Murray films (Comedic action/adventure with absurd undertones) was pretty much my guide for all of my early PV stories. Especially influential were "Ghostbusters" and "Stripes". I was reluctant to put such a huge, mainstream-loved character on my list, but in the end skipping him would have seemed somehow dishonest. Besides, I think all Parodyverse heroes need to have this reaction to insane plans:




#2) Team's Scientist: Agatha Heterodyne from the webcomic "Girl Genius". Many know that Phil Foglio was a big artistic influence on me, and that I'm a fan of most things he's done. The storyline for the comic might get bogged down from time to time (it keeps returning to characters that I barely can remember as if it wasn't years ago that they last appeared), but I do love the general "world overrun by mad geniuses" concept. I could almost go with the Team Fortress Medic instead (from the video posted in reply to Jason in the nonsense thread), but Agatha's better looking. Bonus points if I can slip in a Jägermonster to assist her.





#3) Team's Bruiser: The Tick is probably too obvious for the Parodyverse. I mean, he's clearly the right choice, but still. I'm going throw a Disney character in here and go with Stitch from "Lilo and Stitch". He's a genetically engineered, unstoppable weapon of mass destruction. Kind of like a little, furry alien Wolverine. Well, littler and furrier. I admit, I like characters that look cute but are bad-ass. And I'm going with the movie version, especially as seen in the opening of the film, before he went all soft:





#4) Team's Pain-in-the-ass: Ash, from "Evil Dead" and "Army of Darkness". The chainsaw wielding demon slayer is the archtype for characters who are all bravado and little brains yet somehow get the job done. Think Trickshot with less actual talent.



Runner up: Spike the Vampire from "Angel" and "Buffy". I love characters that exist within a team to push buttons and make sarcastic comments.


#5) Team's Crazy: Harley Quinn. No surprise here, as she's always been a favorite of mine to the point where I wasn't about to pass up the chance to use Parodyverse knock-off Mary Prankstar.

Not the best quality, but some good Harley moments:




#6) Team's Magic-User: Twilight Sparkle. See my response to Shrike for why Dr. Orpheus didn't get this role (which he'd totally own), but I also figured that people would be expecting me to put at least one pony on my team, so I slotted one in here. Why disappoint?

Besides, as I admitted before, I do like the character, and she does seem to meld well with a "G" rated Parodyverse. Generally the straight-man (pony), she's an introverted, bookish magic student forced to make friends in order to save the world. She's not one to give up, which is an admirable quality when she's leading others to overcome obstacles but more of a problem when it dovetails with her swings towards moderate to severe O.C.D. Then it can lead to manic breakdowns. I like characters with traits that can be both flaws and strengths depending on the situation.

Plus she can recover from anvils and pianos to the head, which would likely come in handy in the L.L. Anyway, she's the purple one in the music video below.





#7) Team's A.I.: Man, this was a tough call. Here's the thing... Hands down, "Portal I & II's" GLaDOS is one of my all-time favorite fictional characters. She's just awesome. It's just... well, she's also a wee-bit murderous, and that could cause problems on the team.

So I'm going to go with "Portal II's" Wheatley instead. Sure, he was designed to be a moron in the hopes that attaching him to GLaDOS would make her slightly less effective at pumping the Aperture Science Enrichment Center full of deadly neurotoxin, but he does at least try to help. Well, up until he goes a wee bit murderous too.

Note: the video's long, but you can get a good idea of him from just about any point within it.





Oh, and a couple of honorable mentions:

I would have loved to have worked Death from "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey" into the mix. For whatever reason, that take on the Reaper just always seemed perfect to me.

From a more classic, off-the-wall pick, I considered the Pirate King from Gilbert And Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance". I always loved that character (Kevin Kline did a great job portraying him on stage and screen), and think those light operas are still pretty damn funny to this day. Of course, he'd have to be a Ghost Pirate by now to still be around, which I think is just extra bonus points for his consideration.

I seem to like a lot of supernatural/crazy characters, don't I? Huh.


Anyway, what I did manage to put together is one freakishly messed-up team. That doesn't work at all. Or, at least, I wouldn't want to be the one to have to meld all of those characters into something that seemed to naturally go together.

But then, really, should the mix of characters in the existing Parodyverse work? We mix sweet, cartoonish characters with dark, brooding vigilantes and everything in-between. So, I don't know... maybe that hodge-podge above is decently accurate.

Visonary - stop posting videos and draw us team versions of our choices!

Here're mine:


Who: Jessica Rabbit
Where's she from: Umm …*blinks*… sorry what? *blinks*
Why'd she fit: She’s a sexpot parody all rolled up into delicious …*blinks* … sorry what?
Note – even though I’ve gone for a realistic pic here she’d be her cartoon-ish self of course.


Who: Tank Girl
Where’s she from: A post apocalyptic future in her eponymous comic.
Why’d she fit: She’s not afraid to cuss, she drives a tank, and she shoots big guns – duh! Perfect spoil for Jessica Rabbit’s smoothness. She also has an anthropomorphic kangaroo for a boyfriend.


Who: He-Man
Where’s he from: Eternia, and the Castle Grayskull.
Why’d he fit: He’s your Slim Summers, your Hatman, your hero with a conscience. Perfect balance and foil to the rest of the mob I’m gathering. (plus he has a pet cat who talks and a nerdy alter-ego). Hilarity ensures.


Who: Monkey Magic
Where’s he from: Monkey the dubbed English language version of the Japanese television series Saiyūki, based on the classic sixteenth century Chinese novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en.
Why’d he fit: He’s funny, he flies on a cloud, pulls a magic staff from behind his ear, isn’t afraid to call the villains pooftas, is a kick-ass fighter, and gets drunk every now and then. He brings the mythological gods into play.


Who: Thorin Oakenshield – team leader.
Where’s he from: He’s the Dwarven leader of a rabble of Dwarves, one Grey Wizard, and one Hobbit burglar in JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
Why’d he fit: He’s a curmudgeonly Dwarf with an axe! Who else is going to be able to lead this mob?


Who: Aladdin
Where’s he from: Back to his roots in the original source where he’s a young Chinese (not Arabic) ingénue. Please put the Disney version out of your mind.
Why’d he fit: Innocence…and the ability to call forth a magical Genii to do his wishes. What more do you want? We’d have to alter the wish count somewhat – how about three every 24 hours.


Who: Jason
Where’s he from: Battle of the Planets the American animated television adaptation of the Japanese anime series Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (what a shame they didn’t keep that name!)
Why’d he fit: He’s headstrong, the Iron-Man to your Cap, the Wolverine to Cyclops. He also drives a kick-ass car. He sneaks out at night and probably smokes. Secretly, you admire him more than you do the goody-goody Scott. We’d have to alter him somewhat to fit this team – let’s call forth from Japanese anime and have his car transform into a kick-ass mecha-warrior suit as well. Cool!


Who: Serendipity the Sea Monster
Where’s she from: The first book in Stephen Cosgrove's Serendipity series.
Why’d she fit: She’s pink! She’s a Sea Monster! And She has important work to do! Awww!
She’s the moral backbone for the team (lord knows they’ll need one).

She also eats My Little Ponies for snacks…just sayin’.

Really. The voices in my head agree 100%

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I particularly like the inclusion of Ash.

I didn't realise you were such a Phil Foglio fan - though I can see now influence on your early artworks. I know him from Phil n Dixie comic from my brother's Roleplaying magazines.

I hadn't heard of Agatha Heterodyne before but I'm glad I now have!

I'm also glad to see the pony pouring itself a drink. On that team - she'd probably need it!

It has most, if not all, the required ingredients, and you've convinced me to seek out more on Atomic Robo.

Well parodied!

Enjoy

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I am a bit disturbed by the fact that the ideal singles bar for the Lair Legion ladies would be a petting zoo. And that Aladdin was originally a crossdresser.


Excellent choices.

A great line up. Given your preferences, I thought someone from "Girl Genius" and MLP would have made your roster. Totally forgot about Harley though.

Between He-man and the genie you have more male skin on display than a Chippendale's review. Somebody needs to wish those guys up some proper pants and have 'em put on a shirt. And the loincloths have to be awkward for someone with the eye level of that dwarf.

I always liked the Gatchaman costume designs, and seriously... who wouldn't want to be known as a science ninja? Truly, the cartoon execs of our childhood made the worst decisions imaginable.

Tank Girl I mostly know from the movie, but I don't hold that against her.

I do like drunk and/or monkey kung fu masters, so even though I've never seen that show I'm already down with that choice.

That dwarf looks like he's on a seriously bad trip. Not good news when he's got an axe.

Jessica Rabbit is a really interesting idea... I do like the idea of a character being able to utilize Toon-town physics and gags in fighting.

And of course Serendipity snacks on My Little Ponies... those things look like they're made out of marshmallows. Fruit flavored marshmallows, no less.

The pony wasn't my first choice (Orpheus and the Tick actually make a much more cohesive seeming team to me, for some odd reason), but once I added her I figured I needed another cartoon character and paged through some Disney options before landing on Stitch. He starts out pretty close to Squibb in terms of being something of a disgusting menace, so I knew that was something I could work with.

...because the cast of Adam Warren's "Empowered" would make a great Lair Legion. I'll have to see if I can find a link later.

Empowered, Ninjette, Caged Demonwolf, Thugboy, Maidman, Sista Spooky, Mindf--k, etc...

I have to laugh at my reasoning now... as if that team needed an instigator to rile things up. Honestly, what it needs is to switch out Venkman for someone more like Hatty... a sincere, straight-forward heroic type who isn't a pony.





Did you never see this sketch? I guess, considering the inclusion of Cheryl, it's pretty damn old...







You have days of free reading ahead of you if you're interested. The entire series of Girl Genius is free online, last I saw, and makes up a lot of collected volumes at this point... Over 10? Three new pages a week adds up, and they've been at that comic since the early days of the Parodyverse (back then it was a regularly published comic book before moving online exclusively with printed collected editions.)




Looking at the group again this morning I realized that every single one of them except Venkman was specifically depicted as going insane at some point.
--Harley spends most of her time in Arkham
--Ash broke into hysterical laughter in Evil Dead 2
--Twilight had a complete mental breakdown when she couldn't complete an assignment.
--Wheatley went power mad when he was plugged into GLaDOS's mainframe.
--Agatha is a literal "Mad Scientist", where the madness grows more pronounced as she's inventing.
--Stitch might not count, but is the monster of a mad scientist himself.

It's a team that will need a lot of medication.

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Finn The Human
From: the cartoon Adventure Time
Why? If he can handle the Land of Ooo, he can handle the Parodyverse. Plus, he's got a giant sword!
(Jake the Dog, Finn's best friend, would be an associate member of the team).

Agent P
From: the cartoon Phineas & Ferb
Why? He's a fedora wearing platypus who is super spy & knows kung fu. What more do you want?

Wolverine
From: Marvel Comics.
Why? Because it's law that every super hero team must have as a member at least once.

When I think up the rest of the team I post it.