ComicsHistory Poll: What Marvel Teams Should Get the Movie Treatment Next?

ComicsHistory: What Marvel Teams Should Get the Movie Treatment
Next?

Marvel Comics is all about teams. Marvel Studios is all about
teams also. You know, teams like the Fantastic
Four, the X-Men,
the Avengers, the Defenders, the Champions, the
Thunderbolts…wait a minute…those last three teams are not
Marvel movies (yet). How did they get on this list?

Marvel (and new parent Disney), are trolling through the archives
searching for that next big hit. Ghost Rider (a member of the
Champions), has a movie coming out in February, 2012, followed by
another
Spider-Man (Avengers, New Avengers), and, in 2013, another Iron
Man (Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D., Force Works) flick. While the Fantastic
Four, X-Men, and Avengers are by far the most popular and best known
Marvel superhero teams, which other teams deserve to head to the
silver screen?

Below are summaries of several Marvel superhero teams brief
descriptions with a listing of their best known members, followed by
a poll where you can vote on which Marvel Superhero Teams deserve to
be made into Marvel Movies next.

Alpha Flight-Canada's best known (only?) real super-team,
featuring Sasquatch, Northstar, Snowbird, Guardian, and Puck.
Wolverine has a history with this team, and would make a logical
guest star/ lead character appearance. Northstar is best known, by
the way, as one of the first openly gay superheroes in Marvel
Comics.

Champions-The Champions were made up of former members of
other teams. Hercules and Black Widow from the Avengers, Angel and
Iceman from the X-Men, and the Ghost Rider, (from Hell).

Defenders-Marvel put this team together as "non-team" of
"outsiders," who do not normally play well with others. The Defenders
originally consisted of the Hulk, Dr. Strange, and Namor, the
Sub-Mariner. The Silver Surfer later joined the Defenders. The
Defenders often battled mystic and supernatural threats. Valkyrie,
Nighthawk, and Hellcat are other notable members who later associated
with the Defenders. Some of the best moments in Defenders comics came
with the continual bickering and battling between Hulk and Namor.

Heroes for Hire-Founded by Luke Cage (Power Man), and
Daniel Rand (Iron Fist), Heroes for Hire was a bit different for a
super-group in that they offered a full line of professional
investigation and protection services for paying customers. As
heroes, of course, they also did a lot of pro bono (free) work.

The Howling Commandoes-Having the Commandoes on this list
is a little bit of a cheat, since they already appeared as a group in
the recent Captain America: First Avenger movie. These World War Two
soldiers were led by Captain America in the movie, but in reality
(i.e. the comics), they were led by Sgt. Nick Fury, who, for several
good movie continuity reasons, could not have commanded this group in
the recent movie.

Invaders-Speaking of World War Two, the Invaders were a
group of super-heroes ret-conned into existence in the 1960s by
Marvel, based on a "real" 1940s superhero team called the All-Winners
Squad. Both teams featured Captain
America, the original Human Torch, and Namor, the Sub-Mariner,
along with the sidekicks Bucky and Toro. A film featuring this group
could be a good avenue to introduce Subby and begin the whole
"android Human Torch becomes the Vision, who is the 'brother' of
Wonder Man and Grim Reaper and marries Magneto's daughter plot line."
Or not…

Runaways-Great concept: A bunch of teen-agers discover
their boring old parents are really super-villains, run away from
home, and discover the wonders and perils of being nascent
superheroes while on the lam. Oh, and they can't get any respect from
the adult heroes like Captain America and
Iron Man.

Thunderbolts-One of the best story ideas of the 1990s, in
my humble opinion: While most of the world's real heroes are missing
(long story), a new super-group, calling themselves the Thunderbolts,
fortuitously appears to save innocent people from the big, bad
super-villains who are now preying on them. The surprise ending to
the first comic (or the first scene in the movie), shows the new
"heroes" as some of the vilest and most troublesome villains in
Marvel history, including Baron Zemo, Moonstone, Power Man (NOT
the Luke Cage Power Man), the Beetle, Screaming Mimi, and the
Fixer. In reality, the Thunderbolts were the latest iteration of
Zemo's Masters of Evil, the arch super-villain who regularly made
life difficult for the Avengers.

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to use the
poll below to choose the best choice for Marvel's next superhero team
movie (after the Avengers, that is...)

'Nuff Said True Believers!