Board 8 > Scarlet Ranks User-Created Superhero Teams II: Top Ten

(+) Yeah! (+)

The Justice League. The Avengers. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Planetary.

The remaining ten teams on this list are not these groups.

I'm looking forward to closing out the remainder of this project, starting tomorrow. There's some good stuff to come, so I hope those of you who have been following from the outset will still be here at wrap.
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Tracking, and hyped.
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Hypedown
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I'm a number 1 (jinx)
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Taggo.
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Tag.
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Excited for this top 10!
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Tag
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#10 - The Geriatricks Created by: Eddv

Kingdom Come Superman
Jay Garrick
Alan Scott
Old Man Logan
Old Man Hawkeye
Charles Xavier

It's great to see a Welcome to Tranquility reboot on the books here in this ranking, and I'm all for giving the olds a chance to shine whenever possible. If you know me, you know that I'm a big fan of the JSA, so a little nod to that group is excellent, and the intermixing of the Old Maniverse is also a welcome addition, giving a little bit of a harder edge to Alan's paternal and Jay's maternal instincts. This is neither a Justice League nor an Avengers, and it sure doesn't feel like an X-Men group. There's a certain amount of detached amusement that flavors the attitude of this team, and I think that would be the driving force here. Four of these team members come from realities where society has experienced the lowest of the lows. The other two have been forced into situations where very similar lows were narrowly averted - I think there would be a natural cohesion for this group, and if age does create wisdom, we'd have a group of measured, analytical minds trying to wrestle with how base to serve as a stopgap for the inevitable fall of western civilization.

I like Superman as a natural big gun in this group because i think the leadership would always fall to Jay and Alan. They have a natural rhythm and dialogue between the two is always sort of musical. They are the guys who finish each other's sentences without the other person even starting a sentence in the first place. With the Marvel teammates, you have great ground-based offense, and with Professor X in particular, you have a great juxtaposition between Superman and Xavier. Both men have had the ability or opportunity to single-handedly reshape the world, and yet Xavier's better angels shouted down his demons while Superman became convinced that a new breed of authoritarianism was the only option. Ultimately, there's something to really explore there.

Great stuff.
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Tag
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Tag
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#9 - Comic Planeteers Created by: Wickle

Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, some girl who seduces people, and their leader.

Tara Markov
Jim Hammond
Morris Bench
Maxine Hunkel
Amora

and by their powers combined, they make
"Captain" Mogo

Definitely the most hilarious concept that was pitched on this list, I thought it was creative, fun and something I would honestly pick up and read. It reminded me a lot of how The Terrifics repurposed the languishing Fantastic Four concept to great success, and that's a positive. Looking at this group, you could have gone with a ton of different options for each Planeteer stand-in, but beyond this being a simple thought exercise, it feels like you carefully considered which members you were choosing and were trying to visualize this group as an actual team. Jim Hammond is a particularly inspired choice, and I love seeing the use of a fantastic backbencher from Marvel history. The original Human Torch never gets a fair shake despite being one of the more interesting veterans in the company's storied past. At the same time, there are some great young characters who would make excellent choices. Maxine Hunkel was a HUGE fan favorite in the JSA and she dropped off the face of the Earth thanks to the New52 reboot, so I definitely approve of her. Terra is a character I generally dislike, but she functions well in this group, so I definitely approve of her inclusion. Hydro-Man is one of those villains who flips sides from time to time, and in a group where the end result is something that's sort outside the bounds of standard superheroic morality, I can see him working with this group. Furthermore, I LOVE the choice of Enchantress as the "heart" character here. It's a little subversive to the original concept and I like that sort of wicked sense of humor.

And then Mogo is the utterly brilliant cherry on top. If you aren't combining into an actual superhero, Mogo as the Planet is just laugh out loud funny. I would read the shit out of this book because it sort of hybridizes what I like about Nextwave, The Terrifics and, most importantly, good comics. The interplay in this group would be fantastic, the theme is easily recognizable but not goofy to the point of bad (like most Deadpool stories nowadays)... you just did a great job here.

If I was to give one tiny smidgen of criticism, I would just make mention that Terra's role would be better served by the placement of Geo-Force on the team. But that's really just a subjective choice on my part.

We're the planeteers. You can be one too. 'Cause summoning celestial bodies is the thing to do. Tide changes and seismic shifts are on the way - your world is in peril: Mogo's here to play!
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Comic Planeteers is one of my new faves on this list too. I can see it doing for Hydro-Man what Superior Foes did for Boomerang.
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#8 - (Crossed Out "Heroes") For Hire Created by: Mega Mana

Booster Gold
Deadpool
Sunspot
Black Cat
Captain Cold
U-Go Girl

I don't think you could come up with a better overhaul for the Heroes for Hire concept if you tried. Booster Gold is the utter definition of the selfish mercenary character, but it's just not in the traditional way you'd expect. If Booster is the team leader, this group will become a private security force at its absolute worst. And just imagine how much Deadpool will enjoy all of the NASCAR-style decals plastered across his costume! This team would be hilarious and at the same time excellent, cutting satire. I can easily visualize this concept allowing a writer to poke fun at the corporate world as well as the political world of modern America, and that covers a lot of ground. There are a few straight man for Booster to play off of, and I actually think Deadpool would end up in a supporting role that, for once, would play well into his character.

The real crowning achievement of this group is the natural chemistry between team members. Captain Cold is a perfect villain-turned-hero choice here, especially since everything will center around getting paid. Black Cat, too, makes a lot of sense here, and no one is too overpowered to make this group seem like they're slumming it by handling the problems of the 1%. Especially inspired is the choice of U-Go Girl, a FANTASTIC minor character who deserves more screentime. One thing that comic teams need are marquee players to sell a title and minor characters who can grow and develop and audience so eventually THEY can be marquee characters. U-Go Girl is exactly that kind of character.

I love the concept, I love the execution. It takes a keen eye to see an older property's value and tinker with it in such a way that it feels fresh and, quite frankly, better than the original.
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I have to admit I surprised even myself with how well the concept of "elder statesmen" came together to be far more than the sum of its parts.
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#7 - Big and small Created by: Pirate Harris

The biggest working with the smallest. Size doesn't matter with these guys.

Ant man
The atom
Galactus
Wasp
Darkseid

No joke - this team started in 3rd-to-last on my initial rankings. But the more I mulled over the concept, the more a really striking visual came to me. And what really put this team over the top for me was the fortunate memory of Darkseid as a baby from the last couple of years of DC continuity. Suddenly, Big and Small wasn't just a group based on stature, but it became a family. Ant-Man and Wasp, serving as the parents of the troupe, could anchor a Scott Snyder dive into the bizarre wonderland of a topsy-turvy DC multiverse. Imagine a family growing, accruing members from across time and space, each character fulfilling a different role. The Atom, Ray Palmer, from right around the time period of Zero Hour, would be perfectly suited after the de-aging storyline to be that rebellious teenager. Darkseid, reared from birth, would be party to an entirely different life that would only be colored by the readers' preconceived notions of what this individual could one day become. Sort of an Evan Sabah Nur situation. And Galactus could fit into this group in a few different ways. I sort of see Galactus as this the plot-centric character, the supporting character whose overarching agenda anchors the entire series. His detached bemusement at the growing nuclear family would eventually warm the cockles of his ancient heart and perhaps allow the family Ant to affect him.

In the meantime, this is the type of team that would dive deeply into how things work in a comics universe; I can just imagine discovering that even among the most intricate things in DC and Marvel, there are worlds of intricacy beyond those. And those types of microscopic threats would be exactly what I want to tackle. Combine that with the impending doom of Darkseid's growth and the foreboding stature of Galactus, and I think you really have something special here.
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Honestly, I came up more lucky than not when it came to the teamwork that my team would be capable of. I wanted to match the gender profile and a good balance between Marvel and DC. Hydro-Man I sat on the issue that I didn't know if he ever swapped sides, which I was scared of tanking my team if he just couldn't play well with heroes. I'm glad you liked that I subbed out "heart" with a play-on the power. I'm particularly glad that the only replacement would be Geo-Force over Terra to make this team better (for you particularly).

It would also fit the gender profile of the Planeteers better, as they have 3 males and 2 females.
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I don't think there's a better way to play "heart" in a superheroic context than that.
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You made a good pitch for this Big and Small team but me, I'm not feeling it as much. I think I just don't find most of the characters there very interesting.
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You could do a... What's the Lantern color for Love? That technically counts. Although it's a completely different concept.
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Snake5555555555 posted...

You made a good pitch for this Big and Small team but me, I'm not feeling it as much. I think I just don't find most of the characters there very interesting.

Yeah but did anyone find Starman interesting until Starman? A lot of these teams featuring characters I don't like, but they COULD be interesting given the pitches of said teams. We'll run into a couple more of those as we go.
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WickIebee posted...

You could do a... What's the Lantern color for Love? That technically counts. Although it's a completely different concept.

Star Sapphire.

They are predatory as fuck.
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Was Star Sapphire the only character to hold that ring? (alone, obviously discounting Rayner, since he had it only to become the White Lanturn)
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The corps with those rings is called the Star Sapphire Corps.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/greenlantern/images/6/60/Star_Sapphire_Corps.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090428193538
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7th place... not too shabby
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scarletspeed7 posted...

The corps with those rings is called the Star Sapphire Corps.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/greenlantern/images/6/60/Star_Sapphire_Corps.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090428193538

Oh, I got screwed up since obviously Carol used that name, so any one of those girls could probably have been heart in a more traditional sense, but traditional was boring.
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Pirate_Harris posted...

7th place... not too shabby

It came close to breaking Top 5, but I had to give the next two teams more credit on conceptualization.
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scarletspeed7 posted...

Pirate_Harris posted...

7th place... not too shabby

It came close to breaking Top 5, but I had to give the next two teams more credit on conceptualization.

It's cool... the other guys know what there doing and only you found some concept in my team which makes me happy...
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No write-ups today.
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#6 - The Chainsmokers Created by: Snake

A primarily Vertigo-centric (with a few guests) team featuring cynical smokers who battle the dark side of the DC Universe that is if they're not battling each first.

- Mr. Bones (leader)
- John Constantine
- Jesse Custer
- Bigby Wolf
- Spider Jerusalem
- Jonah Hex
- Tommy Monaghan

I'm reading comics of old,
Looking for teams to make,
Like ones with Booster Gold,
Hawkeye or even Quake.
Spider-Man's overused,
And Deadpool seems half-baked,
And clearly I don't see what makes those groups so great.
But Snake said, Try Vertigo,
It's often overlooked,
And it's characters from series
Often end up underbooked.
Not superheroes,
No fairy tale bliss,
Just some dudes who might smoke up,
Wear trenchcoats and look pissed.
I want some team just like this.

Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo,
Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo,
Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo,
Oh, I want some team just like this.
Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo,
Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo,
Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo,
Oh, I want some team just like this.

Now I'm reading Vertigo,
The Fables and Endless,
The Ennis tales told,
And the works of Ellis.
And it seems Mr. Bones
Could lead all these misfits,
But one member does not create a surefire hit.
Snake said, Let's talk membership
'Cause Scarlet you seemed vexed,
You're looking for someone gruff and tough,
A cowboy, Jonah Hex!
A suave Hellblazer,
With John you cannot miss.
Spider Jerusalem works,
His gun gives people the shits.
I want some team just like this.

Add Jesse Custer,
And a wolf named Bigby,
I think that they'd fit in well
And have some innate chemistry.
Add an anti-hero,
One most people dismiss.
Throw in Tommy Monaghan
To finish off our list.
Oh, I want some team just like this.
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Isn't Jonah hex a cowboy?
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He is.
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scarletspeed7 posted...

He is.

Take him out... and add the punisher
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The Punisher doesn't smoke.
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Snake5555555555 posted...

The Punisher doesn't smoke.

Doesn't he Though... I swore I saw him smoke...
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He doesn't smoke or do drugs of any kind because they would inhibit his crime-fighting ability.
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Hmm maybe I just thought he smoked because of his family's death... nevermind then
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More seriously, Punisher is my favorite character of all time but he would be a disastrous addition to this team. Tommy Monaghan is on the surface a Punisher-type, but go deeper and you'll find his personality fits way better into the roguish and rebellious nature of the rest of the team. Punisher therefore is redundant.

If you're looking for a character that maybe fits outside's the team main chemistry, Hex is it. He's a man out of time for one and I think he's a bit more no-nonsense then the rest of the team with less influence from magic and mysticism.
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Also he fought on the side that supported slavery, so you have that too.
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Hmmm what about hellboy?
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He's an excellent choice for another team that isn't this one.
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But really, no more write-ups today.
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Tomorrow... top 5.

Will there be more bad song parodies? You decide!
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scarletspeed7 posted...

Tomorrow... top 5.

Will there be more bad song parodies? You decide!

Hmmm yeah
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#5 - Heroes Out of Time Created by: Tangy

This team was randomly transported into a dystopian future ruled by dictators. Where technology is incredibly advanced and nature has ceased to exist and they must find a way back

Captain America
Aquaman
Namor the Sub Mariner
Swamp Thing
Ka-Zar the Savage

Conceptually, this is phenomenally executed. Tangy, you've put together a concept that makes sense and paired it with a team that is immediately readable. The natural chemistry between Aquaman and Namor is something a writer could really sink teeth into. Consider the adversarial nature of Namor with the world and couple that with the more diplomatic monarch role that Aquaman would play in his own Atlantis. Now drop them in a world without leadership - they may have similarities in personality, but the more measured behavior of Aquaman would not sit well with the martial Namor. Two kings of the same land in different worlds arguing over the fate of a third Atlantis. And, in the end, neither would necessarily be right for this world.

Meanwhile, you have Ka-Zar taming a new Savage Land of the future and Captain America fighting back against an uncivilized, "Unamerican" world. For the second time, he's been dropped into a future of which he had no hand in making. He has to once again readjust to a world that doesn't necessarily share any of his ideals. And with Swamp Thing serving as a Hestia for the group, the J'onny J'onnz, the heart and soul, you have a touchstone character to bring everyone back to earth when they being to spin out into tangents where they fight authoritarianism with authoritarianism. I actually look Swamp Thing and see that this is Kingdom Come with a course correction. If Superman had had J'onny in his corner, how different that world would be!

But Captain America is the touchstone here. A man out of time, examining the principals of American idealism in a society built on dictatorial fascism. Rogers could shine a light on modern divisive issues and explore aspects of the current political landscape that people find disturbing. It's such an excellent idea that I'm surprised that no one-

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/09/05/captain-america-3-defence-fascism/

Oh, right.
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Really happy this made the top 5.

Massive credit goes to my gf who taught me a lot about Aquaman and gave me the idea of conflicting kings.

This has been a great topic Scarlet, and I really look forward to seeing the next four teams
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Well let's not keep you waiting, then!

#4 - Black Sheep Created by: Eddv

A group of mildly anti-heroes and heroes who fell on hard times band together to solve mysteries and crimes that lurk in the shady morally gray portions of the world.

Red Hood (Jason Todd)
Bluebird (Harper Row)
Kid Flash (Black Wally West modern version)
SuperBoy (Kon, specifically 90s themed with the 'tude)
Frankenstein
OMAC

What is a Justice League? Simply put, a Justice League is a pantheon. A collection of the archetypes, the primal forces that pass judgment in each breath, in each motion, in every cell. In comics, these primal forces have evolved with society. We don't ask them to be authoritative, but we seek reasoned and measured gods, a modern hybrid of science and faith. And when we create these pantheons, each has a different flavor. The Justice League is truly the greatest team in comics because it traces its ancestry to the legends of Herodotus and Homer, transforming in each century until the modern Olympus that is the JLA stands before us. What Eddv presents on this team is a different wrinkle on that formula, a younger team, mired in darkness and yet still holding true to that which made the league great to begin with.

We start with Jason Todd, our Hades, our Batman. We trace his lineage to the underworld. From the mouth of a cave comes the sentinel of the underworld, a scourge to the souls of criminals as he passes his brand of brutal - and final - justice. But just as Hades is the bottom, Superboy sits atop a throne of clouds. Our Zeus, our Superman. Tinged with a personality more mercurial a prone to the moody swings of Jove himself, Kon-El is a Boy of Steel, a millennial king of the gods. And perhaps, as his consort, we see Bluebird. Our Wonder Woman of this team, a Hera. Quieter but just as swift to anger. A pivotal piece of any Justice League.

Kid Flash, of course, is our Hermes. With lightning speed and a mercenary smile, he plays the light-hearted trickster for the team. And in the bowels of the mountain, rooting out secrets only the gods should know, we have Frankenstein. Our Hephaestus, a misshapen creature lumbering with never-failing vigilance. His face distasteful to the gods, he still perseveres in his own goals, and the gods recognize his value and therefore he remains ever a part of their gathering. And finally - OMAC, the warbringer, a machine of violence, Ares. The soul inside the machine rages at his lot in life, and the machine violently carries out the programming of its long-forgotten maker Brother Eye.

This team could certainly be expanded if Ed wanted, but this is an excellent baseline. Perhaps Hawkgirl would serve as Athena. Simon Baz, our Apollo. Artemis Crock could be the Artemis to this team. And yet, even in these archetypal roles, they still appear to be our Hawk, our Green Lantern, our Green Arrow. And that's the beauty of a Justice League. The roles are natural. You sink into them so easily because we yearn for just this sort of super-team.
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The write-up definitely sold me on Heroes Out of Time. The members admittedly made me groan at first.
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Yeah this idea for me was to take the concept of a Dark Trinity and expand it into a Dark Justice League.

My vision for the team matches yours. My aim is to not have anyone already in an established relationship short of Jason/Harper/Kon who I definitely see as the core of the group.

I would aim for a more raw set of interpersonal relarionships as things settle into a pattern.

Over time I could see adding Simon Baz or Amethyst but what I didn't want was the unambiguously good supers crowding out Frank and OMAC early on.

I have done like 2 plot arcs for this team. DC Hire me.
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Let's set it up for the final two, shall we?

#3 - The Detective Agency Created by: JONA

Batman
John Constantine
Bigby Wolf
Rorschach
The Question (Vic Sage)
Elongated Man
Jessica Jones
Detective Chimp

I think prima facie evidence would dictate that, from a cursory glance, this team breaks a lot of the rules I set early in this ranking. Everyone reduplicates the role of detective. There's an overlap in skill sets. I should, clearly, dock some points for this.

But the strange thing about detective titles is that they hardly exist, and groups of them are even more rare. So I came at this title from a different perspective - what do each of these minds contribute to a team? In what way does each personality from another? And the interpersonal relationships just became fascinating to me. Batman is a hardliner against the bizarre, a skeptic in every sense. Yet he has to come to terms with the fact that some answers aren't simple in nature. There is a hole in the puzzle if you disregard the zebras and only accept the horses. Which is why the spectrum of John Constantine to Bigby to Batman is so interesting. John will accept all possibilities - hell, he'll spur on those possibilities to make even more bizarre improbabilities. Bigby may live in a world of magic, but he still believes that the simplest explanation is the most logical one. And Batman will deny, deny, deny until it's impossible to deny any further.

You have the Question and Rorschach, a relationship that is so delicious. After all, Dreams of Rorschach is one of the greatest Question stories ever told, and that just covers the Question reading Watchmen and rebuffing the personality of Rorschach. Put them in a room, and the sparks fly.

Jessica Jones can be presented, as on the show, like an embittered and hostile detective, reluctant to take cases. Pair her with the romantic (in the literary sense) Elongated Man and his windmill-tilting love of the unsolvable case, and there's something special there.

Detective Chimp and Constantine are classic drinking buddies. Jessica Jones dives into the metahuman world and holds supers accountable for themelves, much like Batman would. Bigby is a sheriff and lawmen who will disagree with Batman's vigilante tactics. Rorschach is brutal and vindictive - Elongated Man is forgiving and caring. Rorschach wants to wipe things and restart with clincal detachment. Constantine is the sort of morally repugnant character Roschach hates. But the Question would look at Constantine as an ally.

All of this barely starts to poke at the variety of cases we could take. Each self-contained mystery could lead to a web of conspiracies only Rorschach accepts wholeheartedly. The rest of the team disagrees with the leaps in logic and the tenuous connections accept for the Question, who serves a moral compass to Rorschach (unwillingly). Intimate cases, stories of regret or redemption... office doors bursting open in the middle of the night, Invisible Woman stumbling in with a knife in her side, raining pattering against the window panes as Chimp leans back in a rolling chair, nursing a bottle. It plays out as a grand sprawling tale of mysteries as varied as all of literature rolled into one small, compact series.
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