My favorite Marvel team is the Great Lakes Avengers. I'm not trying to be different, I just think they're pretty neat and I loved the Slott run. Plus it helps that I'm from the midwest. Anyway, I've been thinking up what a rival team could look like, where each member is an inverse of their respective GLA member, and I wound up with one concept I'm so happy with.
For a brief example of what I mean by inverse: This team's Doorman would be Wheel Woman, because of that doors vs wheels debate from a few years back. What exactly would Wheel Woman do? Not sure yet, but that's the kind of vibe I'm going for. I also think it could be funny if this team's Big Bertha left to pursue a music career (can you guess the name there?)
But the one I'm really happy with is the inverse of Mr. Immortal.
I'm not sure exactly what this character's name should be, but it should be themed around death (shocking, I know, coming from the Mortimer Kadaver fan page).
The concept for the character is this:
They die every week. By this I mean throughout the course of an on-average 7-day period, their body slowly decays until it gives out. No matter how they die, when the cycle resets they are brought back to life. At least the body is. Each cycle is a different consciousness. The only upside is skills acquired each cycle compound on each other. So if they spent three weeks trying to learn to draw, they would see one week's worth of improvement after the first week, three after the second, six after the third, and so on.
I know this may sound overly edgy (and I'm sure in the wrong writer's hands it would be. Which is also why I think it could work in a GLA book since that's naturally more lighthearted) but I think there's a lot of potential there.
Like why are they a superhero? Because since they know that they weren't given a life they would be able to remember and appreciate, they want to be the reason other people can.
One of my biggest fears is death, and so I think I naturally find stories that touch on themes relating to it interesting. That's part of the reason I fell in love with this character concept the moment I came up with it. And on top of that, the compounding thing feels like it could make for a really cool superpower. In serious moments, it can be powerful. In comedic moments they can be like Shaggy from Scooby Doo, pulling out random talents that we'd just have to accept past lifetimes of them spent on learning.
And I think it makes for an interesting character because the compounding effect requires trust and collaboration. Learning skills is a sacrificial act for a consciousness, especially if they're the one starting it. They won't be able to reap the rewards in their lifetime.
Plus it allows for some wiggle room. Each cycle is essentially a different person. Kind of like the Doctor from Doctor Who, but instead of swapping bodies, it's minds. And, in the world of comics, it can always be nice to have a diegetic reason for why writers might be writing characters very differently. It's not out of character for them, they're just on a new cycle.
TL;DR: Marvel please let me write the GLA. Trust me bro I can do it, plus it's not even like it's a title writers are fighting over