Graham asked, perhaps sarcastically, perhaps not:
Am I allowed to run a Batman game with the Marvel RPG?
And that got me thinking about how to incorporate Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman in a game that is about Marvel and its big event comics.
In this world, the Trinity are obscure. They never led any Justice League and were never invited to join the Avengers. Maybe Ma and Pa Kent brought their child to the Baxter Building to be tested, linking Clark to the Fantastic Four a bit. Pa Kent told his son that if he was going to don a super-hero’s costume he should model himself on Captain America and fight for Truth, Justice and the American Way.
Batman was inspired to become a vigilante when Daredevil caught Joe Chill when he was still a boy. Gotham City is an obscure, dirty city in Jersey, known for its insane crime lords and beautiful architecture. I picture back -issues where Batman goes undercover in the Hand to learn their techniques while trying to figure out his route to being a vigilante. Maybe Wayne hires Heroes for Hire every so often. Moon Knight could probably use some restful time in a lighter security wing of Arkham Asylum.
Wonder Woman is in the United Nations, dealing with ambassadors from places like Latveria, Genosha and Atlantis. Namor served with Diana’s mother in the Invaders during World War II. Obviously, she has brawled and then teamed up with Hercules from time to time (maybe in the pages of Marvel Team-up).
Superman is in Metropolis, a city in Massachusetts that never quite took off like it promised to in its 1920 World’s Fair…CITY OF THE FUTURE! Maybe he is mentored by Gladiator who says he has some Kryptonian blood from a few generations back on his mother’s side.
The Watcher takes particular notice of them, sometimes pointing them at imbalances that revolve around gates to other worlds and alternate realities, knowing that they don’t belong here.
Now, thinking about the evens Cam tells us will be in supplements to come:
Civil War: They’d be fun in the Civil War because all together they are powerful, have very different ideas about how things should get done and would really alter the balance. Also, the end of Civil War was not really satisfying, so it would be nice to see that altered.
Annihilation: If we could somehow link this event to the destruction of Krypton, maybe with General Zod and Ares, it could be an interesting galactic adventure for Kal and Diana but Batman’s a stretch. That said, if the JLU and JLI taught us anything, its that Batman can be fun in this over-powered galactic adventures too.
That said, if we were tossing DC toys into the Marvel sandbox, I’d be tempted to go with New Gods on this one.
Age of Apocalypse: This is a tough one as none of them are really linked to mutants but it might be fun to send them into an alternate reality with growing hints that they don’t belong in this universe and alternate universe versions of themselves and maybe an evil Justice League hunting mutants with sentinel back-up.
I pre-ordered them game and look forward to devouring it and perhaps statting this idea up. I’m intrigued and hopeful as the FASERIP Marvel game was my introduction to role-playing.
Githyanki Diaspora 
I love the fact that once the game is in your hands, what you do with it is entirely up to you. And that’s always been the case with RPGs, really, but I’ve made every effort to allow folks to monkey with Cortex Plus-based games by not locking the whole game up into a “hack this and you die” tone.
Absolutely.
I’ll play a few games straight up excelsior style before throwing in elements from otherworlds, what-ifs and across the bleed. I love to hack but prefer informed hacking.
Nice mixing up of the universes. Where does Luthor fit in though?
Hell yeah, Luthor’s fighting Roxxon, Doom and Hydra on one front and Kingpin on the other while penciling in time to antagonize his least favorite alien.
Tormented by kids in the ‘hood for his huge size and impoverished status, a young Wilson Fisk *way* overcompensates. Later in his life, at the height of his power and success, the NY Post puts a paparazzi pic of Fisk in a tuxedo on the front page with the headline, “Emperor Penguin.”
Now *this* would be a Penguin I’d be scared of…
At one point, they simply must team up and clash with the Squadron Supreme.
I slept on this, but am having trouble finding the angst that would really make two of these three fit into the MU. Batman’s easy. He’s sucked the angst out of the rest of the DCU and concentrated it in a single character. Of course, the love triangle between Daredevil, Elektra, and Batman could be fun.
Maybe the Daily Planet would fall on hard times and be bought by J. Jonah Jameson. SUPERMAN: THREAT OR MENACE? WHAT’S SO “SUPER”, MAN?Would Lois Lane be attracted to that skinny, but very witty, photographer Peter Parker?
Diana would have run-ins with Herc, certainly, but also Thor and the Asgardians. On the one hand, she is an accomplished warrior. On the other, she is a proponent of peace, as opposed to Asgard’s credo of glory through battle. And as the representative of an enchanted island hidden by magic, Diana would attract the attention of Dr. Strange and, of course, Doom.
A fun concept!
Superman and Spiderman would totally work for the same paper, and both be going after the same girl. Since neither of them is able to reveal their superpowers to her, all she sees is two nerds fighting over her like they own her. So she goes and sleeps with someone else.
Superman in Marvel-vision would be a man who can’t control his own strength, torn away from everything he holds dear. He’d be a hero in a strange land, an outcast who feels doomed to saving people who will only go on to resent him.
Stop Monster Hearting my icons, Joe! /sarcasm
http://www.indiegogo.com/Joe-Mcdaldno-1
New Monster Hearts playbook:
Alien Moses
This idea has got me even more exited to play when my pre-order arrives. If you wanted to paint the the Trinity with the Marvel angst-brush, you could always take a page from Supreme Power (the 2003 reboot of 1971’s Squadron Supreme).
For example: Although raised by Ma and Pa Kent, Superman/Hyperion was quickly taken into government custody and raised on good ‘ol jingoistic, American propaganda. Howerver, in adulthood, he eventually broke away from his handlers and struck off to find his own path.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squadron_Supreme_(Supreme_Power)