It’s the center of it all, it’s …
INDIANA
Yes, at long last, Relocating the Marvel Universe has returned as I fix up all my original entries that first appeared in this thread at the awesomely amazing, frequently fantastic and inerringly incredible Captain Comics Web site!
INDIANAPOLIS (Squirrel Girl, Alpha Primitives, Inhuman guardians)
Settling down with her parents in Indianapolis, Squirrel Girl has used her vast abilities to keep the peace in her adopted hometown.
From here, she makes frequent trips to Milawaukee to attend Great Lakes
Avengers get-togethers. Aside from her duties with her team, Squirrel
Girl makes regular patrols of the greater metro Indy area, often
hitching a ride on commuter cars, jumping from one to another as she
works her route.
Notes: It’s well-known that Squirrel Girl is “secretly” one of the Marvel Universe’s most powerful heroes. Putting her in the center of the continent means she can get anywhere she’s needed in a flash! Still, most of her time is spent sticking around Indy as a student and all those regular patrols.
The Alpha Primitives are a relatively
new arrival in Indianapolis. Originally created by the Inhumans as
slaves, the genderless creatures were emancipated sometime later and
permitted to live in a sub-section beneath the Moon city of Attilan.
Believing the Primitives were content with their lives below the
surface, the Inhumans left the creatures there for years, but a gnawing
guilt led to ‘missionary’ work to the sub-city. Over time, many of the
Alpha Primitives learned to express a desire for a different life, and
the Inhumans eventually helped some of them relocate in and around
Indianapolis. Why Indy? The Earth city was selected for its simple
layout, and the fact that the Inhumans vowed to monitor the Primitives,
train them for useful activities, and, of course, pay the city a hefty
‘nuisance tax.’ Now the Alpha Primitives are a common site in Indy,
where they busy themselves with all manner of “fun pastimes” — which
for the Primitives means hard labor and other menial tasks that
ultimately benefit the city. Sometimes, Primitive work crews are
“caught” fixing things that aren’t broken, building random structures
or breaking into homes and cleaning them. As part of their arrangement
with the city, Inhuman agents work regular rotation to monitor Alpha
Primitive activities. This, in turn, provides the city with additional
protection from the likes of Gorgon, Triton, Karnak, Lockjaw, Crystal, Quicksilver and others. On rare ocassions, Black Bolt and Medusa also visit the city.
Notes: I don’t know how I got this idea. It just came to me, I suppose, and when I think about it I just smile at the idea of the Alpha Primitives lumbering around Indianapolis doing random acts of subservience. The Inhumans, in turn, end up with the “white-man’s burden” of trying to do good in the face of their well-known act of selfishness, i.e. creating a life form to be a slave.
EVANSVILLE (Thornn)
The mutant known as Thornn, sister to Feral,
resides in Evansville, where she fled after her sister’s death. Though
initially a recluse when depowered on M-Day, Thornn, who had several immutable physical characteristics, has appeared more and more regularly in public where she often
exacts brutal justice on wrong-doers. With her vicious form of
justice, she is wanted by local authorities, though she continues to
elude capture.
Notes: As I see it, a depowered Thornn is pretty much the same as a full-powered Thornn. All her mutant abilities are pretty much physical characteristics except her healing factor, sped up reflexes and enhanced strength. That leaves the interesting stuff, such as the tail, the fur and the claws.
FORT WAYNE (Livewires)
The secretive team known as the Livewires
uses Fort Wayne as its base of operations in its effort to squash out
black ops teams within the United States. Given its dangerous agenda,
the team of androids keeps an equally low profile in the city,
responding to only the most dire threats to the city and region. When
not physically pursuing its goals, the team, which consists of Hollowpoint Ninja, Cornfed, Gothic Lolita, Stem Cell and Social Butterfly,
plugs into the the world wide web and attempts to track down leads for
future action. This effort has led the Livewires to a whole other
purpose, monitoring communication between super criminals around the
world, alerting nearby supers of emminent danger and even coordinating
supers in the field.
Notes: I see this group as only occasionally leaving their secret base to fight bad guys. The rest of the time, they subtly contact other superheroes (and even a few middle-of-the-road villains) and feed them information on activity of concern. Some supers have figured out about this little group of ‘oracles,’ and happily accept their information. Others are concerned by the androids’ ability to track them down, but appreciate the heads up. Still other supers have refused to work with the group, worried that they’re being tricked.
SOUTH BEND (Skids, Wheels)
The two mutants known as Skids and Wiz Kid
are current students at Notre Dame University in South Bend. The pair
operate an “underground railroad” for mutants and de-powered mutants with physical
abnormalities, helping them reach the Morlock city in New York
undetected and unmolested. Beyond that, the two have essentially
adopted the town as their home, and serve to protect it from any
threats, many of which spill over from Chicago and Detroit.
Notes: Skids has always been among the most liberal of all “good” mutants, and it fits her to a “T” to actively work to help persecuted mutants. Best of all, she’s the type that would do it without passing judgement and would seem just as likely to help Sabretooth as she would Cyclops.
Notes: Though de-powered, Wiz Kid is still a smart cookie, and he uses that intelligency and ingenuity to assist mutants with dehabilitating handicaps and to provide all mutants with the basics, such as obtaining new identities. Essentially, he uses his student status as a cover for his more substantial efforts in helping the mutant and de-powered mutant communities.
GARY (Smuggler)
Knowing he could never work alongside his brother, Atlas, Smuggler
relocated to Gary, where he works the best he can to stem the city’s
overwhelming rate of crime. Using his Darkforce powers to their max,
it’s not uncommon for him to be tending to multiple incidents within
minutes. Despite his efforts, little has changed in the city — except
that a number of minor supervillains have adopted the city as their
base of operations.
Notes: Wow, do I love this guy. I haven’t read any comics with him in it, but I totally dig the power combination they set up for him — weird elongation powers and creepy teleportation via the Darkforce. Thanks to his goggles, he looks like Spider-Man, and I also see him as a hard-luck villain who’s so pathetic at his job that he just opts to switch sides for the heck of it.
What’s “Relocating the Marvel Universe,” anyway? Well, check out the series hub, which includes a complete list of states, here.
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