Soothsayer Challenge: the amalagam

I remember when DC and Marvel held their cross-over event and made the Amalgam Universe...  I thought that was great!  Taking two characters, sometimes three, and combining them to make a whole new character.  Brilliant!  The stories were top notch, the character designs were outstanding, just an overall brilliant event.

Wish it would have continued.  *sniff*

Well guess what I have planned?  That's right, an amalgam challenge!

We aren't limited to DC and Marvel with this, oh no.  With the number of comic book companies out there, with the number of characters out there, it'd be foolish to limit ourselves, right?

So here are the rules:

• Take only two characters and combine them to make a brand new character
  
• The two characters chosen cannot be of the same archtype; no combinations of Flash and Quicksilver / Punisher and Vigilante / Aquaman and Namor / so on and so on.  They need to be two distinct characters
  
• The two characters should come from different comic book publishers, such as Marvel, DC, Image, Boom, Top Cow.  Should being the key word.
  
• If they've been in a comic book, they're fair game.  Dead Space, Xenosaga, Halo are all fair game
  
• The costume, background, even the name has to be a play on the combined characters
  
• Submissions must include the characters used, an image of the new character, a description on how they've been combined, and the new background
  

Not that difficult at all, should be pretty easy.

Should we put a time frame on this? I think so. No one's going to do anything unless there's a time frame involved. First I have to figure how many people are going to read this... and then factor in the amount of time it's going to take before someone responds to this post... *taps finger*... since we're doing something relatively easy, something that we've discussed in the past, this shouldn't be too new of an idea...

Okay. The deadline is the end of May, Saturday the 31st.

All persons wishing to partake in this project should respond to this post, just to say "yes, I shall take you up on this challenge", and then have at it. You can make as many characters as you want, just make sure you have an image and a background for each of them. Also, make a separate post for each creation.

No one should be allowed to comment on another's character until June 1st! This isn't to hinder the creator, but rather to keep things going in one direction.

Yes, I shall take you... er, me... up on this challenge! Hooza!

I was originally going to do a combination of the Green Lantern and the Mandarin, but have it so the Mandarin possessed a ring from each spectrum.  Please refer to the links provided below if you are unfamiliar with either character.

But, the more I thought about this mash-up, the more I realized it just wasn't feasible.  Not because one can't control different rings at the same time, but rather because some of these rings conflict with each other, or just wouldn't technically pair up with the Mandarin.

Here's a break down of each ring and what it is powered by.  Each of these rings have a weakness and a strength against other rings.  As you can see, there are some natural conflicts, and some things that just don't fit the character of the Mandarin.

RED - fueled by rage
ORANGE - fueled by greed
YELLOW - fueled by fear (not of the character being afraid, but of the character being able to bestow fear)
GREEN - fueled by will
BLUE - fueled by hope
INDIGO - fueled by compassion
VIOLET - fueled by love
BLACK - fueled by death (as in, only the dead can use this)
WHITE - fueled by ?

Visually, this combination wouldn't be any different than what Mandarin already looks like. Additionally, the powers of the rings really don't differ, although they have various degrees of strengths; they all do similar things, but they have different effects.

So then, how can I go off of this idea, but make it work? Easy! Let's just play this out. Let's imagine a rift was created between the Marvel and the DC universes, whether this was done because of Access (the character created during the DC / Marvel crossover), or by something else... perhaps Thanos unleashed a great deal of energy in the Marvel universe at the same time Darksied unleashed energy in an identical location in the DC universe. Or maybe, because the rings seek out those who best match their function, the rings found their way to Marvel because something in the Marvel universe was going to happen that could have total destructive ramifications.

Okay, yes... the rings sought out the characters. There's always some major event going on, and maybe, just maybe, this one was so big it threatened the multiverse, and so the rings acted. I like that idea, so that's what we'll go with.

The rings found their way to Marvel.

There are a slew of characters in Marvel that best match the descriptions of the rings, and opinions may differ... here's what I am looking at. Keep in mind that, in addition to matching with the ring's base power, each character also shares an important trait, and that is an inner strength, of pushing themselves past what can be normally expected, in mind or in body.

The red power ring would go to the Hulk. This works because the ring would feed off of the Hulk's savage and violent nature, but Banner's intellect would keep the more maddening aspects of the ring in check... to a point. And this would be fun: the angrier Hulk gets, the stronger he becomes... and because of the ring, more powerful.

The orange ring would seek out Paladin. I was thinking a villain in this role, but not too many villains in Marvel are clear cut greedy. Paladin is a mercenary so you know he loves money, and from the comics I have seen of him, he always needs to buy the finer things in life. He is greedy, and wants... no, desires... the best (as opposed to, say, Deadpool).

The yellow ring. I'm going with the Punisher with this one. Why? Sure, there are more feared characters (Thanos, Galactus), but what I'm looking at is the fact that criminals are afraid of him, to the point of being paranoid by just the mention of his name, and the heroes are afraid to associate with him or are afraid of what the Punisher might do. Then there's the fact that, if you think about it, Frank's afraid of what he has become, and afraid of how his family would see him.

The green power ring of willpower. Seriously, is there anyone else more deserving than Dr Doom?

The blue ring of hope. I'm thinking Charles Xavier. If he's still alive (Scott Summers killed him a few years back). Xavier is the personification of hope, even in the face of death, there is always hope.

Compassion and the indigo ring. Ugh. Compassion? How the hell can you define compassion? I had to actually look up what compassion means! "Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others." I see this definition and I automatically think of Raistlin from the Dragonlance saga, which starts a train of thought, albeit an odd one (but one that works if thought upon): Magneto.

Violet. Love. Another one of those ugh rings. You really can't define love, although there is a sense of morals and values associated with it, of putting others before yourself, of doing what is right, of caring and of protecting not only those you love or have feelings for, but for those that would cause you harm as well. With that in mind, I would choose Spiderman.

Is there a Marvel character that embodies death? Several! Is there one that is dead? Nope! At least, not that I can think of. Okay, rephrase that: no heroes or hero types would befall to the Black Ring and what it represents. So then, who would be powerful enough to control the power of Death itself, to raise the dead and destroy the living, all for the sake of death? Thanos, of course. But would this be in the role of the villain, would he be the main antagonist? Or perhaps... could there be a greater evil, something that would affect the realm of death itself? Thanos has played the hero before...

The white ring. This is a hard ring to figure out. Has the power to over-ride all the rings (ie, all powerful), brings the dead back to life. God like power, coming back to life? Sounds like a Phoenix to me!

So is this really an amalgam, or simply a cross-over? Crap... it's just a cross-over, isn't it? Okay fine, stick with the Mandarin idea. Let's make it so he is the one who originally created the rings, and as such wears the prototypes of each.

Wiki for Power Rings
Mandarin