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Old 09-25-2017, 01:20 AM   #37
Johnny1A.2
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Default Re: Marvel-DC World Building Help

Quote:
Originally Posted by sir_pudding View Post
In Rock of Ages, the Martian Manhunter has to deal with the Joker telepathically and is only able to do it by temporarily making him sane, so there's some precedent.
I could imagine a scenario where if Charles or Emma or Jean tried to read Batman's mind, all s/he ever gets is an image of Batman's parents being gunned down...no matter what. That so permeates his mind that there's just no way past it. All the rest of his thoughts and secrets are shielded behind that image. It's not a conscious defense, just his nature. The image would be too intense to alter telepathically, too.

I figure the Joker might simply give static. Maybe with an accompanying laugh track.

I might make the Joker and Batman both immune to Wonder Woman's lasso, too. They might not be able to lie under its influence, but they might be able to keep silent, or in the Joker's case just laugh.

If Wonder Woman is present in-universe, she could work, but you'd (again) want to scale down the power. The WW power levels from the old 70s TV show might work rather well in a street-level Gotham setting. It leaves her somewhat superhuman, but not impossible to cope with for clever mortals or other supers.

Green Lantern would have no place at all in such a setting, I would think. Even if you scale him down a few orders of magnitude to fit in, he's still too far out for it.

Green Arrow might well work, along the same lines as Batman or Spiderman. I think he'd be more likely a guest star, though, his home base would be some other city. He wouldn't fit into Gotham as such all that well on a regular basis, in terms of 'look' and 'feel'.

Aquaman or Namor could work...but I wouldn't try to use both. Whatever undersea society exists out there should not be a global superpower, but it might be a national-level power. Aquaman/Namor might show up now and then, but only occasionally because he'd be busy ruling his realm. (Also, in gaming situations water-based characters can be a headache to deal with.) In that sense, Aquaman/Namor would actually be a bit like von Doom, as head of state of a foreign power.

von Doom could fit in, scaled down in power a bit, but he too would be the sort of character who only occasionally shows up in the lives of street-level types.

The FF could fit...but you'd want to scale down the 'fantastic' part. Stuff like the Negative Zone, the Blue Area on the Moon, etc. doesn't fit in very well with street-level supers games. Doublly so with Galactus and the Watcher and the rest of the FF supporting cast.

But they could still make useful guest stars, I'd let them stay headquarters in New York rather than Gotham.

Tony Stark, as Iron Man, might actually fit in, for all his raw power, especially the version from the first movie rather than the later movies or the comics. A bit more limited, but still really powerful. But he'd be just as likely to interact with Bruce Wayne as Batman, if you see what I mean.

Of the rest of the Avengers, Hawkeye could fit in...but I'd use either Hawkeye or Green Arrow, not both. This is a common pattern because of a lot of Marvel/D.C. characters are expies of each other, or started out that way, and while some could work in the same world some would be redundant. Captain America could fit in. Mockingbird might fit in...but if she's around you want to remove Black Canary, or vice versa. Too similar.

Thor probably has no place in this world, and doubly so for Odin and the various races of 'gods'. Too powerful, and too weird. At most, any such entities should probably stay off-stage, only their concealed power or their minions in play. You might have Odin's Spear as a McGuffin in the story, but there should be no appearance by Odin.
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