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Old 01-17-2013, 11:26 PM   #1
David Johnston2
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default [IW/Supers] Splinter Worlds

Once upon a time, I was reading one of those specious complaints about Marvel mutant hatred which prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that hatred of Jews could never be a significant issue, when someone actually said something interesting about how it was like the X-Men lived in their own universe, which got to me to thinking. In a lot of ways, the Marvel universe is in fact like a whole bunch of universes which have been tacked together but not necessarily fully integrated. The Avengers never show up when Galactus comes to town, Iron Man almost never sees a mutant in his own book, and while the X-Men run into a surprising amount of magic, it does sometimes seem like the general population's opinion of mutants is disconnected between X-Men continuity and the non-X titles even when mutants show up or become regulars.

So I got to thinking what if I broke apart the different sub-universes into distinct worlds?

Last edited by David Johnston2; 01-19-2013 at 09:29 AM.
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Old 01-17-2013, 11:45 PM   #2
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Default Re: [IW/Supers] Splinter Worlds

how would you travel between worlds?
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Old 01-17-2013, 11:49 PM   #3
David Johnston2
 
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Default Re: [IW/Supers] Splinter Worlds

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
how would you travel between worlds?
Well, the usual ways of course. Parachronic technology, magic spells, rainbow bridges, getting lost in a Florida swamp...
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Old 01-18-2013, 06:12 PM   #4
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Default Ferrous

Ferrous

Technology Level:
Mana Level: Usually None.
Native Power Sources: Technological (Mechanical, Electrical, Nanotech)

Ferrous is a somewhat futuristic world, advanced in physics, metallurgy, cybernetics and robotics...although not particularly in the biological sciences including medicine (outside of cyber-enhancement), agronomy, genetics, and biochemistry. There are some cyberpunk elements to the setting particularly in the degree to which large corporations have gained autonomy in their operations.

Superheros (and supervillains) are typically the product of corporate research and development. Every large to medium-sized corporation with any high technology devision has at least one superhero/mascot, an agent in power armour or circuitry-fabric costume, a cyborg or a robot/android. (Robots are referred to as androids when they have a pseudo-flesh exterior to create a human-like exterior.). In most of the world, the corporations have the political pull required to give their superheros carte blanche as recognized law enforcement authorities.

Supercriminals are another matter. While some really are private individuals who have stolen technology from the corporations or rogue cyborgs and robots, most of them are plausibly deniable agents of corporations and governments carrying out covert warfare on behalf of their masters.
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Old 01-19-2013, 02:53 AM   #5
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Default Re: [IW/Supers] Splinter Worlds

The other way to view it would be to say that the Marvel Universe used to be several separate universes until a Reality Quake struck and forced them all together into a single timeline. The resulting timeline is a bit unstable, though nowhere near as unstable as the DC Universe.

(Personally, I love the way the revamped IST is desctibed as "tectonically unstable" in a Quantum Map sense: forget the metagene; the real reason why superpowers work in the Infinite Worlds setting is because of unstable reality. That's also the reason why magic, psionics, and rubber science work; and it's no coincidence that superhero worlds tend to have all of these things.)

Last edited by dataweaver; 01-19-2013 at 02:59 AM.
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Old 01-19-2013, 03:49 AM   #6
Xenarthral
 
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Default Re: [IW/Supers] Splinter Worlds

My outer comics nerd feels the urge to point out that The Avengers did
show up when Galactus came to town in the story where Frankie Ray became
Galactus's herald.

Then again, the actual point is unchallenged.
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Old 01-19-2013, 06:16 AM   #7
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Default Re: [IW/Supers] Splinter Worlds

I haven't really paid attention, but I believe the recent "soft reboot" of marvel in the wake of "avengers vs x-men" is intended to integrate these disparate parts of the marvel universe more than before.
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Old 01-19-2013, 04:10 PM   #8
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Default Re: [IW/Supers] Splinter Worlds

Quote:
Originally Posted by dataweaver View Post
(Personally, I love the way the revamped IST is desctibed as "tectonically unstable" in a Quantum Map sense: forget the metagene; the real reason why superpowers work in the Infinite Worlds setting is because of unstable reality. That's also the reason why magic, psionics, and rubber science work; and it's no coincidence that superhero worlds tend to have all of these things.)
Never thought of that but I rather like it.
Wish that line had been more active, Third Edition had several books.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xenarthral View Post
My outer comics nerd feels the urge to point out that The Avengers did
show up when Galactus came to town in the story where Frankie Ray became
Galactus's herald.

Then again, the actual point is unchallenged.
I do not recall which book it was in but I recall one time Galactus came to town (Hungry and weaker then normal) and it showed just about every Marvel Hero attacking him including the FF, Avengers, Spiderman, Daredevil and finally Dr. Strange who is the one who took him out (with a cheap trick).
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Old 01-19-2013, 05:41 PM   #9
David Johnston2
 
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Default Darwin

Darwin

Technology Level: 8
Mana Level: Usually Low
Native Power Sources: Mutant, Technological

The egregiously misnamed "Darwin" is a world which has experienced a "bizarre baby boom" with a large number of children born with features like tails, scales, four functional arms, and strange coloured skin. Further, when going through adolescence some of these children and an alarming number of superficially normal children spontaneously develop paranormal abilities like shooting energy blasts, turning insubstantial, or transforming into metallic giants while a larger number manifest rather less impressive abilities like shooting beams of light about as powerful as a flashlight, levitating slower than they can walk, and the ability to intuitively guess the meaning of foreign languages.

Darwin's society has not taken this very well, in part thanks to foolish mutants who have declared themselves to be mankind's evolutionary superiors and successors. Government have responded by trying to recruit, enslave or hunt down and kill mutants, and even when they try to respect mutant rights, mobs and organized hate groups will sometimes try to kill mutants.

While generally modern in their technology, Darwin is advanced in certain areas as a result of programs base on study or exploitation of mutant abilities, but most of these advancements are directed specifically toward neutralizing mutant powers and mutants. Thus they have robots, cyborgs, and power armour like Ferrous, but unlike Ferrous there has been no trickle down to civilian applications and and their technological weapons are generally rather cruder than the sophisticated Ferrous examples, and their AIs are quite a bit less intelligent. At the same time, they are becoming rather more advanced in the field of genetics.
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Old 01-20-2013, 01:00 AM   #10
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Default Re: Darwin

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
Darwin

Technology Level: 8
Mana Level: Usually Low
Native Power Sources: Mutant, Technological
How many parts do you intend to split the Marvel Universe into, and what do you figure the fault lines should be? You've already got Mutant and Corporate Robotics… I could also see a "scientific explorers" world (the Fantastic Four, Giant-Man and the Wasp, and possibly the Hulk; though the Hulk might be better off in a "Gamma World" of some sort), a "street vigilantes" world (Spider-Man, Daredevil, Hawkeye, etc.), and at least one "Mystical World" (Dr. Strange, Thor, Ghost Rider, etc.)

I suspect that the Avengers are going to be a casualty of this break-up: the team's "big three" are Iron Man (probably ported to Ferrous), Thor (who I suspect will end up on a world dominated by magical and/or mythological superheroes), and Captain America (who's likely to end up on a "street-level" world with the likes of Hawkeye, Black Widow, and maybe Daredevil); and Giant Man, Wasp, and the Hulk (the other founding members) don't belong on any of the possible world mentioned so far (not to mention that two key Avengers — Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch — are mutants). Frankly, I don't think there can be any one subworld that would include enough of the Avengers roster for the team to make sense there. If there ever is an Avengers teamup, it will have to be parachronic in nature.

There are a lot of characters and teams like this in the Marvel Universe: the New Warriors prominently featured a couple of mutants who somehow managed to avoid the bulk of the "mutant persecution syndrome" (largely because their real-world origins were from outside the X-Men titles: Justice was based on a major player in the future-based Guardians of the Galaxy, while Starfire came from the "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends" cartoon series).

This project also reminds me of the 90s "Shattered Image" four-shot which provided an in-universe counterpart to the breakup of Image Comics.
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