Not every super-powered person deserves a shot at being a superhero. They may be lovely people with great intentions, but some powers are just a little too strange or unnecessary to sit at the same table asMarvelheroes like Captain Americaor Black Widow. Sometimes, these individuals should simply be accepted as a little different and left to their own devices.
But what happens when these folks really want to be superheroes? What if they want to be on a team where they can do some good because they think they can make a difference? Well, then, you have theGreat Lakes Avengers. To call them a motley crew would be an understatement, but their goals are the same as everyone else’s: Work together for the betterment of their community.
How the Great Lakes Avengers Got Started
The Great Lakes Avengers are Avengers solely because they decided to use the name. They have been asked to stop and have undergone various name changes since then. However, the Great Lakes Avengers are an autonomous group of roughly five members, with some rotating in and out of the roster. When they arediscovered by Hawkeye, he first seems put off by their existence and then decides that they require a mentor with a bit more experience. Hawkeye works in this capacity for a while before dropping out and allowing them to work on their own.
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The Great Lakes Avengersnever fight the big fights, have had a few run-ins and tie-ins with Deadpool, and are always just to the left of any normal team.The one thing they want is legitimacy, and it is the one thing they can’t get. But who could they possibly be that they can’t catch a break?
A Roster of Weirdos
Let’s look at the original roster of the Great Lakes Avengers. First, there’s the man who started it all, Mr. Immortal.Mr. Immortal can’t die. That’s it. He’s an above-average athlete but nothing too extreme. If you shoot him, he’s up and back to work in a few minutes. Throw him off a cliff, and he’ll get up and walk away. The man is, essentially, immortal.
His second in command is Big Bertha. She has a very specific andnon-PC power. During normal hours, she is a fashion model with an athletic body. However, she can gain extreme mass and become nearly invulnerable. The problem is that when she wants to get back to her normal body, she has to purge her system via vomiting. It’s not a pretty picture.
Up next is Dinah Soar. She’s a non-speaking, winged pink humanoid creature in a romantic relationship with Mr. Immortal. She can fly, has a longer-than-average lifespan, and can use her powers of empathic calming to assist Mr. Immortal when he is disoriented, having been resurrected.
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Doorman is essentially a human doorway. If he stands up against a wall, you can jump through him and wind up on the other side. He can, therefore, teleport people over short distances. His body is entirely black, and leaping through him taps into the Darkforce dimension. It is a very specific and surprisingly useful power.
Finally, there is Flatman.Flatman looks as if Reed Richards ofThe Fantastic Fourwas squished and never returned to his normal 3D self. Flatman can fit under doors and in very narrow spaces.
A Great Lakes Avengers Show Would Be Bonkers
One of the craziest things about the Great Lakes Avengers is that they’d make for a fantastic show. When you consider that they could go up against some ofMarvel Comics' strangely useless villains, you may realize just how amazing they could be. Whereas other shows, such asShe-Hulk, attempt to take a character who could be at least mildly serious and turn her into a silly person, the Great Lakes Avengers would be a source of out-and-out comedy. It’s the wacky side of being a superhero. It’sThe Other Guysbut with powers. They win because they stumble, and if you threw Jeremy Renner in as Hawkeye, you’d get some seriousTed Lassovibes.
The MCU Loves Weird Teams
We’ve already seen how much audiences loveteams in the MCU. Obviously, there are the core Avengers characters, but there are also the Guardians of the Galaxy. James Gunn was prepared to skim the bottom of the Marvel Comics barrel and turn his wisecracking team into some of the best content the MCU has churned out. He then went on to makeThe Suicide Squadfor DC/Warner Bros. in an attempt that included even crazier characters. This kind of team wouldn’t necessarily get the chance to play in the big leagues.However, they could clean up the smaller streets against the middle-weights. So why not try them with a director who understands what this kind of comedy can look like?
It would be great to see a smart, young director like Emma Seligman (Bottoms) who can write an intelligent comedy that still has a goofy and irreverent side to it. She also hasn’t had any experience with superhero projects, which would make her ideal for a stand-alone series. It could even be a limited arc that gives a peek into the strange world of the Marvel Universe. Not everyone has powers, but even those who do don’t always get the break they want. But Mr. Immortal realized that he had to take life by the reins and make his own break. That’s why the Great Lakes Avengers would make an eye-rollinglygreat Disney+ show.The rest of the MCU, including the movies, shows, shorts, specials, and more are available onDisney+.
