Avengers contingency plan

[Flâneur]

When Kang formed the Young Avengers he relied on a contingency plan to reform the Avengers in case of an emergency, the candidates of this plan were all teenagers who had significant ties to the Avengers and their history. When the neo Vision suggested recruiting Speed he mentioned that there were quite a few other candidates in the plan which were unused. So the question is who else do you think was a candidate to be a Young Avenger? Who should have been a candidate? etc.

Personally my own thoughts leap to Thor Girl, Phyla-Vell, Namorita and Victor Mancha. What about you guys?

[rwe1138]

I think it was gonna be followed up on in the long-delayed BMB Spider-Woman series.

[Spiffy]

My thought is that if Young Avengers was already a contingency plan, then the contingency FOR THAT would be something else entirely. A completely different source of Heroes.

[Flâneur]

I think it was gonna be followed up on in the long-delayed BMB Spider-Woman series.
There was supposed to be a Spider Woman series? When was that announced?
My thought is that if Young Avengers was already a contingency plan, then the contingency FOR THAT would be something else entirely. A completely different source of Heroes.
Well the kids that ended up in the Young Avengers were only a small selection of Vision's contingency plan which suggests that there are heaps of other Avengers related young heroes out there.

[Monty_Cristo]

When Kang formed the Young Avengers he relied on a contingency plan to reform the Avengers in case of an emergency, the candidates of this plan were all teenagers who had significant ties to the Avengers and their history. When the neo Vision suggested recruiting Speed he mentioned that there were quite a few other candidates in the plan which were unused. So the question is who else do you think was a candidate to be a Young Avenger? Who should have been a candidate? etc.

Personally my own thoughts leap to Thor Girl, Phyla-Vell, Namorita and Victor Mancha. What about you guys?

my thoughts leap to the supposed young Masters of Evil. where are those guys/girls hanging out? and when will get to see D-Generation; the group that Southpaw used to roll with? i'm also hoping that Black Death/Greenwich Guardian survived and shows up again.

[Cthulhudrew]

Most of the YA were previously unknown characters, so I'd imagine that there probably wouldn't be all that many existing characters who'd make the cut. As to the whys of the Vision's selection process in that regard, I'm not sure. He may have cut a lot of them due to lack of actual ties to the "real" Avengers (which certainly seemed one of his primary criteria), or due to their existing ties to other groups (ie, New Warriors, Power Pack, etc.) or due to their visibility.

All of which leads to some interesting supposition:

1) Per your original question, discounting most pre-existing characters what kinds of characters would make the cut? (Be creative, and try to tie them in with the other Avengers).

1b) Which pre-existing characters would make the cut, why, and what would their powers be (if they hadn't any previously)?

2) Where did the Vision get his information from? This was information that, for some reason, he had never shared with anyone else, and that no one else seemed to have.

My guess, the Vision got all of this info when he was connected to the world's computer network via ISAAC's assistance back when he was chairman, and I'd guess his plan extended all the way back to then (with some slight difficulties due to his memory loss for a time).

More to the point, how/why did he know about his and Wanda's children, and why did he never act on that information prior to YA? Could he have prevented Disassembled? Is he more to blame than Bendis? ;p

[Cthulhudrew]

Also, a good place to start would be to look at the Vision's map in issue #3. From what I can see, there are dots in:

Florida - 2
Washington - 1
Oregon - 2 (one possibly Northern Californian; it's right on the border)
Montana - 0
Idaho - 0
North Dakota - 0
Minnesota - 2 (again, one on the border, so maybe an Iowan?)
Wisconsin - 1 (a Great Lakes Young Avenger? :p)
Georgia - 1
South Carolina - 1
North Carolina - 0
Virginia - 0
West Virginia - 0
Alabama - 0
Mississippi - 0
Louisiana - 2
Texas - 3
Oklahoma - 1
New Mexico - 1
Arizona - 2
Tennessee - 1
Maryland - 0
Pennsylvania - 2 (one on the border, possibly Maryland?)
Delaware - 0
New Jersey - Looks like 1
Ohio - 0
Indiana - 1
Illinois - 2
Arkansas - 0
Missouri - 0
Iowa - 0 (but see above)
Nebraska - 0
Kentucky - 0
Colorado - 1
Utah - 0
California - 4 (at least, all in Southern California. See above for possible N. Cali.)
Nevada - 0, but don't see a whole picture.
Hawaii - ?
Alaska - 0
Total: 32+?

Also, in a list of names we've got:

Teddy Altman (Hulkling)
Elijah Bradley (Patriot)
Matthew Bronleewe (? - kid with glasses)
Todd Casey (?)
Richard Chung (?)
Anissa Dorsey (?)
William Kaplan (Wiccan)
Perry Moore (?)
Robin Parrish (?)

List ends there.

9 identified out of at least 32, and that's a pretty comprehensive run through the alphabet. Either Vision didn't have all the names, or else the particular program running at that time was only showing the names in a certain area or something.

So that should give us something to start with- Avengers or Avengers history with ties to those locations?

[EDIT- looks like some of those names were people involved with the creative process. http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/showthread.php?t=8322]

[Cthulhudrew]

Okay, going against my own theory that most (or all) of the contingency were not previously known superheroes, perhaps Spider or Jamie of the Crazy 8 might have been one of the YA?

[Flâneur]

my thoughts leap to the supposed young Masters of Evil. where are those guys/girls hanging out? and when will get to see D-Generation; the group that Southpaw used to roll with?
I think the young Masters of Evil are supposed to come up in the next season of YA. Who or what is Southpaw and by extension; D-Generation?
Most of the YA were previously unknown characters, so I'd imagine that there probably wouldn't be all that many existing characters who'd make the cut. As to the whys of the Vision's selection process in that regard, I'm not sure. He may have cut a lot of them due to lack of actual ties to the "real" Avengers (which certainly seemed one of his primary criteria), or due to their existing ties to other groups (ie, New Warriors, Power Pack, etc.) or due to their visibility.
That makes sense actually - if all the superheroes were wiped out then he'd need to use complete unknowns to create a new team. Why else have plans to use utterly un-trained teenagers other than there being nothing else available?

However using that notion, Victor Mancha seems like a very likely candidate considering his links to Ultron, his previous anonymity and his future as a member of the Avengers as Victorious.

1b) Which pre-existing characters would make the cut, why, and what would their powers be (if they hadn't any previously)?
I guess first we'd have to decide what constitutes a tie to the Avengers' history. Offhand I'd say that pretty much none of the New Avengers would have reflections in the contingency plan - maybe all of the members from the golden/silver age + ultron, immortus, kang, morgan la fey would be templates?

More to the point, how/why did he know about his and Wanda's children, and why did he never act on that information prior to YA? Could he have prevented Disassembled? Is he more to blame than Bendis? ;p
I don't know if Vision knew/believe Wiccan and Speed were his children previously, only that they had children and the how/why of their disappearance. The Super Skrull brought up the point I think, which was supported by the odd resemblance and the nature of their powers.
Okay, going against my own theory that most (or all) of the contingency were not previously known superheroes, perhaps Spider or Jamie of the Crazy 8 might have been one of the YA?
Who are the Crazy 8?

[Cthulhudrew]

However using that notion, Victor Mancha seems like a very likely candidate considering his links to Ultron, his previous anonymity and his future as a member of the Avengers as Victorious.

Probably so. I'd say he would definitely have made the cut. (Also, through Ultron, he has links to the Vision himself. They'd be sort of half-brothers, making that family tree even more convoluted.)

I don't know if Vision knew/believe Wiccan and Speed were his children previously, only that they had children and the how/why of their disappearance.

That's a good point. He probably just knew of Wiccan and Speed through their powers, but not their family ties.

Who are the Crazy 8?

They were a group of friends/associates of Wonder Man's in LA (during his series) that were given various ionic powers due to exposure to him when his powers were in flux (after he got hit with the kree Nega-Bomb). Most of them lost their powers afterwards (well, as much as any ionic powered person can lose their powers, I'd say), but Spider, Jamie, and IIRC, Spider's sister Ginger all retained their abilities.

[Flâneur]

They were a group of friends/associates of Wonder Man's in LA (during his series) that were given various ionic powers due to exposure to him when his powers were in flux (after he got hit with the kree Nega-Bomb). Most of them lost their powers afterwards (well, as much as any ionic powered person can lose their powers, I'd say), but Spider, Jamie, and IIRC, Spider's sister Ginger all retained their abilities.

Did they all have the same powers as Wonderman or was it completely random?

[Cthulhudrew]

Did they all have the same powers as Wonderman or was it completely random?

Totally random. And most of them were pretty crappy.

Spider could make duplicates of himself, but unlike Madrox they weren't capable of independent action. If he were doing something (like playing air guitar) when he duped himself, the dupe would continue doing that thing, but couldn't do anything else. They only lasted a limited time, too. He was starting to get a bit more control over them as time went on, though.

Jamie could project her astral form or something like that, as I recall.

Ginger had a power kind of like Boom-Boom's as I recall- she snapped her fingers (get it, "Ginger Snap?" hyuk, hyuk), and caused minor explosions or something.

Alex, Jamie's mom, could make holographic images.

Lahoya was super strong and invulnerable (probably the best powerset).

Gloria had some kind of confusing (and limited) ability to see into the future or something. I forget exactly what it was, but it was time related.

Aundray and Argus- I forget what their powers were.

Sadly, this was when the book completely went off the rails for me. Up until this (and even, surprisingly, through the Galactic Storm crossover, which was mostly horrendous throughout the other Avengers books) Wonder Man was a really good series. A lot of great character moments for Simon, grounding him in a way that hadn't been done before, and still having a lot of action too. After this Crazy 8 thing, Gerard Jones just ground the series downhill. I think he got hit with the mania-inducing ionic energy himself. :)

[Flâneur]

Yeah, I think Vision has too much taste to go for that. Especially the dupe one =/

[rwe1138]

There was supposed to be a Spider Woman series? When was that announced?

A while ago. It got pushed back, what with Bendis & Maleev on Halo and the upcoming Secret Invasion. Alex recently posted a sketch he did of Jessica, but it's been removed for some reason.