This is an idea I’ve had percolating for some time now. The idea is an alternate timeline in which the premier superhero team, instead of being the U.S.-centric Freedom Five, is an international team called The League of Nations (which sounds like a pretty awesome superhero team name to me). Each member would represent one country. Here’s who I think would be on the team (along with their associated countries), organised by geography:
The Americas
Legacy — America
Citizen Dawn — Canada
Doctor Medico — Mexico
Fanatic — Peru
Great Britain & Ireland¹
Captain Cosmic — England
K.N.Y.F.E. — Scotland
The Argent Adept — Ireland
Europe
Luminary — Mordengrad
Stuntman — France
La Comodora — Spain
Proletariat — Russia
Biomancer — Greece
Blood Countess — Hungary
Africa & the Middle East
The Naturalist — Nigeria
Anubis — Egypt²
Unity — Israel
Oceania
Parse — Australia
Haka — New Zealand
The Operative — The Philippines
Tempest — Plavu’Col
Other
The Visionary — China
Magman — Magmaria
¹ In this reality, England, Scotland, and Ireland are all separate countries.
² This is the original Anubis, not Thiago. At first I considered Ra, but I then thought I that it would be weird for the non-Egyptian Dr. Washington to represent Egypt.
As you can see, Plavu’Col and Magmaria are both recognised countries in this reality. Additionally, several normally-villainous characters are present, but in this timeline, they are just as heroic as their peers.
Curious. I didn’t recall the Visionary being Chinese, and IIRC Nick is a dual-citizen of both Mexico and the USA, so there might be some favoritism there. Honestly for this reality I’d drop Paul Parsons entirely and instead have El Mejor Legado (he exists in a reality where the USA got blowed up real good, but he might be present in other realities too), since you could easily have some rando like Setback or Wraith representing the USA.
A bit weird that Venezuela isn’t represented, despite it being Christopher’s country of origin (and a huge piece of the reason why there’s so much Latin representation in his game, no doubt). Perhaps El Mejor is there, but I somehow thought otherwise.
VERY curious choices to convert Dawn and Biomancer into heroes for this purpose. Dawn I can see it, IMO her reasons for being a villain have always been one of the weaker aspects of the SOTM story…but Biomancer is so dyed-in-the-wool pure solipsism that I don’t believe anything short of the Inversiverse could make a good guy version of him. Most likely his presence in this League is some sort of psi-op where he allows one of his clones to play goody-two-shoes while gathering intel for some supreme betrayal down the line. Blood Countess is probably a similar deal, since even at the height of Twilight Mania, she would have a hard time pretending to be “one of the good vampires”.
Those niggles aside, this is a pretty good start. Of course, you’ll need to really ramp up the villain action to make up for all these extra heroes…
It’s a really interesting AU concept, I like it! The only thing I’d worry about, with making Dawn a hero, is: what kind of villains are we facing? Like, in the main 'verse, Dawn can take literally anyone else in a fight - only Legacy and maybe a couple of others can fight her to a standstill, and that only sometimes. She is so, so powerful, like…what kind of threats does she oppose?
I’d probably end up throwing her at Green Lantern/Captain Marvel-style cosmic threats, she could maybe join the Prime Wardens equivalent in fighting the Thorathians.
Visionary is Chinese American. With the looming conflict against the Pan Asian Alliance in her timeline Project Cocoon picked at least some American children that would look like “the enemy”
Just like how many blonde-haired, blue-eyed Americans did intelligence work in WW2
Yeah, I was about to say I think Argent Adept, Visionary, and Dr. Medico are all born in the U.S.A. - maybe first generation Americans in some cases. I don’t remember Nick Hernandez having much background beyond a surname suggesting Latino heritage.
I guess if you want to represent America before the U.S. you can have a heroic Kismet.
I admit I just assumed the OP knew some folks in question were hyphenated American and simply had them be actually straight up be from the countries they have canon heritage in just for the sake of theming (and because no hero in the main timeline is currently from those countries).
If this Dawn is legitimately a hero, then she probably holds herself back from her max power level in order to avoid collateral damage, much as Paul does (Iron Legacy isn’t any more powerful than regular Paul, other than having armor on; he’s simply more willing to use what he has to its fullest extent, so heroic Dawn would be the reverse).
In general I figured this universe had to be facing massive epic-level threats, with Omnitron and Voss being two of the major candidates. Nothing unifies the human race like an existential threat that comes pre-dehumanized, by virtue of being an alien or robot or zombie or something.
If we’re going full AU, then there are a bunch of Cauldron heroes to fill out the international rosters… Vertigo, Echelon, the Knight, Titan, Malachi, etc.
If you want a cosmic level threat to unite all of Earth’s heroes, you could always have something like an evil Jansa Vi Dero as “Bride of Voss”. The Terminarch finds species in decline and is by association responsible for their eradication/assimilation into the Thorathian genebound horde!
Perhaps, but Paul is just so American, I feel like has to represent the USA.
True, but, well, there aren’t (as far as I know) any Venezuelan characters in Sentinel Comics. I suppose I could always just create one, but that kinda defeats the purpose of this project.
Ooh, I really like that Biomancer idea! Yeah, when the League was just getting started and recruiting members, Biomancer saw his chance and made a fleshchild of himself with enhanced strength and durability, as well as shapeshifting (because Biomancer’s standard powerset is much too villainous), who he had act like a “Hero of Greece” and get accepted into the League.
Blood Countess, on the other hand, probably heard about the team forming, and knew that it wouldn’t take long for Fanatic to get her new friends to come and beat her up, so Bathory quickly “joined” the side of good before that could happen.
Exactly, Jeysie. I’m aware that AA is Irish-American, Visionary is Chinese-American, and Medico is Mexican-American, but there are no 100% Irish, Chinese, or Mexican characters in Sentinels, so I tweaked some things to have those countries be represented.
Quite so. Otherworldly threats (aliens, magical being, etc.) would definitely be prominent foes. Earth vs. Everything Else.
I know next to nothing about the Cauldron, but if you want to headcannon that, be my guest. I’m just as much an authority on this as anyone else.
Another thing regarding the matter of such a large team being so powerful: Sure, there are many more members than any of the standard, main-timeline teams, but the League also has a much larger jurisdiction than any Universe 1 team: the entire Earth. So, they’d be spread a bit thin, to say the least.
Additionally, I’d imagine every story wouldn’t feature the entire League, as that is so many characters, but rather a subset, similar to how those old Shear Force cartoons did it. (Anyone else remember watching those as a kid?)
Fun fact: I originally considered Expatriette for Canada, but then decided that she’s not actually very Canadian.
Here’s a question: What role would Akash’ have this reality? Would she be an enemy, or an ally?
The United Nations has its headquarters on US soil; I forget whether its predecessor, the real-world League of Nations, did as well, but regardless it seems appropriate for this League to be an America-organized version of an international team, with lots of dual citizens, and a distinct worry on behalf of nations that don’t really like America that it effectively has half the seats on the council instead of just one. Non-American heroes would be quite aggressively recruited by these quasi-antagonists, which would be one of the reasons Bathory and “Zosimos” got in; when someone genre-savvy like Unity objects to the inclusion of such obviously questionable members, the Israeli government would start getting political pressure to have their representative distance herself from the F5 and other Americans on the team.
I wasn’t suggesting that Legacy would be denied membership on the team, just that he maybe doesn’t exist in this universe, and El Mejor is present instead. Think of the Argentinans, after all!
I see Akash’s awakening as being one of the inciting incidents for the team’s formation, but also think we still eventually get Natch helping her become Akash’Thriya and join the team (“representing all non-populated lands”). I think the League is initially founded by Argent Adept the same way he did with the Prime Wardens, and they were probably still the first four other members he recruited, but this version of AB was a bigger threat, so he included more members. It was probably his presence as an Irish-American that eventually wound up starting the dual-citizenship thing with Visi and Dr. Nick and so forth.
(I also think it’s weird and kind of a stretch having Medico without any of the other Sentinels; does Miranda even exist in this universe, or did her mother succeed in her necromantic scheme because Nick wasn’t around to stop it? Maybe Writhe is a straight up villain in this universe, if not a full on Scion of OblivAeon, and Jackson Bravo is just one of Stuntman’s drinking buddies.)
I’ve only made it to October 2019 of the podcast, so I’ve been wondering for a while but haven’t asked: do “knock off” heroes from other nations exist in Sentinel Comics? I recently read a Batman story with the International Club of Heroes/Batmen of All Nations (look it up!) and was curious if there was something similar to that in Sentinels.
True, to some extent. I was imaging this timeline to be a somewhat more idealist world, where all the countries basically get along, which I feel would be almost necessary for the team to even form. Of course, there would still be a fair bit of international tension.
I know; I interpreted your comment that way.
Yeah, perhaps. That does sound fairly interesting.
I could definitely see that happening.
Perhaps. I haven’t definitively thought about how the team was exactly formed, yet.
Well, there’s really no way around that. None of the others could realistically be on the team. Although Nick’s absence in the others’ lives could lead to interesting stories . . .
I think . . . yes, since Medico was busy on a League mission rather than just hanging around in Phoenix, Mrs. Fischer successfully sacrificed Miranda, and her infernal machine brought back her husband. Except . . . he came back wrong. The resurrected man was was a bit . . . unhinged. In a fit of insanity, he killed Mrs. Fischer, made more Idealist clones, and used them to unleash a reign of terror.
I can definitely see the OblivAeon event happening in this reality, and Writhe would certainly fit right in as a Scion.
Sure, why not?
To be fair, a big robot that a bunch of superheroes can punch is a much more uniting threat than the so-called invisible enemy.
Vertigo would be a great hero name, though!