For those lingering OblivAeon questions
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Ooh boy… unpowered Parsons!
Somewhere, somehow, there has to be a story where some long-lost cousin of Legacy is jealous of him. Maybe they try their hand at hero-ing, trying to gain glory for themselves, but use tricks to make it look like they have powers? (I’m thinking an ineffective “hockey pants don’t make you a hero” -type situation). Or maybe they go full villain and try to steal Legacy’s powers?
Also, the idea of their being dormant Parsons genes that can kick in if the “regular” line of Parsons dies off? That definitely make the the Iron Legacy timeline extra bleak.
Here’s another question, related to that. If a non-powered Parsons got powers, through some other source (accident, relic, etc), would the powers have any relation to the Legacy powers?
“What does a Doctor Strange tee shirt even look like?”
Google tells me most of them are artwork from the comics, including several covers, a very iconic character image one from Ditko and (I think) another by Barry Windsor-Smith, several others by more modern artists I can’t recognize, and one that’s got the Eye of Agamotto amulet printed on so it looks like you’re wearing it. There’s also a nicely obscure design that simply features that signature window from his Sanctum Sanctorum, and at least one for “Master Mordo” of all things.
Only saw a couple that appear to be based on the actor from the MCU, which is gratifying to me. Hate when movies come to define the look of a character that began in another medium.
So they do exist, and in a fair variety of forms.
On a tangent, I now want a company crossover where Baron Mordo and Mordru the Merciless wind up in Magic Court over a trademark dispute. One of them ends up as Baron Smoked Meats and Fishes while the other winds up owing a fortune to Emperor Ming in the end.
Or, y’know, they discover their distant familial connection and sincerely want to be a hero as well, spawning a cadet branch of small-L legacy heroes who are all based on training and determination the same way Expat and Wraith are. If it started in the RPG timeline they could even be a sidekick to Pauline. Given that she’s very young and trained heroes take some time to work up, you could invert the usual trope and make the sidekick older than she is, maybe having started working out pre-Oblivaeon with more modest end goals but post-Crisis feeling duty-bound to do more than just become a police officer or self-defense trainer or whatever Plan A was.
“Adult sidekick” would solve a lot of the problems with the original trope.
Alternate “evil distant relative” concept would be to give them a power-duplication trick (maybe a machine or magic, maybe innate) that lets them duplicate the Legacy power set, raising the question of which one is the legit heir to the title. Might need to renew the copied powers off the original regularly, so reasons not to just try to kill the real Legacy. Could even be a twist where the relationship has been faked and the copycat isn’t even a distant family member.
Would it be, though? Iron Legacy’s actions would be extra terrible because they’re all so pointless, but it means the line doesn’t end with him. Quite the opposite, really.
Interesting story question: If confronted with proof (probably multiversal from a continuum where it happened) that other Parsons relatives will inherit when he’s gone, is there enough hero left in Iron Legacy that he would destroy himself or voluntarily accept the death penalty that’s surely awaiting him if he freed the world so the new Legacy could take over? And if it looked like that would happen, what would his cronies do? Hunt down all his relatives so they can kill most of them and raise the new Legacy as a pawn under their control? Good luck with that plan, tyrannical evildoers.
I’d think not since the powers are coming from the origin. Their status as a Parsons really just puts them (or their kids, more accurately) in the line of inheritance for the Legacy mantle, rather than being something like unexpressed mutant genes. But if they gained a power-copying power set the scenario above might play out with them duplicating the current Legacy’s powers and essentially being a xeroxed Legacy.
So, this definitely wouldn’t be a “evil relative” story, but a story where a distant relative of Paul’s becomes Legacy for a week could make for a funny story… so Paul’s cousin Gerald has to fly around stopping crime, and Paul has to adjust to life without powers, getting his wife to open pickle jars for him, etc.
As much as I like the “evil relative” story, the goofy one-off also sounds quite fun to me. Maybe that would make a good story prompt for a Writers’ Room. (Why did their powers switch? Did some Isoflex Alpha hit the swimming pool while Paul was swimming at a family BBQ? Was it Wager Master? Is Pauline too young (or busy in college) to fill in?)
I think it’s extra bleak because the whole reason for the “heel turn” then becomes based on a misunderstanding. As Christopher mentioned in the episode, “Iron Legacy” was never necessary. But you can at least understand how, from Iron Paul’s perspective, the line ends with him and he needs to do whatever he can before he goes. But if it doesn’t end with him, everything that happens becomes doubly unnecessary.
To briefly answer the question, I think whatever hero might have been left in Iron Legacy died a long time ago, as evidenced by what happened when he came to the prime timeline. As for the Iron timeline itself, I feel like it’s general story is one of bleak hopelessness, and nothing good could come from a continuation of the Legacy line in that reality anyway. I wouldn’t be surprised if Iron Paul himself didn’t start offing distant family members. (Thankfully La Capitan erased that timeline anyway, putting it out of everyone’s misery.)