Young Phalanx! *Spoilers*

I was going to post this in Who's This?! but decided it needed its own thread.

So, supposedly we are going to get a new addition to the Freedom Phalanx (other than the proposed Player Submission) soon. (See above thread.)

Now it occurs to me that the Phalanx is a little ... how shall we say? ... OLD for new members.

By my count, the youngest of the current Phalanx (excluding Citadel), would be Manticore who has to be nearing SIXTY. (He was 19ish when the Freedom Phalanx novel took place and the "Who Will Die" story arc has established that as actually happening in the 1980s.)

So given that Mystery Character will be hanging around with characters who are all old enough to be her GRANDPARENTS (if not Great Grandparents), it occurs to me that it might be time for a new version of the Phalanx.

So NPC wise, who would you nominate as members of the Young Phalanx?

Personally, I see Citadel as filling out the Red Tornado Adult Authority figure role.

I also see Fusionette, Faultline, and Penny Yin as part of the group.

Every super hero group should have a magic user.

I nominate Mercedes Sheldon for that role for Young Phalanx. (She comes across as being much more competent than Percy Winkley.)

So who do you think should be a part of the Young Phalanx?

We already have the Vindicators, who were supposed to be the next generation of premier heroes. But, they're not exactly young anymore. They're all ~30. They're kind of in that murky area like the Titans were before the reboot: they're definitely seasoned enough to join the Justice League(Phalanx in this case) but they're just not as important and their legacy/mentor characters are still there to crowd them out.

IMO, Ms. Liberty should be promoted to the Phalanx and the devs should play the Vindicators up more like the Outsiders; have them start skewing more towards Vigilante and distance them from the Phalanx. Maybe bring them into conflict with the Phalanx(aside from childish squabbles in the past) sometimes.

That would free up space for a new generation team to form/be created.

But honestly, I would rather the devs let players create their own 'Young Phalanx' style groups and characters to occupy that space. They have been, for years, so why invalidate them by creating a canonical group? It's bad enough when the devs introduce a new character and take a name players had been using (and occasionally the GM team generic's them after the fact). Just ask Frostfire.


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Blue, I love your work, but check your math.

The eighties were thirty-ish years ago. Manticore is either 50 or in his mid-to-late 40s.

Oddly enough, that's still fighting age. He's probably going to go out like Lord William Marshal (in a time when most people were lucky to live to 30, he lived to 72 [SEVENTY-FREAKING-TWO!] and was STILL participating in battles up until three months before he died.

And in true "I am a Great Man" fashion, he died after telling his family his life story.

Otherwise, I like your post. You make some very decent arguments.

Mercedes? Yeah, even in the Who Will Die arc, we see that Percy is a scholar, not a warrior. There IS a slight problem with her being a member of the Midnight Squad and their "separatist" behavior (they're not blue, red, gold or silver; I would classify their morality as green, knowledge hoarders).
-To avoid conflict, they might be better off bringing in War Witch. She has popular support and has been working regularly as a heroine, even after death.

Fusionette, Faultline and Penny Yin? Definitely. They would make a mighty fine supergroup. Heh, you could probably throw C'Kelkah into their crew, too.

I'd also like to see Seraphina, Mark IV, Agent 6 and Overdrive fill some of the roles, too. Why Mark IV? I like the look of the guy :P

If you're interested in this, I actually wrote a Mission Architect story about exactly this subject: Teen Phalanx Forever (#67335)

In this story, a young sidekick of your character joins the Teen Phalanx for adventures and fun.

Lord, if Fusionette and Faultline were part of a new Phalanx, players Heroes would DEFINITELY be called in more often to save the day

Seriously, though? Hmn....I dunno. They'd need some new characters, I think. Well rounded and with WAY more in-game backstory to them.
Hell, you could even have a new SSA; 'The Freedom Phalanx; Second Founding' where the PCs have to round up new members.
And Villains could either gather some analogues (bit lame I guess) or get dirt on the new members and start sending 'Just TRY it, kiddo' statements of intent?

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Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I really like the idea of Katie Hannon in a supergroup.

Was actually thinking of this the other day, that there seems to be a "new generation" of heroes appearing.

The trainer in Hollows LOOKS young enough to be part of the group imo. Liberty would certainly be the obvious choice as the new leader of the group too.

I have a hard time believing they're all 60-70. Time for a retcon or something.

Phalanx Babies.

I'm gonna agree that, if nothing else, the Phalanx needs a makeover. All the Praetorians got new spiffy models and they make the Phalanx look like dog poo in comparison. Posi could use some newer, more modern looking armor, Citadel could use an upgrade so he doesn't look like a tin can compared to Siege, maybe Synapse could spruce up his look a bit, and heck, I'm sure Numina could just give herself something a bit more floaty and wispy, perhaps with some of those sybyll-esque cloth bits to make her look more ghostly. This is especially notable when seeing them all next to Penelope in her sleek, modern outfit.

As far as new Phalanx members? I fully agree with Faultline and Fusionette being inducted to a "new" Phalanx. They've more than earned their chops. I'd also love to see a Rikti or even a brand new alien species represented. I think a redeemed Rikti who perhaps proves themselves to be a real hero in some upcoming content would be nifty. I can imagine people saying on the street 'Hey, did you hear about that building that collapsed last week? They say a Rikti saved all the people by holding up the rubble with his powers!'. It would add some flavor to the bunch. I'd also put in a vote for something like an Arachnos defector, a rogue Widow or something so the team could have a darker edge to them with a trained assassin. Would make for some fun conflict with Manticore too as he's a darker hero with vigilante leanings and wouldn't like an ex-spider AT ALL, and they probably wouldn't like him because he'd be up in their grill 24/7. If not an ex-spider then at least something like a villain archetype, probably a Dominator or Stalker for maximum "you haven't seen this in the Phalanx before"

If revamped, I'd prefer to see the *new* Phalanx remain as an old-school blue hero team, no rogues, no vigilantes, don't kill policy, etc. And yes, they should contrast with the Vindicators, who're much more open to questionable moralities (Malaise, Ms. Liberty, etc). That said, there's no reason the Phalanx has to remain the strongest group, in fact it would be interesting to see them lose relevance, being constantly sidelined by the much more powerful Vanguard, Vindicators, Shining Stars and Dawn Patrol, not to mention the player incarnates.

My favorites, apart from the Faultline Trio, would be Lillian Issan, Katie Douglas, Percy Winkley, Frostfire and Mercedes Sheldon.

Flower Knight and Coyote for the Phalanx.

I nominate Flamebeaux.

And possibly Serge, if only to update everyone's costumes.

In addition to some of the others mentioned, I would like to nominate a revived Clockwork King.

Simple enough for him to get his body back, we could even make it an SSA: Crey needs help stepping of their Reverent Hero project and decide the Clockwork King would be easy pickings, first they start by working with Malta and player villains to try to drive a wedge between him and Penelope Yin, heroes have to try to keep the two on more stable grounds, but the wedge still manages to become just enough of a divide that they both blow eachother off for awhile.

Crey swoops in, takes the clockwork king and lock him up and prep him for the Reverent Hero Project. Malta backstabs Crey to try to take the clone, villains take advantage of the confusion to have a technological shopping spree (loot dead malta sappers: get sap stick temp power!) while heroes are just trying to find out what happened to the King.

They find his dying 'body' next to his cloned one, Penny appears, distraught and guilty, but tells you she can transfer his consciousness into the clone, but as she's doing that, ambushes spawn, heroes trash the mooks, fight a boss, the Clockwork King is back, with a new body, and a much more stable mind.

As a gift and since villains would get a King's Standard buttload of temp powers from this, Clockwork King and Penny even things by rewarding heroes with a few temp powers.

Roll credits, we now have a new Phalanx member, and Penny and CK's relationship is now...

Freakier actually, because if my estimates were right, the clockwork king died when he was 14, sixteen at the most and Penny is about 22 now.

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.