Happy Comic-Con, everyone! The greatest comic book show on Earth is taking place in San Diego this week, and once again, I’m not there. Someday I’ll go, when I’m old and gray and can’t walk good. But until then, I’ll keep alive my tradition of posting a dream comic book team roster! Because it’s just plain fun.

This year I’m doing my Dark X-Men team pitch for the new From the Ashes relaunch.

I do this every year because I love thinking up superhero comics. Someday I’ll get to pitch a team book to Marvel or DC or real, and I’ll have all of these past years to look back on. Last year I did the Legion of Super-Heroes, and I’ve previously done the Brotherhood, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Thunderbolts, the Justice League, the main X-Men, the Fantastic Four and more Dream Rosters. It’s a fun game!

This year is my pitch for a From the Ashes comic. In the wake of the Krakoa Era of the X-Men, Marvel has relaunched with a back-to-basics approach. We’ve got the X-Men, the Uncanny X-Men, a new X-Factor, a new X-Force; all sorts of comics! If I could go back in time and pitch Marvel editorial on a From the Ashes comic, it would be the Dark X-Men you’ll see below!

Join me after the jump for the six characters I would put together in a Dark X-Men comic for From the Ashes!

Premise: So overall premise of From the Ashes is that mutants have fled Krakoa and are forced to start again in a world that hates and fears them. Some characters have gone on to normal lives, like Kate Pryde, while others are still the X-Men like Cyclops and his crew in Alaska. Dazzler is going on a world tour and Storm is joining the X-Men.

My premise for Dark X-Men is that some classic Evil Mutants became good guys during Krakoa and they want to stick with it. At the start of Krakoa, all the bad guy mutants were invited to join the good guys and have total amnesty. A lot of them stayed bad guys and kept doing evil things, but for some mutants — a few on this list — they really did reform on Krakoa. So what happens to them when the island paradise goes away? In my comic, they decide to make a go at being the X-Men. They weren’t invited to join Cyclops or Rogue or Emma Frost or whoever is putting the new X-Men together, so they’ve decided to make a go of it themselves. They likely wouldn’t be very good at it, but they’d give it a try, gosh darnit.

Now then, who would I put on the team?

6. Mimic

Who is he: Calvin Rankin was the first ever new member of the X-Men after the original five. He was a villain who developed the power to copy the super powers of others, and he used that to first oppose and then eventually bully his way onto the team. He only lasted three issues, but that counts! He was an X-Man! Mimic never really rose to any sort of prominence, despite his incredible power. He’s bounced around bad guy teams and good guy teams, and was a member of the Dark X-Men before. His most famous version is an alternate reality version that was on the Exiles for a long time.

Why pick him: Two big things sort of happened for Mimic during Krakoa: he was finally confirmed as a mutant (mostly) and when he was finally called upon to do something, he wussed out. Mimic was originally a human who got his powers from a lab experiment, but his close relationship with the X-Men meant that he was sometimes considered a mutant over the decades because writers and editors probably didn’t fully research him. But Mimic was allowed to live on Krakoa, and he was referred to as a mutant in those text pages they used to do…so he’s a mutant! And he had one job: filling in for The Five when one of them went down. When he was finally called upon to do that — in his one and only appearance in the Krakoa Era — Mimic balked and didn’t help.

So in Dark X-Men, my version of Mimic would be ready and willing to turn his life around. He flaked when the X-Men really needed him, and he’s determined not to do that again. Plus, now that he’s confirmed as a mutant, he can stop wallowing in self doubt, always afraid that he was only ever a shadow of other, greater people. Now he can be confident that he’s a mutant, he’s always been part of the family, and his own unique mutant power — mimicry — is just as good as anybody else’s. So with the Dark X-Men (probably won’t call themselves that), Mimic is ready to take the lead and be a hero and help his fellow mutants — while still being plagued by self doubt, obviously.

5. Blob

Who is he: Fred Dukes is the immoveable Blob! He’s been an X-Men villain since only the third ever issue of X-Men comics, and he’s really only ever been a villain. He’s a bully and an asshole. Not only is he a big fat guy, but he has the power to control his own, personal gravitational field. So he can make his big body incredibly light, or he can plant himself so firmly in the ground that nothing can move him!

Why pick him: Blob is probably the best Krakoa redemption story. Following a star making turn in the Age of X-Man comics, Blob took the amnesty offer of Krakoa and became the bartender in the Green Lagoon, which was the main hangout bar on the island. The dude was just a chill bartender for most of the entire era, before being twisted up by some bad guys at the very end. So Blob would be first in line for this new team, eager to actually be an X-Man for once and do some good after the peace he found in paradise.

4. Avalanche

Who is he: Dominikos Petrakis has only ever been a henchman of a mutant. He’s usually teamed with Pyro, and they join whatever Brotherhood of Mutants is around this week. He did that for a while and then was killed by the Red Skull many years ago, finally getting resurrected on Krakoa. At one point, he was in the running to be elected to the X-Men during the Krakoa Era, but that went nowhere. He seems to be an alright dude at least.

Why pick him: Because I need warm bodies who used to be members of the Brotherhood to join my Dark X-Men, and Pryo is on the new X-Factor. Avalanche once owned a bar in San Francisco, and I think I’d set my team book there. They all shack up in this bar (Blob connection) and work out of it, with Avalanche trying his best to be a good dude and help out.

3. Phantazia

Who is she: Phantazia was a member of one incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants way back in the early 90s, a new character who added a female face to the all-male lineup. She had the power to manipulate electromagnetic energy fields, and had a really cool costume. She dipped out from the team after only a short while and has never done anything of note since. She had a single appearance in the Krakoa Era after it was already falling apart (in the Dark X-Men comic!).

Why pick her: Phantazia is such a weirdly underused character. She’s got a great look, but only ever really joined one small incarnation of the Brotherhood and then never came back. Even when Marvel made a Sisterhood of Evil Mutants, they didn’t feel like adding her to the ticket. She’s long overdue for a bit of spotlight and some actual fleshing out. Also, this team needs more women, and she’s a perfect candidate.

2. Changeling

Who is he: Do you know Morph from the X-Men ’97 cartoon? He didn’t really exist before the 90s version, except as Changeling. He was a one-off shapeshifter back in the 1960s, during the run of the original X-Men. He fought them once or twice, and then he got cancer. He went to Professor X asking for redemption, and Xavier had Changeling pose as him while Xavier went to do some secret work. This allowed Stan Lee to write a big “Xavier is dead!” issue…except that Changeling died and not Xavier. That was the only thing this character ever did, until the creators of the original X-Men animated series needed a mutant they could kill off in the first episode. They picked Changeling and changed his name, and Morph was born! The Morph character became a lot more famous due to the Age of Apocalypse and the Exiles, but the original Changeling stayed dead…until Krakoa.

Why pick him: Morph is a hugely popular character now due to X-Men ’97, and Changeling is alive again due to Krakoa, so why not start bringing him back around in the comics? He can change his name to Morph in the comics and he’s basically a blank slate, so I could turn him into whatever character worked best for him. Morph was a jokester in Exiles, is Changeling a jokester? We could all find out together!

1. Blink

Who is she: Clarice Ferguson debuted as one of the Generation X kids in the ’90s, only to then be the sacrificial lamb in their opening storyline when they needed a shocking death. That would have been the end of her, except Marvel decided to use her character in the alternate timeline Age of Apocalypse story. She became immensely popular and was moved over to the Exiles as the main character, which only served to keep her popularity growing. Then at some point, Marvel resurrected the original 616 Blink, but she hasn’t done too much. Hung out with the New Mutants and SWORD for a bit.

Why pick her: I’m not going to try to put one over on you good people. Perhaps some of you have even figured out what I’m doing here. Yes, if I had the chance, I would totally pitch this Dark X-Men comic to Marvel and write the heck out of a comic where a couple of former evil mutants and some down-on-their-luck nobodies try to be the new X-Men. But then I would secretly, subtly, expertly weave in a stealth 616 Exiles team.

So the Exiles was a team comic in the early 2000s in which a bunch of alternate reality characters went on missions to other alternate realities in an ongoing effort to save the Multiverse. It didn’t star any existing Marvel characters (at least not in the beginning), and instead starred alternate versions of existing Marvel characters. Among them were Mimic, Blink and Morph, but also Thunderbird, Sunfire, Nocturne (the daughter of Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch), a new Sasquatch, Magik, Hyperion and so many more. It was a great comic! And while it did visit the 616 universe a couple of times, it never crossed over with existing 616 versions of the Exiles (at least I don’t think so), mostly because a lot of them were dead.

But now thanks to Necrosha, Krakoa and a couple of other stories, all those dead 616 versions are alive again! And I think it would be super fun to do a comic where they team up, despite having zero idea about the Exiles or their alternate reality lives. So yeah, I’d make a team with the 616 versions of Mimic, Morph and Blink, and throw in cameos from the likes of Thunderbird, Marko Yashida, Heather Hudson and more, and then add some cameos from 616 characters who met the Exiles, like Beak, Sage and Elizabeth Braddock! I think it would be super fun and the fans would love it!

So yeah, that’s why Blink rounds out my team, though I’d also make her a solid character with real reasons for being on the Dark X-Men. Maybe a romance with Mimic to match the Exiles? Maybe they become Exiles for a storyline? The possibilities are endless…at least in my mind.

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