#2 Fantastic Four
#3 Avengers
#4 The Galacti
#5 Justice League
#6 Green Lantern Corps
#7 Justice Society
#8 Thunderbolts
#9 SHIELD
#10 Heroes for Hire
#11 Invaders
#12 The Hand
#13 Nextwave
#14 Maximums
#15 Force Works
#16 Nightwing Restorations
#17 X-Factor
#18 New Mutants
#19 Lin Kuei
#20 The Illuminati
The last few weeks of Infinite Wars have featured some of the most prominent superhero teams in the Marvel and DC universes. Well, okay, the most prominent superhero teams and the Defenders.
More often than not we focus on the individual progress of characters, but it's worth noting that we also keep a running watch on the successes and failings of every league, group, team, and organization, passing through our statistical slalom. Marvel as we reveal the rarely seen top twenty tally of superhero and villain teams!
The team theme seems particularly fitting since the Infinite Wars Fantasy League went live! The Fantasy League can be as creative and involving as you want to to be, as you sponsor your own quintet of heroes and villains through their trials in the weaving Infinite Wars! A couple of the blogging contestants have given their own accounts of what to expect, so check out the Ghost Walkers and Knights of Right!
If you haven't yet signed up, head over to the briefing and start drafting a team right away! It's that simple! For more on some of the teams already registered, stick around for tomorrow's C2C! And stay tune for the Punch-Up on the first of May for the first update of progress! For now, check out some of the great back issues featuring the teams that got away!
X-Men Annual #14 (1990)"You Must Remember This" Claremont/Adams
Well, is there any better way to start off a catalogue of team entries than with a team-up of teams? It'll be a long while before we see another threat that brings together the combined might of the Fantastic Four, X-Men, X-Factor, and New Mutants, let me tell you!
The groups are brought together when the time travelling children of Mr. Fantastic/Invisible Woman and Cyclops/Jean Grey bring back with them the menace of the super Sentinel cyborg - Ahab! The robotic slayer of mutants turns the team against themselves when he and his Hounds capture a member from each team, but when the going gets tough, the tough get cosmic! Who among them possesses the powers of a god? Perhaps a certain someone who spent his childhood stuffing the heroes into a pocket dimension?...
Thunderbolts #1 (April 1997)"Justice..." Busiek/Bagley
In truth they're the Masters of Evil, but to the world press they're the newest team of superhumans protecting humanity! With Earth's mightiest heroes seemingly killed by Onslaught, the Thunderbolts are primed to usurp the trust of the world's nations, and to do it they have to fight villains who were once friends!
With their battles with the Hulk behind them, the Wrecking Crew are the lucky first group to taste justice like lightning from their former allies!
Missing Mark Bagley already? Thunderbolts, though not his best known work, remains some of the very best of pencils you'll ever see! Also an incredibly interesting retrospective given the paths taken by the Thunderbolts brand, and the characters that once embodied it!
Infinite Crisis #1 (December 2005)"Infinite Crisis" Johns/Jiminez
They might not have the best record when it comes to the hit and miss, but nobody can question the golden age grit and determination of Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters!
The team's up against the overwhelming might of a task force of Lex Luthor's finest inductees into The Society, and with Black Adam leading the pack, the odds don't look particularly good. What am I talking about? Well, he is the man with a genocidal record of over three million kills to his name! Shazam, indeed!
Yeesh. It's the grizzly showdown well known for it's depiction of Phantom Lady's impalement at the hands of Deathstroke, and it's all here, for better or worse, documented in the Wars.
Civil War #3 (September 2006)"Civil War" Millar/McNiven
Even with Marvel's next big blockbuster event, Secret Invasion, officially here, we're still considering how the ramifications of the superhero Civil War will affect these future events. With the Invasion so intrinsically attach to infiltrations of the past, you'll want to know exactly where everyone was when the lines were drawn!
It's the officially sanctioned pro-registration Avengers, up against the rebellious Secret Avengers, in a showdown ambush that ultimately led to the shocking death of Black Goliath! It's also a crucial chapter in the final campaign of another hero who lost his life - Steve Rogers; Captain America!
If you're just getting into New Avengers and Mighty Avengers then you'll want to know the genesis of those teams as you dive into the world of Skrull paranoia!
Green Lantern #24 (December 2007)"Home Invasion" Johns/Reis
In brightest day, in darkest night, no evil will escape their sight! Let those who worship evil's might, beware their power, the Green Lanterns' light!
Stock in the Green Lantern Corps has been gradually on the rise since Green Lantern: Rebirth, but Geoff Johns capped his contribution to the franchise off by officially returning the Corps to the big league with his widespread hit, Sinestro Corps War. The series pits the Lanterns agains their yellow counterparts, the aptly named Sinestro Corps, as led by their namesake, and nemesis to Hal Jordan, Sinestro.
With a Green Lantern adorning the cover of the first issue of Final Crisis, the Lanterns are sure to be a point of interest in the near future. Check out this piece of the Sinestro Corps puzzle, and follow the links to more!
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