LNH/META: LNH leadership and such (was Re: Saviours of the NET #7)

[Adrian James McClure]

Warning:  I'm working out my thoughts as I write this, and my head
almost exploded from finals studying so this may or may not be coherent

Jamas Enright wrote:
> On Sat, 29 Apr 2006 martinphipps2 at yahoo.com wrote:
>
> > Tom Russell wrote:
> >
> >> I think that one of these underdeveloped characters is ripe to be
> >> improved by committee.  To have different slants and interpetations
> >> presented.  To be-- LEADER OF THE LNH!
> >
> > There are only three possible candidates.
>
> I think the main problem with this idea is that it'll be hard to get
> everyone (Authors as well as characters :) ) to agree on who the new
> leader would be.
>
> I suggest now to anyone interested in this idea to write a "Leader for the
> day" type story. If you really want to give a bid for a character, prove
> to the rest of us that that person works. :)
>

I don't know who the best choice for this would be, but I'd very much
like to do this storyline.  Mainly becuase create some interesting
possiblities for my own series.  Ultimate Mercenary, of course,
idolizes Ultimate Ninja so imagine how he'd react if someone else
became leader...

> > There are other possible candidates, I suppose, including the
> > aforementioned LURKING GIRL.  I assume she's still around.  I don't
>
> Also Catalyst Lass. She was the leader during the Looniverse Adrift! arc.
>

>From this discussion, Catalyst Lass sounds like an excellent choice.
As Tom said, the leader of the LNH needs to be someone who has several
different aspects of their personality and is capable of different
interpretations, and from the discussion that's been going on Catalyst
Lass fits that criterion very well.  You have the Particle Man and LNH
Triple Play interpretations.  (I would sort of ignore the Hell Catalyst
retcon, to the extent that Hell Catalyst does exist but her personality
traits are still ones that the "real" Catalyst Lass is capable of.)  I
also ended up inadvertantly coming up with a third, slightly different
interpretation when I used her in Just Imagine II, as I hadn't read
extensively in either of those series.  (Keeping up with the new
issues, and my school work, doesn't always leave me time for archive
reading.)  I ended up writing her as someone who tends to be
level-headed in bizarre and confusing situations, and she's able to
persuade people by her presence of mind.  It makes that someone like
her would be flexible and have different ways of relating to people.
In that story, the other LNHers on that particular mission ended up
unconsciously gravitating toward her as leader.

The more subtle style of leadership that she'd bring to the table would
be a nice contrast with UN.  She's also a core LNHer who's been around
since the earliest days but hasn't had anything particularly important
to do in the last few years.  I kind of used her on impulse back during
Just Imagine 2, as I wanted to have that particular away mission
consist of characters who hadn't been spotlighted in a while but hadn't
done a lot recently.  But all this discussion is making me very
interested in her as a character.  She seems to embody some interesting
contradictions, a little like what Rob said about Panta.  She's a "good
girl" and "bad girl" at the same time.  Her powers would help her to
get inside a situation and understand a situation from within, to form
connections and empathize with people, but also to stand
dispassionately from without, to manipulate poeple.  She is capable of
being a very down-to-earth, very human person, but she is also capable
of being as fierce, in her own way, as Ultimate Ninja.  And I would
rather be on the bad side of someone like UN than someone like her.
I'm kind of starting to see her as almost a cross between Wonder Woman
(when she's--all to rarely--written properly, as in Gail Simone's
current JLA Classified arc, where she is an icon of compassion and
fierce dignity) and Emma Frost, though also capable of being more
down-to-earth than either of them.  On the other hand, the fact that
her character is a bit more subtle than UN's could be a disadvantage.

And Arthur wrote:

>I would disagree with MTM being a cipher.  In Saviors of the Net I believe
>I compared him to the Norse God Heimdall (the God who guards the rainbow
>bridge Bi-Frost and will sound the horn when Ragnarok comes).  He's the
>LNH's guy who sits constantly in the Monitor Room waiting to announce the
>End or any Crossover that happens to come before it.

That was a wonderful passage, by the way.  One of my favorites in all
the LNH canon.

>I did try to plant the seeds last year for a Manga Man as leader of the LNH
>story (which Martin ripped right out from the ground).

Based on something I'm planning right now, this may yet happen after
all...  And yes, Manga Girl II will be connected to Manga Man.