Perhaps Ultimate Doc Samson could be in charge of Ultimate Ravencroft, an institution devoted the psychological study of super human inidividuals, trying to answer what motivates people to temper with their gene, how are metahumans different and similar to regular humans psycholgical and what is the best form of psychological treatment for metahumans, etc.
For some strange reason, I always thought Ravencroft was over in the DC universe. (And then after you mentioned it, I did my librarian thing and looked it up in the database at Marvel.com. Really do learn something new every day on this job.
) Would it be plausible for Samson to be one of the
founders of Ravencroft in the UU? The rise of meta-humans in the Ultimate Universe seems to be a very recent development, within just the last generation or two. After Samson leaves SHIELD, starting an institution like this might be a logical step at some point down the road.
Hah. Oldest girl I've dated was just pushing thirty, but she was damn fine. I'm still a spring chicken and all. damn shame, that.
Ah, well, I passed forty a while back, so I think anything more than conversation might be outside everyone's comfort zone. But the conversation itself is good and always welcome.
I was lucky to have a pretty progressive writing teacher who understood the role of pop and pulp culture in modern writing. But don't be too worried about it. Writing classes are pretty much a crock.
I've taught a writing class, so I've got a slightly different take on this. However, the biggest problem with my class in college was that the teacher was big on realistic fiction, and here I was reading sci-fi and fantasy literature. Granted, certain elements of writing are common to all forms of fiction, but the differences made it really difficult for the teacher and I to relate to each other's interests.
Interesting. When we were talking about Ultimizing Ulysses Bloodstone, I was thinking of having Elsa Bloodstone as a monster hunter who took over Kraven's old show (because really, with the ratings, I couldn't see a network not renewing that show), now hunting all sorts of urban myths and monsters, with Doc Strange as a supernatural consultant. And the two of them, off camera, have a sort of clubhouse alliance with Morbius, Blade, and Moon Knight called the Darkstalkers where they trade information and give each other the occassional help. An exploration of vampirism in the UU would be interesting and it really would open the doors wide for the adventure characters of the 616 to really shine in the Ultimate Universe. A rotating cast of adventure/pulp/noir/horror characters could make for a pretty cool UU book.
I have a more science fiction version of vampirism's origin kind of worked out (briefly, vampires as geneticially engineered humans, with recombinant DNA from various other animals allowing them to change forms and do other odd things), meant as predators for "regular" humans by an alien race that wanted Earth without humanity cluttering up the place. The "disease" basically remakes the subject, retains human-level intelligence, but destroys the humanity behind it (if that makes sense).
Morbius, for whatever reason, had some sort of physical makeup that caused him to change to vampire form, but retain his humanity, and also to synthesize an antidote that is passed through saliva (or something. Haven't quite worked all the details out yet). Presumably the present-day vampires are a remnant of this human-eradication program, which suggests that someone managed to stop the aliens (perhaps there's more to the story of Dracula than appears in Stoker's book), or that the experiment otherwise failed.
[N]ot familiar with that character....
Oh, sorry. Damien [Hellstrom -- I'm guessing he's going by the same last name, although it's never used], a.k.a. Son of Satan, showed up as a member of the Defenders in
Ultimates2 Issue 6, and then again in the Ultimates annual, apparently as a SHIELD "plant" and part of the Super Soldier initiative. (I'm wondering what his abilities are, if any -- possibly something that mimics all the supernatural abilities he supposedly has in regular Marvel. I'm not familiar with
Daimon Hellstrom in 616 Marvel, but the UU is something of a clean slate, so....)
hm... I'd really tear up his contract with SHIELD, and maybe have some bad blood between him and the agency. It would be hard to get out of contract, but that's exactly why it would make an interesting story.
This I'll have to mull over for a while and see if I can come up with something that would really put him on the outs with SHIELD, without him just be conveniently made to "disappear" or something.
Have him be the doctor who ran all the psychological profiling for incoming SHIELD agents and for criminals SHIELD might be facing. Have him be the psychologist who was overseeing the experiments Banner was performing on. I'd get rid of the "lab accident" and instead make it so Sampson willing tests on himself, believing he understands what went wrong with the exposure Banner was treated with. Hell, having him coming out of that experiment smelling like roses would create some serious tension between him and Hulk if he does get drafted back into service.
I've always had issues with scientists who test unknown techniques or injections on themselves. (On the other hand, there are plenty of real-life examples of that happening, so it's not unheard-of, just, in my opinion, kind of stupid.) I was going to avoid the whole "superhero" thing anyway and just leave Samson as a really smart but basically regular guy, but I could be persuaded otherwise.
I'd really push the limits of plausibility when it comes to Sampson's expertise. Make him a doctor of psychology who's also a whiz-kid in biochemistry, and a devoted interest in ethnology and archaeology. Give him knowledge of multiple languages. All those old school pulp heroes were geniuses in multiple fields and I'd really like to channel that angle of the character. For his mutation, I'd just have the radiation put him esssentially in peak physical and mental condition.
Perhaps some of that could be attributed to "the mutation", although it would make more sense to me if Samson had the super-smarts before he did the self-experimentation.
Having Samson interested in all of the sciences you mention makes some sense -- there is a biochemical side to why people think and act the way they do, so a relationship already exists between those two fields. Also, archaeology and enthnology would be useful in comparing behaviors across cultures, and in tracing possible racial changes in behavior over time. For example: at one time I found a source that suggested that humanity was once telepathic, and for some reason lost or completely suppressed that ability, for whatever reason. I can't remember where or when I read that, but if evidence existed that humanity could communicate mentally at some point existed, it could shed light on some meta-human behavior in the present day.
I'd say, something happens between him and SHIELD and by the skin of his teeth he manages to slip by, picking up a position as adjunct professor at NYU while he goes on wild globe-trotting adventures.
As I recall, the reason Doc Savage could get away with that sort of thing was that he and most of his buddies were independently wealthy. Indiana Jones has a university expense account. Samson's ability to globe-trot might be an offshoot of being in charge of (or hired by) Ravencroft, which would also give him the excuse to get out there and track down interesting individuals for study and/or interview. (Or perhaps Ravencroft is affiliated with SHIELD in some way, and this "falling out" is just a feint of some sort.) Have to give that some thought.
[previews post] Good grief -- this post is almost as bad as the six-page essay I wrote up on Thor's possible origins. :roll: I'm running off at the cursor again....
