The Wild Pack
Who knows what Slott plans on doing with Silver Sable in his upcoming TASM arc. Hopefully he doesn’t screw her up, he’s been doing a lot of screwing up lately. Regardless of what happens there, Sable represents a massive untapped well of potential in the world of Marvel spies. Everyone loves Marvel’s mercenaries. And what’s more cool than a team of literal super spies? I’ve compiled a fun and eclectic new team of characters to form Sable’s new “A-Team” for a brand new run of epic spy missions.
The Team
So who will Sable be recruiting for the new Wild Pack? The first “origin” arc will follow her assembling the team as she takes back control of the family business. First up is
Paladin, the hard-partying, womanizing mercenary whose reputation has seen better days. (Just don’t mention it to his face) Next on the list are
Power Man (Victor Alvarez) and
Big Bertha recruited from SHIELD where they’ve found they “just can’t get no respect” as they attempt to be taken seriously as superheroes. Rounding out the team are conflicted pseudo-supervillain
Black Ant and rambunctious hero for hire
Kate Bishop round out the team. Also on deck is the cantankerous mad scientist
Dr. Nemesis. Also serving alongside them occasionally are my personal creation, Sable Security agent
Blue Morph and the company’s new CEO
Hobgoblin and his right hand woman
Beetle.
The characters are the core of the story. Each of them brings a long history and a unique voice to the team and their adventures. But they are all united by their search for a place in the world. Paladin is running scared from his damaged reputation and self-confidence issues, hiding them under a guise of unending swagger. Victor is trying to move out from the shadow of the original Power Man, but finds his fellow heroes view him as “just a kid”. He finds a place among Sable’s mercenaries, but it will test his relationship with Ava Ayala, the White Tiger. Like Victor, Bertha has grown disenfranchised in her quest to become a “real hero”. She’s looking for purpose, and will find it in the Pack, as the team Powerhouse and Master of Disguise. Black Ant showed up because of the pay check, plus Sable broke him out of prison. Secretly, though, deep within his programming is an urge to return to his heroic roots. Kate Bishop has moved on from a PI to a bounty hunter and after failing to apprehend Sable, opted to join the Wild Pack instead. Her ever optimistic, bubbly personality will be put to the test by the dark side of the Marvel Universe her new job will dive into. Dr. Nemesis has offered up his blunt brand of science to Sable after growing bored with the X-Men, but the new job won’t stop his bizarre extracurricular experiments, including a flying robot shark. Blue Morph is rather new to the game, a Latina soldier with a suit modeled after Beetle’s and a mess of self-confidence issues.
The Story
Our first arc will flash back to explain just how Sable came back into power over her company, which had been taken over by her villainous Uncle Saul. Dragging old employee Paladin from a life of buying his way through clubs on the stories of his glory days, she goes to the most powerful criminal in the world for help: Roderick Kingsley, the Hobgoblin. He offers access to his vast international underworld empire in exchange for a future board position. It doesn’t take long for SHIELD to catch up to our hapless duo, however. While in lockup, Sable talks their two powered guards, Victor Alvarez and Big Bertha into helping them escape, not realizing fellow prisoner Black Ant has tagged along for the ride. With numerous bounty hunters, including Kate Bishop, on their trail, the new team frees Dr. Nemesis from a cartel-run underworld prison with help from local agent Blue Morph before turning to Symkaria for the show with Saul. Sable captures her uncle, but his mysterious partner escapes. All seems to be restored to its proper place, until it is revealed that Kingsley has convinced the board to name him CEO.
Over the ensuing series of adventures, the team takes on numerous missions of espionage and security traversing the entire globe, and occasionally even traversing beyond Earth’s atmosphere. The team faces off with such diverse threats as Augustine Cross (a mission that brings Kate into conflict with her old friend Cassie Lang) to the Tarantula Cartel and their Inhuman trafficking scheme. Ongoing thorns in their side are SHIELD, determined to take down Sable, with top agents Quake, Fantomex, and Machine Man obsessively pursuing them worldwide and the White Wolf, Hunter, who has set up his own rival intelligence firm made up of his personal Hatut Zeraze agents.
After a year of fighting with Kingsley over control of the company, the Hobgoblin finds himself in Sable’s debt when she bails him out of trouble after the Hobgoblin Supremacy crossover (See my Spidey pitch). He and Beetle make begrudging housemates for the Wild Pack throughout the remainder of their adventures. Paladin and Bertha find romance, while White Tiger betrays Power Man to spy on Sable for SHIELD. The team also adds J.T. James, mysteriously alive again, to its roster. Kingsley, meanwhile, manages to insert the company into the new Hellfire Club, only to grow increasingly suspicious of their inner workings. Sable, meanwhile, plays massive geopolitical chess with SHIELD, a game that ends with her deposing Nick Fury Jr. and taking over the organization. But just as she achieves her greatest victory, all hell breaks loose.
Goblin War
Kingsley stumbles onto the secret of Murdoch/Osborne’s inner circle earlier than any hero, but it quickly becomes clear Norman isn’t about to let his long-time rival join his scheme. Beetle betrays her boss and takes the spot on the council Kingsley thought was for him, leaving Sable Security and SHIELD wide open to attack after the Goblin Force is unleashed. The team splits, with Sable taking on the Shadow Council on Earth while Kingsley dons his Hobgoblin gear once more to lead Power Man, Nemesis, and Kate Bishop to fight alongside the heroes in space. Black Ant ultimately “gives in to his heroic urges” and sacrifices himself in the fight on Earth, while Kingsley is seemingly killed by Norman in space. After the end of the war, Power Man and Dr. Nemesis opt to remain in space as Nemesis revives the Ultimates program. The remaining team members regroup amidst the shambles of Sable Industries as it faces it’s biggest threat yet. A merger with Hunter’s Hatut Zeraze!
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! As always, sound off with any comments and feedback in the space below!