THE CREW

Membership: Bronze, Crusader, Dakota, Foxclaw, Mystere

Purpose: To train to become Avengers of the future;
   formerly to be studied by A.I.M. so their weaknesses could be discovered.

Aliases: None

Affiliations: Hawkeye (Clint Barton)

Enemies: A.I.M., Foom, Mars

Base of Operations: Unrevealed

First Appearance: The Crew (dropped 1998 series proposal)

History:
(The Crew) - In order to more thoroughly study the weaknesses of some of their recurring superhero nemeses - Captain America, Scarlet Witch, the Thing, Wolverine and She-Hulk - A.I.M. created a number of clones aged to their teens, even going so far as to dupe them into forming a super group, the Crew, so they could analyze the group dynamics. However the team eventually realized they were being manipulated and escaped, going on the run. During this time they encountered Mars, a young clone of Doctor Doom, and Fin Fang Foom's half-human son, Foom. Eventually the Crew came to be mentored by Hawkeye, training to become junior Avengers.

Comments: Created by Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn.

  Around 1998 Marvel sought to develop new talent with fresh takes on existing characters for a new Epic line that was being developed. Writer Phil Hester and artist Andy Kuhn pitched a book called The Crew, which was to feature teen versions of various established heroes, created by A.I.M. via cloning. Christ Claremont, then in a creative decision-making role at the company, was enthusiastic about the idea and suggested adding in some young villains for the team to fight, prompting the addition of a Doctor Doom clone and the offspring of Fin Fang Foom. However, things stalled and once Claremont moved on the proposal die...though not completely. Per a 2013 interview Hester gave to Bleeding Cool, he and Kuhn really liked the idea of "a teenaged Ben Grimm trying to fit in at a high school with his rocky orange skin as much as we loved the conceit of an ersatz Godzilla having a human son he wanted to rule his domain someday. We mashed those two concepts together, along with a healthy dose of old school Peter Parker, into Firebreather. Luckily, around 2003, Image was starting up a shared super hero universe and we took Firebreather there."

   Though thematically not dissimilar to the later Young Avengers title, Hester also noted in his interview "I should make it crystal clear that I don't think Marvel cribbed their eventual Young Avengers book from our pitch in any way. Ideas rise and fall in the roiling foam of comics like that." In an earlier interview with Andrea Speed (presumably for her site, Comixtreme, but I can't confirm as that site is long gone - the quote was reprinted on CBR in Brian Cronin's Comic Book Urban Legends), Hester similarly noted "I don't believe for a second anyone ripped us off... I think it probably has more in common, at least in tone, with Runaways."

   Though there have now been similar teen hero groups introduced at Marvel, there's nothing to prevent this team actually existing on Earth-616 too, either to be introduced as new characters in current comics, or revealed to have been round at the same time as contemporaneous 1998 titles but just off-panel. Of course, if Crusader had been around in 1998 then the dialogue in the picture to the left, taken from New Avengers I#4 (2005) would need slightly amended, so I've taken the liberty to do so.

   I'm not aware if the proposal had gotten so far as to produce concept art, but if it had, then it's not to be found anywhere online that I could find. However, since a profile without any illustrations can be somewhat bland, I've cheated somewhat in the sub-profiles down below, in order to depict how the characters might have looked. If concept art ever surfaces then I'll switch out the approximations for the actual actual depictions.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Crew has no known connections to:

Bronze has no known connections to:

Crusader has no known connections to:

Dakota has no known connections to:

Foxclaw has no known connections to:

Mystere has no known connections to:

Foom has no known connections to:

Mars has no known connections to:

Bronze

Bronze was a clone of the Thing (Ben Grimm).

Comments: There's no actual art for Bronze that I know of. However, in early 2024 Marvel did a bunch of "New Champions" variant covers depicting teen sidekicks of adult heroes. One of these was a teenage version of the Thing, so I've used that here to illustrate how Bronze potentially could have looked.


Crusader

Crusader was a clone of Captain America (Steve Rogers)

Comments: There's no actual art for Crusader that I know of. In the absence of a proper picture I have instead turned to a picture of Cap's alternate reality teenage son, James Rogers of the Next Avengers, for how Crusader potentially could have looked.

Dakota

Dakota was a clone of the She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters).

Comments: There's no actual art for Dakota that I know of. However, in early 2024 Marvel did a bunch of "New Champions" variant covers depicting teen sidekicks of adult heroes. One of these was a teenage version of She-Hulk, so I've used that here to illustrate how Dakota potentially could have looked.

Foxclaw

Foxclaw was a clone of Wolverine (Logan/James Howlett).

Comments: There's no actual art for Foxclaw that I know of. However, in early 2024 Marvel did a bunch of "New Champions" variant covers depicting teen sidekicks of adult heroes. One of these was a teenage version of Wolverine, so I've used that here to illustrate how Foxclaw potentially could have looked.

   Obviously the idea of introducing a Wolverine clone is silly and would never sell...

Mystere

Mystere was a clone of the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff).

Comments: There's no actual art for Mystere that I know of. However, there are some design sketches of the teenaged Scarlet Witch created for the House of Harkness Infinity Comics, so I've used that here to illustrate how Mystere potentially could have looked.

Foom

Foom was the son of Fin Fang Foom.

Comments: There's no actual art for Foom that I know of. However, given the character was retooled to become Firebreather, son of the dragon Belloc rather than son of the dragon Fin Fang Foom, I've used an image of Firebreather. Since Belloc is red to Firebreather's orange skin/scales, I'm ASSuming that Foom would have been a light green to Fin Fang Foom's dark green, so I altered the coloring of the Firebreather image to fit this.

Mars

Mars was a clone of Doctor Victor von Doom.

Comments: There's no actual art for Mars that I know of. However, in 2011 Marvel solicited a miniseries, Victor von Doom, which was to star a teenaged Doom. Ultimately only the covers of the first three issues were released, but those did provide images of a teenaged Doom, which I've used that here to illustrate how Mars potentially could have looked.

images: (without ads)
New Avengers I#4, p3, pan1 (everyone has clones!)
Fantastic Four VII#12 cover (teenaged Thing)
Avengers World#9, p20, pan1 (James Rogers)
Sensational She-Hulk II#1 cover (teenaged She-Hulk)
Wolverine VII#8 cover (teenaged Wolverine)
Scarlet Witch III#9 cover (teenaged Scarlet Witch)
Firebreather TPB Growing Pains cover (Firebreather)
Firebreather II#2, p9, pan4 (Belloc)
Iron Man III#17, p3, pan1 (Fin Fang Foom)
Victor von Doom#1 cover (teenaged Doom headshot)
Victor von Doom#2 cover (teenaged Doom full body)

Appearances:
None.

First Posted: 10/06/2024
Last updated: 10/06/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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