Strange Company: The Marvel Mystical Fantasy Draft, Part Two

For our latest fantasy draft, in honor of Doctor Strange, our writers must compete to put together the best superhero teams made up entirely of Marvel magical characters, featuring one occultist, one demon, one vampire, one undead character, and one were-monster.

In day one of the draft, Tara Marie picked Sera, Jubilee, and FrankenCastle; Steve picked Spitfire, Nico Minoru, and Robbie Reyes; Kieran picked Dracula, Elsa Bloodstone, and Captain Britain; Andrew picked Agatha Harkness, Billy Kaplan, and Cullen Bloodstone; and Elle picked Magik, Blade, and Zombie. In day two, they pick the fourth and fifth members of their teams --- and the doctors are in.

Tara Marie: All right, since I didn’t get Magik, I’m scooping up another one of my fave magic-using mutants, the Scarlet --- nah, j/k; I’m grabbing Pixie. She’s another awesome mutant I fell in love with thanks to the writing of Kathryn Immonen, and with her being basically a literal fairy, I think she goes good on this team.

Steve: What?!

Andrew: This is bad news for Steve, the world’s #1 Pixie fan.

Steve: I’m so deeply upset right now

Kieran: I was planning on snapping up Pixie this round. I don’t even like Pixie that much, I just know Steve does.

Steve: GAAAAAAAH.

Fine. My next choice is the one character not even Peter Milligan could stop: it’s Dead Girl. The X-Force/X-Statix stalwart outlasted everyone else on her team in, uh, spirit --- perhaps through the dubious distinction of being dead prior to joining their ranks to start with. This precious sardonic Moonbeam has hung with some of the heaviest hitters in the Marvel Universe (although that has usually meant they’ve punched straight through her) but has kept a relatively straight head through everything she’s been put through. "Relatively."

Kieran: I’m gonna go for my mystic character now. He’s known throughout the Marvel Universe was one of its most proficient magic wielders, he’s got a fancy cloak and can be kinda unbearable to be around at times. Who else could it be but Doctor… Doom. I choose Doom! He’s a full on hero now, with his own ongoing comic and everything, and he adds another science expert to my magic team, because sometimes you need a solid understanding of quantum mechanics to close a portal to the Dark Dimension.

Tara Marie: I am now sorta hoping you fall into a dark dimension since Doctor Doom was my very next pick. Although, technically, I was going with Infamous Iron Man. To be difficult.

Andrew: I'm going to make my demonic pick, though she could also have been my vampire pick (due to her succubus nature), and she satisfies my need for a villain. She's another member of a redoubtable Marvel supernatural family, the actual daughter of actual Satan (NB: not actually Satan); Satana Hellstrom. A human/demon hybrid taught black magic by her demon father, Satana's dubious morality and diabolical carnality make her a lot of fun for any team dynamic. She also has incredibly awful dress sense, which I enjoy. But I might see about getting her a shirt.

Kieran: She’s in the Avengers Academy game right now and thankfully much more modestly dressed.

Steve: Satana is incredibly entertaining on a team, as well --- the Jeff Parker/Kev Walker Thunderbolts run really showcased the character, to the extent I’m surprised she isn’t more prominent right now.

Elle: Okay, if nobody else is going for this guy, I’m going to pick him: My mystic is Doctor Strange. He’s a jerk a lot of the time, but at the end of the day, he’s the sorcerer you want on your side. Current storylines aside, he’s incredibly powerful, and he also has a ton of knowledge and experience involving the mystical side of the Marvel Universe. It just wouldn’t be a mystical Marvel crossover without him.

Andrew: Given that we’re doing this fantasy team theme in anticipation of the Doctor Strange movie, I’m relieved one of us picked him, even if it took until the halfway point to get there!

Tara Marie: For my fifth pick, I thought I’d choose a villain! He used to be my favorite Marvel villain (before I fell for Doc Ock), but he’s still up there. It is Carnage. But not just any Carnage. See, in his most recent series he found out he’s The Red Slayer who will awaken an Elder God and has been given demonic powers, including invulnerability, and instead of using one body as a host, he can possess countless people.

Carnage has always been awesomely wicked, and one of the darkest characters, but now he’s a literal demon burning across the Earth. He’ll need to be kept in check by the others, but I think he’s a good addition to my team.

Steve: I want to overpower my team too, and also retain the option of eating the occasional marriage where necessary, so my next choice is Mephisto. He’s such a darling, albeit a manipulating sadist darling. He’s a very enjoyable character, with such a range of powers, and I pretty sure Dead Girl would have a great time eye-rolling at him.

Tara Marie: "Manipulating sadist darling" is all I’ve ever wanted to be in life.

Kieran: I’m going left-field for my next pick and choosing someone that might not count as a “monster” per se, but he fills the role of a were-being transformed by magic, and that’s Simon Walterson, AKA Puddlegulp AKA Throg: Frog of Thunder. He’s got all the powers of a frog and a Thor, which you can’t really beat. Try it, you can’t.

Steve: I think Kieran just won the draft.

Andrew: OK, I still haven’t picked my vampire, and everyone else has picked theirs, but I feel like there are still at least three great bloodsuckers to choose from, so I’m going to keep my vamp in my pocket for now and pick a wildcard.

Jericho Drumm, aka Brother Voodoo, is one of Marvel's greatest supernatural heroes of the 1970s, Drumm represents one of a vibrant spiritual tradition, and he's an imposing and formidable character. I know he goes by Doctor Voodoo now, but I think his original title better honors both the spiritual ideal of brotherhood and the sacrifice of his twin brother Daniel, whose death transformed him.

Then again, “Jericho Drumm” is also a pretty solid name.

Elle: Since I already have my mystic, my next pick will be a wildcard, but I’m really surprised nobody’s snapped her up yet. I’m going with the Scarlet Witch. She’s the first female non-founder to join the Avengers, and surely the most important witch in the Marvel Universe. She’s also unfortunately fallen victim more than once to the sexist trope that says once a woman has reached a certain degree of power, she’s bound to become an irrational villain. But I’m going with a stable and in-control Wanda Maximoff for my team, and between her, Strange, and Magik, there’s not much in the mystical realm they won’t be able to accomplish.

Steve: Your cloak game is on-point right now, too.

That's the end of day two of the Marvel Mystical Fantasy Draft. Come back tomorrow for the final picks, including some mischief-makers, some man-wolves, and an honest-to-heck living mummy.