Hey there, I want to ask a few questions and I want you to read it to give your opinion on the matter. I'm going to be listing a few comic book characters and what potential problems they can cause to the story or for me writing it, so please make a long review/comment instead of "do a spiderman story please" as that doesn't really help in writing, give me the longest opinion you can give on the individual. I can't promise I'll write all of these but I feel like sharing my problems with writing these would be a good way to get more opinions on the matter.
I have written a Superman and a Batman crossover fanfic with shield hero before, both seem to be very well received and I'm proud that I was able to such a good job on them. Due to this I have received requests to do other characters from comics, but let me explain a few issues with different characters.
I'm not against writing other comic book characters into shield hero, but I have to emphasize that their powers could EASILY break the canon. Martian Manhunter negates most of the plot by having the ability to read minds and even controlling them, so the rape plot is gone and he couldn't be caught off guard by the church's plan, heck he couldn't even be stalked by the Queen as he could read the mind of someone observing him, that's really the biggest problem with writing him as shield hero has a lot of plotlines that would be smoke if a telepath was the shield hero, so unless I limit that ability to hell and back, the plot is gone.
Wonder Woman is a less problematic case but the problem comes from what weapon would she wield, both the Sword and the Shield are great options but both have their issues, if she is the shield then the most pivotal point of the story is gone as accusing a women of rape is... Well it just won't fly, but with the sword I would have come up with original developments for every chapter as we barely have an idea of what Ren was doing in the story, also bringing the lasso of truth also stops the trial from happening.
Green Lantern's ring is a very interesting tool with it's own strengths and weaknesses, but first I would need to chose a green lantern in specific to be in the setting and second is the annoying problem of the legendary weapons as they are very restrictive on what is or isn't allowed to be wield by the user. Unless the Green Lantern is able to overpower the shield with his will, I doubt that the shield is going to let him use the ring, also the ring needs to be recharged so do I bring the lantern battery with him or turn the shield into a proto lantern battery? The only reason I don't try to make an already established shield hero character into a Green Lantern is that the world building doesn't allow for it and finding who fits the criteria outside of the heroes is also a problem
The Flash, he is by far the hardest one to write without absurdly limiting his speed, best example of power creep in DC as the guy can think in attoseconds which is a level of speed that nothing in the goddamn universe can realistically react to, shield hero's speed feats are quite pathetic as for how fast Filo is said to be it still took almost a month to travel across the border of Melromarc, the verse is so slow that the Flash can beat every single opponent with the base shield as the one attack limitation becomes irrelevant when the shield hero can punch his opponent a million times before he can react. There is just no way of writing the Flash without taking away most of his speed but that leaves the question of what would be a balance level of speed for the Flash? What would be too fast or too slow? I'm cracking my head trying to figure it out, should he be able to slow things down to what level? How fast would his running speed by in a way that doesn't have him run laps across the world?
DC should stop making him faster as it honestly begins to become harder to think of anyone that can beat him without going into some sort of being that exists beyond time and space, because the Flash out ran death and instantaneous teleportation so I find it hard for anyone other than an even faster speedster being able to fight him, like if we are being real the Rogues are great but they just don't hold a candle to Flash nowadays if he went serious. Best way I can do this within canon is the shield taking away his speed to prevent Barry from leaving to another earth, as the legendary weapon and it's user are not allowed to leave the world it protects without authority from a higher being.
Aquaman is honestly a good pick as his powers are more limited when outside of water, but find it hard to decide if he should be a more stoic and serious king as he is depicted in the comics or the loveable goofball like in my personal favorite DC cartoon Batman the Brave and The Bold, if I make him a very serious and authoritarian figure I risk making him feel more like Namor than Aquaman, so I should give him a more levelheaded approach and make him a serious king but that can also be a more chill individual. He would obviously be the spear because I remember hearing that tridents are one of the weapon types that the Spear hero can use(I don't remember if it was on the web novel or the Motoyasu spin off, but it makes sense when you think about it)
Green Arrow would make for a fantastic bow hero and I already have an idea of what would happen in the first chapter or so, but the perspective of the story is where I struggle because I really want to write a first person fanfic but I don't think I can do it, I am much more comfortable with third person and I need a deep understanding of the character to be able of writing in first person.
Would Beast Boy be a good choice for a fanfic? Shape shifting is a cool power but certain characters are harder to write and the power negates the consequences of the trial, but Beast boy can turn into animals that retain his green color so it would be fine, also he is my favorite titan so I would love to do something with him, thought of putting the Teen Titans into shield hero as the four summoned heroes but Raven breaks the verse with her power over magic so maybe Robin could replace her, Cyborg and Beast boy work within the limitations of the story while Starfire can fly which I come to understand as the fastest way of breaking the story of shield hero, seriously flight absolutely breaks the narrative.
Constantine's character would be interesting but I honestly don't know anything about him outside of his appearances in animated projects, same goes for the entirety of the Justice League Dark.
You know I could do something with the suicide squad considering their recent Isekai anime, but I don't like the suicide squad so there goes that. I think I spoke enough about DC characters, so let's move over to Marvel and see what they have to offer
Captain America is by far one of the best picks for a shield hero fanfic given that he uses a shield as a main weapon, although he is the type of character that can be hard to determine what he'll do in the story depending on what version I'm using, obviously we have a good setup for him being summoned as being stuck on ice for years opens a good opportunity for him to be put in shield hero, now if I were to write it I would put some changes on the shield itself and also change certain aspects of the narrative to stop it from feeling too similar to the normal shield hero storyline, I personally like the idea of him fighting against the first wave alone but then I can't have the duel against Motoyasu, also thought of Eclair being present when the heroes are summoned so she could be a companion to Steve but Eclair is kind of a bland cracker when it comes to personality which makes her one of my least favorite characters to write. Also prefer for Rishia to be his companion rather than Raphtalia, but that comes with it's own problem of how he would save her, maybe I'll work on this idea more but I keep thinking what should change and what would be the sort of decision Steve would do
Spider man has had a few shield hero fanfics made but none of them even get to the first wave and one has him buying raphtalia as a slave, which is just out of character for Spidey in a plentitude of ways. He can have the same problems as Batman with people asking which version of the character is and honestly with the entire concept of the spider verse I don't think people should be nagging about it, when the multiverse exist why do we have to hyper fixate on what character I'm using? Anyway, his intelligence and powers could be fun tools to write but I am honestly split on how I should hand the character, more so on the party members aspect as Raphtalia doesn't feel like she would bring much to Spidey nor do I really see him taking her as a sidekick, if Fohl or Atla was rescued by Peter than it could be interesting for one of them to go on a quest to find their missing sibling with Spidey tagging along to make sure they don't get into something too dangerous, I honestly don't know how party members should be handled with Spiderman in specific so any suggestion is appreciated
Daredevil is interesting not just because of his powers but also the fact he is blind, which would lead to other characters treating him differently and since Matt Murdock is a lawyer he could defend himself in court just like Bruce did in my Batman fanfic, once again party members are the part of the story I'm not sure as I do like the idea of Atla and Fohl as they could mirror Matt in some ways, but mostly cause they would be different from just being raphtalia again
Iron man's problem is that without his armor it wouldn't exactly be an Iron man fanfic, just a really smart guy in shield hero, but would the shield allow him to use the armor? Could Tony convince the shield that armor is nothing more than a shield that covers the entire body? Or would the shield change into a defense tool legendary weapon after it absorb, let's say his nano armor? I have seen fanfics change a lot about the shield when interacting with magic from another world, so would advance tech also do the same? This also has the problem of party members.
Hulk has had one or two fanfics with shield hero and I don't like them, both based on the immortal hulk run of the character and devil hulk is just not my cup of tea, I live with a big Hulk fan and he prefers the 'Spaceship' Hulk concept more than Devil Hulk. You have to understand that I prefer the type of Hulk that just wants to be alone but doesn't act like a evil monster nor a bumbling fool, Earth's Mightiest heroes had my favorite version of the character and I wish more fanfics used that type of Hulk over Devil Hulk just to be edgy. Banner's inner conflict with Hulk is a great idea for the shield hero story line as Banner has a reason to use the shield as to not rely on Hulk, plus he would probably appreciate the results of the Rape trial as it would mean people would leave him alone, shield hero has plenty of stressful situations to see the Hulk in and I would be interested in seeing how the other characters react to Hulk.
Thor is a god, he is an amazing character that is bigger than life and I dare say he is the Marvel equivalent of Superman although Captain America comes close as he only lacks the power, anyway he's main problem is that being a god puts him above the shield in terms of power level and is not even close, he has so many powers that make the shield more of a handicap than anything, plus he certainly has the authority to just remove the shield from his person or order it to find another user. In truth writing Thor would require a change to the power system itself, because I can't see him needing the shield as the Odin force far overpowers any of the legendary weapons, so I ask how do you believably write Thor into shield hero?
Wolverine is probably the most popular X-Men and I myself grew to like him a lot, for what is worth X-Men Origins Wolverine is what made me like the X-Men (the game in specific, I didn't hate the movie back then but I also didn't think it was great either, I like it until halfway through the movie where it starts to fall flat for me) but Wolverine has one big flaw that makes him the shield hero a problem, the one attack limitation quite literally works against the character. When you think wolverine you imagine him taking out his claws to slice and dice Sentinels like paper, but with the shield's attack limitation it makes so he can't use his claws in combat as they would be just as effective as a weakass punch, but would the shield even allow him to use the claws? Would they count as part of his body or would the adamantium surrounding it make the shield register it as a outside element? Also his defense being higher than his attack would make so he can't even take the claws out as they wouldn't be able to pierce his skin or flesh. Overall making him the shield hero is counter productive to how Wolverine is in almost every version, only way I can see this working is either making him a different hero or have the ritual be botched somehow and allowing him to use the claws, maybe his soul's bounding with the shield is not stable allowing him to pass the shield towards someone else, but the link is strong enough for him to be connected to the new user of the shield just so I don't have to worry about slave crests? I honestly don't know how to make him work as the shield hero without pulling something like that. Other than that his healing factor would be amazing for gruesome scenes.
Speaking of Wolverine, the X-Men are an incredible cast of characters and if I could write a fanfic about them I would make it so the X-Men team would all end up in shield hero, maybe each member was brought here because a specific weapon wanted them and while I think the Shield would fit very well with Cyclops I don't have a concrete idea of which X-Men would get what weapon, the idea is that they have been scattered around Melromarc and the first season would focus on them trying to find each other. My X-Men knowledge is limited as I always found the timeline confusing, heck my first X-Men comic was a time travel one between their past and future selfs interacting, I gotta watch X-Men 97 some time later as I would be using that team formation for this fanfic. I also wrote a little proof of concept fanfic about Magneto as the shield hero, and I don't think I'm funny enough to write Deadpool.
I love the Fantastic Four, easily my favorite super hero team and worthy of the title of 'world's greatest magazine' by a long shot, with four legendary weapons it's easy to have all four in the setting but there's a problem with that. You see I wrote a fanfic about the TMNT being summoned as the four heroes and it was one of my first works so it has a few flaws, but the main thing is that a family such as the fantastic four would stick together with the shield in this scenario which leads to the four being cast as criminals, this radically changes the entire structure of the story for better and worst. Plus their powers could break the story at certain points, not to mention Reed is far too intelligent for the setting, he could create something to completely stop the waves if he had enough resources and time (I think the order should be Sue as the shield hero, Ben as the spear hero, Johnny could be the sword hero which leaves Reed as the bow by order of elimination)
Ghost rider would be a terror to the entire country as his powers are op especially considering how he can kill you with the pain you inflicted on others and by your sins, he wouldn't qualify for the shield and would more likely than not be the bow which means he can attack. Malty is dying on day two of the summoning unless ghost rider has a different order of people to go after before her for some reason (Spawn also shares some of these problems, but he is his own can of worms. I don't know enough of the character to even attempt writing him)
Punisher works great as the bow hero as he also has a strong belief in justice that is flawed like Itsuki, I even believe he would be a formidable adversary for Naofumi as he would get on Frank's crossbow as soon as Frank finds out he bought a slave, Frank might give him the benefit of doubt about the trial but Naofumi purchasing a slave would certainly be a way to get Frank's attention. Problem is whether or not to have it be first or third person narrative, also I don't want to get the punisher wrong as he is deeper than what other people make him sound.
Invincible is just a weaker superman with a bit of a temper to him, also he can fly have I mentioned how easily that breaks shield hero's narrative? After the trial he would probably fly somewhere like Siltvelt or Shieldfreeden where he would be treated with respect, also most variants of Mark seen to be evil so I would need to go with prime Mark, another problem arrives at which point he gets summoned. Don't know many indie comics so invincible is the only one I can really talk about
These are all I can think of, so I beg of you to give me your thoughts on as many as you can with as much detail as posssible. I want you all to understand that going around asking for someone to write a fanfic for you is rarely going to work unless you give good reasons and help develop the interest in the idea, or you could write it yourself but I know some people are just not that good at writing. See y'all next time, working on the Batman fanfic right now so it will be a while until I upload another chapter on the Superman fanfic, maybe I'll post a ONE-SHOT or proof of concept in between