The perfect superhero team in comics

[Tetragrammaton]

... in terms of power balance and capabilities.

They certainly aren't the largest or most powerful team ever, but in terms of distribution and variety of abilities, I consider them the most perfectly balanced team of all time. Maybe certain line-ups of Avengers or X-Men come close.

The New Teen Titans (circa 1980)



Robin : Detective, strategist, weapons
Starfire: Flight, energy projection
Cyborg: Technology specialist, strength, durability, sonic attack
Wonder Girl: Super Strength, warrior
Kid Flash: Super speed
Changling: Shape-shifter
Raven: Empath, mystical being, teleporter

[moon_knight1971]

Nice! I always had a thing for Alpha Flight and some of the Exiles and Thunderbolt line ups were pretty diverse too but not written very well.

[Tetragrammaton]

Alpha Flight was on the surface a diverse team and with similarities to the Titans, but lacked a bit in terms of their mid-level members.

Guardian/Vindicator: flight, force field, energy projection
Sasquatch: Super Strength
Shaman: Magic
Snowbird: Shape-shifter
Northstar and Aurora: Super speed, light generation

Once you got past Sasquatch and Guardian, the rest of the team weren't all that much.

Puck and Marrina didn't really add much more to the team in terms of capabilities unless you desperately needed to express deliver something to Atlantis.



The early Exiles and Thunderbolts teams were among my favorites.

Exiles





Mimic: rotating power set of any 5 characters (at about half their original power level) flight, agility, strength, optic blasts, bone claws, regeneration
Magnus (died too early really to be considered)
Blink: teleporter, agility
Morph: Shape-Shifter
Nocturne: Agility, Body possession
Thunderbird: Super Strength
Sunfire: flight, flame generation

Thunderbolts



Citizen V: leadership, swordsmanship
Mach 1: flight, body armor
Songbird: Solid sound manipulation; flight
Atlas: Super strength; growth
Techno: Technology expert
Meteroite: Strength; flight, energy manipulation, phasing

[Teague]

Interesting breakdown; I agree that some Avengers rosters would come close to matching the Titans in breadth, while having a serious edge power-wise.

Alpha Flight is interesting; a lot of their members had very vague power-sets. Shaman was sometimes uber-powerful (or maybe that was always my expectation). Puck was sort of the Cap of the team; ridiculously agile and a good fighter--able to (probably unrealistically) hang with a much higher caliber of powered-hero. And Marrina--well, most teams need an Aquaman.

[risingstar]

I always like the FF. The New Warrirors worked for a while when the book was first published. I loved Byrne's X-Men, i.e, Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, Kitty, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Jean. The ocasinal guest starring role by former X-Men worked too.

Too much infighting in the Defenders. And, the Avengers were generally too big a team which sometimes didn't allow for enough opportunities for some of the members to shine.

[Argonus]

Originally Posted by Teague

And Marrina--well, most teams need an Aquaman (and an Aquaman with boobs? Sold!).

Fixed.

[Argonus]

The first Thunderbolts had a good make-up of powers/abilities.

Several of these teams do... it's fun when the rosters are kept small, but the potential is still huge.

[DarkKni9hT]

These are all good lineups, but none of them have Matter Eating Lad, Bouncing Boy or The Chlorophyll Kid. Long live the Legion, where even Arm Falloff Boy has a chance.

[Tetragrammaton]

The early New Warriors made for an interesting team and it didn't hurt that the book was well written.



Night Thrasher: athletic street-level fighter, body armor, martial artist
Nova: Flight, Strength
Namorita: Super Strength, flight, aquatic (but not really on the same level as most pure strength characters).
Marvel Boy: Telekinesis
Firestar: Microwave projection, flight
Speedball: durability, agility, comic relief


As for the Legion of Super-Heroes, its hard for me to consider a team that big and with multiple Kryptonian-type characters balanced. Their really in a league of their own (no pun intended).

[Meteor Man]

Originally Posted by Tetragrammaton

The early New Warriors made for an interesting team and it didn't hurt that the book was well written.



Night Thrasher: athletic street-level fighter, body armor, martial artist
Nova: Flight, Strength
Namorita: Super Strength, flight, aquatic (but not really on the same level as most pure strength characters).
Marvel Boy: Telekinesis
Firestar: Microwave projection, flight
Speedball: durability, agility, comic relief


As for the Legion of Super-Heroes, its hard for me to consider a team that big and with multiple Kryptonian-type characters balanced. Their really in a league of their own (no pun intended).

Riiiiiiiight.....