My First Superhero Wargames Project

My first introduction to Superhero Miniatures Gaming was Heroclix, which I played for a while with my friends, but as the interest dropped and the cost increased, I let the game slip. I kept most of my collection and got into the habit of repainting them once I'd hit the age where painting miniatures started to be fun. Naturally, I needed an excuse to get more figures, and I still hadn't walked completely away from Warhammer 40,000 just yet. 

Back in 4th Edition, Grey Knights were part of the larger Daemonhunters army, which was one of the few forces a player could really go to town on as a modelling project, as it featured mostly elite units and individuals. At the time, The Ultimates was one of my favourite comics, in which the Ultimate Universe equivalent of the Avengers are put together by SHIELD in the wake of supervillain attacks and 9-11 paranoia. Essentially a military organisation, The Ultimates have enough backing to invade countries when needed and are considered unstoppable "Persons of Mass Destruction" by their critics and enemies. Naturally, these two ideas fit together nicely in my head. 

HQ 

General Nick Fury (Inquisitor Lord) 

This one was practically a gimme at the time, as not only is Ultimate Nick Fury a serious arse-kicker in his own right, but he's bristling with bleeding-edge spy-fi tech, meaning as an Inquisitor, I could load the character up with wargear that did spectacular things without pushing outside the original concept of the army. Also, Inquisitors come with a team of Henchmen, which enables a few more characters to be squeezed in. 
The Henchmen I gave General Fury where two SHIELD Agents (Sharon Carter and Jasper Sitwell), Captain Sam Wilson, plus Wasp and Scarlet Witch as "Warriors".


Captain America (Grey Knight Grand Master) 

Ultimate Cap is a bit more jingoistic and utilitarian than the versions most are familiar with, but is strong enough to go toe-to-toe with the Hulk briefly and kick over a tank. Naturally, this character is best embodied by the unstoppable might that is a Grey Knight Grand Master. A fun little combo that worked with the Daemonhunters army is that Sharon Carter had a "Teleport Homer", meaning Nick Fury could call Cap in to "Deep Strike", basically parachuting into the battle wherever he was needed; only without the parachute, because Captain America doesn't wear parachutes, he says they're for girls. 

For his team of Grey Knight Terminators, Cap is bringing The Thing, Giant Man, Hulk and Colossus, all big, tough guys who fill out the Terminator stat line nicely. True, none of these characters are known for having ranged weapons (Storm Bolters), but there have never been decent figures of the Robotmen from Ultimates 2, which was my original idea.

Elites

Wolverine (Eversor Assassin) 

This one was another easy get, with the Eversor Assassin being a clawed, living super weapon, with a mysterious past and in the 40K universe already. Back in the day, the Eversor was a bit of a buzzsaw that was great at targeting characters, which is pretty much all Wolverine did for the first few volumes of Ultimate X-Men, as he was often Fury's "go-to guy" for applied death.


Spider-man, Moon Knight and Daredevil (Death Cult Assassins) 

(I don't know what this picture is from, but it's pretty funny) 

I'm not sure if they're still around, but Death Cult Assassins were a fun little unit that came in threes but acted independently, each one being a decent close combat fighter. Given that Ultimate Daredevil ran a team including Spider-Man and Moon Knight, I found these three a pretty easy pick for both another elite unit and a way to cram more superheroes into the army.


Troops

Black Widow and Hawkeye (Stormtrooper Veterans) 

Natasha and Clint are stone-cold killer black ops agents in The Ultimates, leading teams of heavily-armed soldiers against the kind of villains and aliens that the celebrity heroes can't be seen fighting. Inquisitors are often accompanied by Stormtrooper bodyguards, so picking up a couple of squads of 2000s US Marines and plonking Clint and Natasha down in the leadership role both looked effective and made sense for the overall army.

Heavy Support 

Iron Man and Thor (Grey Knight Dreadnaughts)

This part I was never really happy with, but back in the day, there was no option for something like Armiger Titans or allied Riptides, so Dreadnaughts were the only option for the two biggest Persons of Mass Destruction. In order to make up the "volume" of the model, they were going to be surrounded by effects on big display bases but I never really got that far. 

And there we go, that was the army that never was, though some parts of it did get finished along the way to where we are now. I could probably put the army together now pretty quickly, as I'm only missing a couple of minis, but I don't see the point. I mean, I already have a superhero-themed 40k army with Kill Team Aesir, do I really need another?