Say Marvel Editorial wants to keep all of Alpha Flight dead; Aurora and Northstar as X-Men; Box and Wild Child as evil; Diamond Lil in Limbo. And so on.
What characters would you use for a core team, given that attitude? What would fly, so to speak?
Sasquatch (Langkowski)
Arachne (Carpenter)
Those two can be givens. I think, given the current climate, and possible announcements at Toronto Con, that I could get...
Sasquatch, Arachne of course.
Nemesis, an Inuit (18 or so) who was 'affected' by Langkowski's original experiment.
Slyce, Lilli Stephens with her real power, something tied to psychic bolts.
Guardian, if not cyborg Hudson then there's Adrian or Jared Corbo, Albert Louis, even that character from when Dream Queen influenced AF in dreams to stop the Master (he was facing off with Puck in one panel).
Talisman, fitting her personality, is a part-timer.
Earthmover can be possessed by Dream Queen but let everyone think it's the Master in charge, the Master can rebuild his cyborg Omega Flight with his Joshua Lord persona. and so on.