Yes, we went through a big revamp before we even got to this update/improvement. Specs used a lot of existing comic book characters like Spider-Man, Spider Woman, the Wasp, Iron Man, etc.
I'll go into all that in greater detail when I start the Avengers Folder.
The current revamp has given us a definite opportunity to improve on some great ideas that we had many years ago. There are some great stories in that old stuff. It was just never developed so deeply in most cases. This time we have a chance to make the great stories truly great.
The same with me as well. The WereHuntress stuff for one. In fact, much of that was done in 1(!) single issue in the old stuff! Likewise the resolution of the GSVC was done in 2 issues of X-Factor! Likewise, there are stories that won't be readdressed because they don't make much sense now in hindsight. The Operation: Annihilitation mini is one of those. It calls for a great deal of stupidity on the heroes part to make it work and it would be even worse given the current state of things!
(True. It needed the premise that XF could be considered vigilantes, if not outright criminals. Similar to the X-Men. And even with that it was a bunch of jumping to conclusions and outright bad decisions.)
Specs - Actually, it was the first meeting between XF & the Avengers. The premise called for each team to believe the other to have attacked a goverment installation and killed everyone inside. So, the 2 teams run into each other outside the installation and go at it. I guess no one though to pick up the phone and call the other to find out if this was true or not. Its a situation made even worse now considering that some of the people on both teams were once teammates themselves! 
Originally I used most of the moduals that existed for Hero Games, so those mostly happened on the West Coast, which was more my domain. Later stuff was mostly owned by Specs and therefore the East Coast Heroes tended to do more of the later stuff. In this revamp, it may not be that obvious.
More stuff to be touched on when it comes time to do the Avengers.
Also, the East Coast teams tended to have more characters that Specs liked and/or made and the same for me on the West Coast. Since we were writing those areas, we tended to use our characters mostly. Just the way it developed. That is changing in this revamp as well, but the basics are still there.
Which is why everyone outside of Spectrum on X-Factor was created or modified by Muskateer and everyone on the Avengers outside of Muskateer was created by me. So, Muskateer wrote X-Factor & Spectrum, while I wrote Avengers & Muskateer. Of course the only catch with all of this was that Muskateer sounded like Spectrum, and Spectrum came across more like Muskateer!
(yeah, that was always an odd occurance, but we didn't have the chance to put our own words in our mouths too often.)
Now they all sound like they should. Even thougth I do most of the writing, Muskateer does make changes to dialogue for himself and any of the characters he created. It's a case not so much changing what they say, but rather the way it is said.
(I now have more of the polishing stage: editing, embellishing, etc. Been awhile since I wrote a file from start to finish.)
The plan to blackmail Dallas never was played out. In fact, it never really got much mention at all. Just sort of an 'oh BTW'.
Although I do remember that great title for one of the BA's: "A Fist Full of Dallas!" I was always waiting for the sequel: "For a Few Dallas' More!"
I always liked Icicle and kept looking for ways for her to be rehabilitated. It took a couple tries and finally a drastic result by forcing the issue inside the Viper's Nest. Specs didn't jump on the first opportunity strongly enough, but it worked out in the end.
Did I ever mention how dense I was?
We'll see the Overstreet Museum show up again in the new stuff at some point.
That's one of the things I want to tackle in the post XF25 stuff. Look for a new development with Black Paladin in that one!
SIMON was always very naive, while at the same time very intelligent. You could say he was particularly literal throughout his appearances, with a definite English accent in his speaking. It was never really touched on, but that's how he always spoke in my head.
I've always like SIMON. So much so that I feel guilty about giving him the nickname Simple. I can't imagine SIMON with a English accent.
(Think about C3PO and you have SIMON's personality to a degree. He's always had an English accent! Just not so pronounced to appear in the writing.) Although his habit of talking to himself in the old stuff is rather amusing.
(That needs to be touched on more in the new files. SIMON always seemed to make an appearance in every file that the team was anywhere near their base.)
Spec - And still does. SIMON is in XF 20 & 21.
I've never been very fond of DUKE, but then I can't really stand John Wayne much. I don't like the cowboy theme anything very much and it's annoyingly exaggerated. But Specs liked the idea, so never did argue against him.
"It works Mate! The fat one balances out the two skinny ones!"
There are things that we don't agree on, but that's probably always going to be true. Basically, whoever created the character has the final word on anything regarding them. Since the S7 didn't really appear all that much, there won't be many more DUKE sightings.
