#Skartaris

[chernobog13]

Mike Grell presents arguably his most famous creation: Travis Morgan, The Warlord, and the love of his life, Tara. Colors by Rich Seetoo.

[thevindicativevordan]

Superman, outside of Metropolis, has plenty of other places in his mythos : Bizarro World, Warworld, 5th Dimension, Phantom Zone... How would you do something similar for Wonder Woman, who has only Themiscyra and Olympus / Greek Hells ?

Give her access to all the magical realms. The Dreaming and the other realms of the Endless, Faerie, the Afterlives like Heaven and Hell (already done in the Cloonrad run), Skartaris, Gemworld (Diana and Amethyst would make a great pair), etc.

[nerds-yearbook]

Shakira made her first appearance in Warlord 32#, cover date April, 1980. She was created by Mike Grell. ("Land of the Titans", Warlord 32#, DC Comics, Event)

[sebeth]

Who's Who In The DC Universe #1: Arkham Asylum, Atari Force, Atlantis

Arkham Asylum by Steve Bissette & John Totleben

Located on a wooded acre of land just north of Gotham City

Founded in 1921 by Dr. Amadeus Arkham, a vigorous social reformer, on land left to him by his mother

Amadeus’s mother suffered from mental illness

The asylum was the first facility of its kind in Gotham

Amadeus transformed his ancestral home into an asylum and staffed it with some of the most prominent psychologists and physicians of the time.

One of Arkham’s first inmates was “Mad Dog” Martin Hawkins, who had been found not guilty by reason of insanity in the murders of Arkham’s wife and infant daughters.

Dr. Arkham treated Hawkins with “great concern and compassion”, right up to Hawkin’s accidental electrocution two months after his incarceration.

In 1929, 6 days after the legendary stock crash, Dr. Arkham went berserk and was arrested when he attempted to electrocute his stockbroker. Amadeus wasn’t happy over losing his entire fortune in the crash.

Amadeus was committed to Arkham Asylum. He spent the remainder of his days carving indecipherable inscriptions on the floor of his cell while singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”.

Amadeus passed away in his sleep on April 7, 1963.

The Asylum wen through a series of state-appointed administrators after Amadeus’s incarceration.

The most recent was Dr. Byron Blaine, who has held the position since his predecessor was taken captive and replaced by Professor Achilles Milo, one of the Asylum’s inmates.

Other notable inmates include Two-Face, the Floronic Man, the Mad Hatter, Clayface III, Maxie Zeus, and the Joker.

Arkham Asylum debuted in the Batman comics in 1974 but has quickly become a foundational aspect of the Batman mythos. Hugo Strange, Harley Quinn, and Scarecrow all worked at Arkham Asylum in the various continuities. Numerous important storylines have taken place at Arkham, including the kickoff of Knightfall when Bane released the inmates to exhaust Batman.

I haven’t read Grant Morrison’s Arkham Asylum since it came out in 1989 but I think I remember the writer referencing Amadeus’s backstory. I seem to remember Mad Dog’s electrocution wasn’t so accidental after all. The Who’s Who entry (which pre-dates Morrison’s story by 4/5 years hints about the true nature of Mad Dog’s death when Amadeus attempts to electrocute his stockbroker). I don’t blame Amadeus, no one should be tasked to care for his wife and infant daughter’s murderer.

Amadeus played a background role in the Batman Arkham games when Quincy Sharpe, the Asylum’s current administrator, becomes convinced he is the reincarnation of Amadeus Arkham.

Arkham Asylum appears in all the various Bat Family titles and crossover media (cartoons, movies, video games). Notable storylines include the Arkham Asylum GN by Grant Morrison and Arkham Asylum: Living Hell. “Living Hell” isn’t as famous as Morrison’s graphic novel, but I enjoyed it. It follows a businessman who pleads insanity to avoid prison. The judge is fed up and sentences the man to Arkham. It doesn’t end well for him.

The Asylum has appeared in various non-Bat titles, including the Justice League, Justice Society, and Sandman. Arkham made appearances in the Justice League cartoon and a Suicide Squad animated movie.

Atari Force by Eduardo Barreto

Earth has been ravaged by war and ecological imbalance. The Atari Technology and Research Institute sent a specially trained crew throughout the multiverse to find a new world for humanity.

The crew found a new world after months of trials and tribulations. It was dubbed New Earth.

Twenty-five years later, the Dark Destroyer returned to menace New Earth.

Martin Chapman, one of the original founders of New Earth, founded the Atari Force to battle the Dark Destroyer.

The team is composed of Martin, his son, and members of various alien recipes.

DC issued digests in the 1980s (the size of the Archie digests you find in the grocery stores). One series of digests was devoted to the Legion of Super-Heroes (it’s how I read most of the Silver Age appearances of the Legion). Another had random reprints of various DC comics. This digest contained the only Atari Force story I have read. If you’re curious, the other stories in the digest were a Blue Devil story, the “Who Is Donna Troy” New Titans story, and the “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” Legion story (the one where Gim introduces Yera to his parents). I don’t recall much of the Atari Force story.

Atari Force was licensed from the actual Atari company which explains why the group isn’t seen/reference anymore.

Atlantis by Marshall Rogers

Located in the North Atlantic Ocean, the continent of Atlantis was one of the first places on Earth where civilization flourished. It was the most sophisticated civilization in the world, establishing twelve scattered settlement cities on other continents.

Magic was the dominant source of power in early Atlantis but science and technology gradually rose to prominence, later Atlantis combined magic with technology

Atlantis launched an exploratory spacecraft in 45,500 BC

King Thorval sent six expeditions in the 9600 BC to find alternate places for Atlanteans to live in the face of an impending natural catastrophe

One of the expeditions founded a colony in a secluded area between the earth’s surface and the hidden land known as Skartaris

Atlantis sank beneath the sea with only two of its cities surviving (Tritonis and Poseidonis)

The Atlanteans constructed protective domes around the cities and developed serums to allow underwater breathing

The citizens of Tritonis had an unexpected reaction to the serum and transformed into merfolk.

The Atlanteans developed telepathic abilities to communicate underwater. (But only Aquaman can command the creatures of the sea).

Tritonis remains secluded but Poseidonis has had more public exposure, including a major exposition held for the air-breathing people.

Remnants of the original Atlantean colony lost beneath the earth have been active again recently, attempting a takeover of Skartaris, which was thwarted by Travis Morgan (the Warlord).

Aquaman, Aquagirl, Aqualad, Arion, and Atlantis itself. Aquaman’s corner of the DC universe was features heavily in the first issue of “Who’s Who In The DC Universe”.

Atlantis has a role in all Aquaman series and other media projects.  Power Girl was connected to Atlantis in a unnecessary post-Crisis retcon. Don’t worry, the retcon was also retconned and Power Girl is once again a Kryptonian. Atlantis and its citizens were featured in Infinite Crisis when an unstable Spectre unleashed his wrath on the area (he was on a rampage against magic users). DC’s Atlantis has made appearances in the Justice League cartoon, Young Justice cartoon and comic, and an animated Justice League movie.

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

THIS MONTH IN THE HISTORY OF SWORD & SORCERY TITLES IN THE '80s DC UNIVERSE.

PIC INFO: Resolution at 1641×2483 -- Spotlight on cover art to "The Warlord" Vol. 1 #70. June, 1983. DC Comics. Artwork by Mike Grell.

MINI-OVERVIEW: ""The Outback": The Warlord learns he has landed in an alternate future in which the Earth became too toxic to support life, except in Skartaris."

-- DC COMICS (official)

Source: https://imaginethatcomics.com/product/warlord-70-shakira-mike-grell-dc-1983-gd-vg.

[zahri-melitor]

- Nightwing #10 (2016)

Dick. He’s just like me!!!!

Dick 🤝 Me: both keeping tabs on Skartaris actually

Shakira skipping Machiste’s wedding would be fully on brand actually as she doesn’t like Mariah (or Tara for that matter)

[dimestoretajic]

who sent The Question to Skartaris

Thought: Ezrim looks like a premium limited time gacha version of himself, except there's no basic version its just this goofy creature

[ruoshik0]

Tim is a dragon. And dragons are pinnacles of magic (among mortals).

You see, people tend to think that only someone with the Homo Magi genes can use magic. That’s not true. Because Dragons are the superior, better magic users. Not to mention smarter and stronger. Has never ending supplies of magic and doesn’t have to chant or do rituals or use sigils or all that fun stuff.

Did Tim mention smarter? No? Because they are smarter. And stronger.

A Dragon scale is the most durable piece of armor you could ever find. Cover yourself with them and suddenly, you are more indestructible than kryptonians with their steel skin.

Dragons can also do a whole lotta type of magic.

Dragons are OP. Is what Tim is tryna say.

And they are also the most arrogant pieces of shits you could ever find walking this green earth. Tim would know. Tim is a dragon. Even if on the milder side, he is still a Professional Hater to everyone in his vicinity. And while Tim knows to keep quiet about his cards, he would never turn down chance of quietly bragging what he can do to others.

No, Tim is not a show-off. Tim just likes seeing you despair about your own incapability.

Dragons are also solitary creatures. With how long their lifespan typically is, it’s only a matter of time before your self isolation from grief becomes part of your genes, ingrained into your instincts further down the family line.

It’s also the reason why Tim got his own Nest, and a penthouse at the first chance he saw. That is; right after Bruce is back. It was the only time socially acceptable to move away. The emotions among the humans were high (As Tim is kinda partially masquerading as a human, he thinks being told to seek professional help when he presented a perfectly good theory and evidence to back it up to Dick is upsetting enough. Probably. If not, then he can play up his journey around the globe and stuff, easy. As you can see, dragons don’t really do emotions and such very well), there was a lot of tension and awkwardness, and Tim found the hovering Dick (even though he visits rarely right now) and the murderous Damian just a tad too annoying to deal with nowadays.

You can’t really blame Tim. It’s in his nature to be alone and perfectly happy. Dragons, as complex as they are, are also simple as can be.

You just need a lot riches, big space, and isolation to make a dragon happy.

And now, Tim had all three. Yippee! Except now the family thinks he is pulling away and distancing himself. Tim should really tell them that he’s not a human at this rate, it’s becoming beyond annoying.

And would you look at that! A rogue wizard causing terror in Gotham because he is an ignorant piece of shit. Totally not Tim’s doing. He just… you know. Spread a bit of a rumor in the wizarding world named Skartaris and waited for a bit.

By bit, he meant like half a year. So yes, bit. Quicker than expected though.

Time to scare this little wizard with his Draconic nature in front of the Bats as it seems like it will become a all-hands-on-deck type of situation. YJ would so pay to watch this shitshow.

[gorogues]

Spoilers for comics in April 2025!

You can see the solicitations in full at Adventures In Poor Taste.

First up: the Absolute Flash Rogues.

ABSOLUTE FLASH #2 Written by JEFF LEMIRE Art and cover by NICK ROBLES Variant covers by JORGE CORONA, CHRISTIAN WARD, and CLAYTON CRAIN 1:25 variant cover by ANDREW MacLEAN 1:50 variant cover by JORGE CORONA $4.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock) ON SALE 4/16/25 Wally West is on the run from his dad and the rest of Fort Fox, and while his new-found abilities are terrifying him, he needs to find a way to use them to make his escape. But how will he handle the elite group his father sent to bring him back?

There's no indication of Weather Wizard in the Flash solicitation, but here it is anyway.

THE FLASH #20 Written by SIMON SPURRIER Art by VASCO GEORGIEV Cover by MIKE DEL MUNDO Variant covers by JEFF SPOKES and LEIRIX 1:25 variant cover by VASCO GEORGIEV Foil variant cover by DANNY EARLS $3.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $4.99 US (card stock) ON SALE 4/23/25 The moon has become a battleground in the war to end all wars. On one side: Wally West. And Wally West. And Wally West. Using his newfound powerset gained after the Justice League’s battle with Darkseid, he’s split himself hundreds of times, into an army of TEMPS, as Wally keeps going while spreading himself thinner and thinner. On the other side: Eclipso, reborn in a terrifying new form. After razing Skartaris, he’s built a new army, and taken control of the Moon, in his quest to replace Darkseid as the ultimate expression of existential evil. But, Eclipso isn’t the only one attempting the fill the void left by Darkseid’s death, as the Temp Wally on the Watchtower with the Justice League is fast learning… It’s a rumble over all sides of the Moon, as the ALL IN era of the Fastest Man Alive enters its first event: Bad Moon Rising!

The next three solicits feature Len and Grodd as part of the Legion of Doom. Something weird is going on, and it's possible it isn't really them.

BATMAN/SUPERMAN: WORLD’S FINEST #38 Written by MARK WAID Art by CLAYTON HENRY Cover by DAN MORA Variant covers by GAVIN GUIDRY and ADRIÁN GUTIÉRREZ 1:25 variant cover by ELIZABETH TORQUE April Fools’ variant cover by BRANDT & STEIN $3.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $4.99 US (card stock) ON SALE 4/16/25 “We Are Yesterday” part one of six. The sinister psychic powers of the devious Gorilla Grodd have the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight in their sights, but all is not as it seems to be! There’s something strange going on here…some monkey business that the World’s Finest can’t quite put a finger on. It’s almost as if this Gorilla Grodd has…knowledge of the future?

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #6 Written by MARK WAID Art by TRAVIS MOORE Cover by DAN MORA Variant covers by LEE BERMEJO, NATHAN SZERDY, and FELIPE MASSAFERA 1:25 variant cover by DAN JURGENS 1:50 variant cover by TRAVIS MOORE $3.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $4.99 US (card stock) ON SALE 4/23/25 “We Are Yesterday” part two of six. The horrific hidden identity of the Inferno cult has been revealed, and the Legion of Doom is here to take no prisoners! But some-thing is…off about these ferocious foes of the Justice League. They fight without wisdom, without experience—but with a secret edge?! Buckle up for the biggest clash in Justice League history as Lex Luthor, the Joker, Cheetah, Grodd, and all the vile villains of the original Legion of Doom arrive to terrorize tomorrow!

BATMAN/SUPERMAN: WORLD’S FINEST 2025 ANNUAL Written by MARK WAID, CHRISTOPHER CANTWELL and MORGAN HAMPTON Art by DAN McDAID and CLAYTON HENRY Cover by DAN MORA Variant covers by CLAYTON HENRY and SALVADOR LARROCA 1:25 variant cover by LAURA BRAGA $5.99 US | 48 pages ON SALE 4/30/25 “We Are Yesterday” part three of six. The secret origin of the single most unholy union in DCU history is at last revealed! The Legion of Doom has set in motion a scheme to lay waste to not only the World’s Finest Team—but to the present-day Justice League Unlimited! How is this possible? All will be revealed in this special World’s Finest Annual by Mark Waid, Christopher Cantwell, and Dan McDaid! Plus: Meet John Stewart, the newest ring-slinger of sector 2814, in this definitive World’s Finest telling of John Stewart’s Lantern origins!

[seriousfic]

Like most of the post-Dini DC cartoons, this falls pretty flat. It's basically a trilogy of Elseworlds stories, showing the Trinity (plus or minus) in various AUs before they break free of their mind-whammying, figure out what's going on, and fight back.

Wonder Woman in a Western pastiche that bewilderingly features Jonah Hex as the main villain. I know DC doesn't have a lot of particularly memorable Western characters, but the whole subversion of Hex is that, for as brutal and ugly as he is, he's a hero. Making him a villain just turns the character into a massive cliche.

This one suffers from Wondy being so powerful that she just wasn't really work in a Western setting. She's bulletproof and superstrong--why does she NEED to shoot people in the head? Isn't that ridiculously violent for her? The means by which she resolves the conflict is also pretty silly--I know she doesn't have the Wisdom of Solomon, but I thought Diana had some brains. Oh well.

2. Batman as a Conan-like mercenary in a pretty faithful rendition of Skartaris

Like I said, this take on the Warlord is shockingly accurate to the comics, down to the skimpy costumes on men and women alike, and some deep cuts like Machiste and Mariah.

A bit above the call of duty, since my expectations would be Jimmy Olsen in a fur bikini or something equally nonsensical. This one's fun on the level of a Primal episode, but it suffers from Batman being completely subsumed in this amoral Conan characterization.

Surely, the point of these Elseworlds is to see our recognizable characters in other circumstances. But this barbarian Bruce is a completely dishonorable asshole. He's apparently motivated by sheer hedonism--does that describe any Batman, even Adam West? I would've sooner believed he's driven to be the best or that he wants to master fear, but we don't get any character notes along those lines.

3. Lastly, there's Clark Kent in a fifties sci-fi B-movie sort of set-up. As with any appearance of the Fifies in genre storytelling, it's about how regressive and paranoid Americans were and how they want to persecute everyone that's different from them. (Weirdly, this is restricted to "unamerican foreigners," not the black man in the ensemble--is this some odd version of politically correct history where African-Americans, who were totally accepted, got in on rejecting outsiders?).

Anyway, Clark figures out there's something wrong with this picture and he manages to break free along with Diana and Bruce, leading to them finally confronting Mongul. It all goes into a pretty rushed and unsatisfactory ending leading into Crisis on Infinite Earths, involving a well-known heroic figure acting outrageously callous and none of the Trinity being able to stop him and enact a more merciful solution to the problem at hand. Blargh.

[the-antiapocalyptic-man]

I love how you connect various characters and power sets to the lanterns and emotional spectrum, whether it’s the various lantern corps. Or the red, green and others from the swamp thing and animal man comics, and recently that amazing green arrow art, what other characters do you think tap into that same power source in the headverse? I’ve always wondered if the emotional spectrum is some filtered version of the source, or that maybe it has ties with the lords of order and chaos … I just get so inspired by your creativity it really lights a fire in me 😁

Always glad to inspire

so actually the Emotional Spectrum being a filtered version of the Source is exactly what I was thinking, but as a consequence of the eternal tension between the (Light) Source and The Great Darkness. The Darkness predates The Source and instinctively seeks to consume it, the site of contact between the two creating material reality (The "Pankosmos" or "Pankosmik"). The Source manifested consciousness in the form of The Presence (often conflated with the Christian God, but ultimately distinct) and life itself in the form of The Entity, filtering out into the Spectrum Entities, its "children" (Umbrax, Lovebird, Proselyte, Adara, Ion, Parallax, Ophidian, Butcher, and Raedan/Hate Machine) while the Great Darkness began mimic this process, creating Nekron and Barbatos, corrupting Eclipso, and manifesting an "Anti-Presence" or Primordial God of Darkness.

The Lords of Order and Chaos initially emerged from opposite sides of this divide (The Source and Gemworld for Order, The Great Darkness and Darkworld for Chaos) but the division blurred over eternity as being living in material reality grew beyond the Manichaen Us-Them Dichotomy of Light and Dark. Just as the multiverse is a product of the interaction between opposing forces, so is everything within it. The Source being released from its Wall would be just as devastating as the Great Darkness overtaking material reality, if not moreso. This came to a head twice in Proto-History and Hyper-Ancient human history with Krona's vision of the Empty Hand on Maltus, and again with Garn Daanuth and Garn Ahri'ahn (descended from the Omega Humanoids that populated the Garden of Eternity before it was rendered barren and became the Rock of Eternity) struggling over Darkworld leading to the deluge that sunk Atlantis, Lemuria and Mu and trapped Skartaris in a pocket dimension. Many of the refugees of the Garn Civil War ended up on Xerox (The Sorceror's World or "Gemworld") though Xerox itself wouldn't created until far into the future, unstuck from Hypertime by its overwhelming mystical energy.

Predating the Maltusians reverse-engineering Lantern technology from Volthoom, the Spectrum itself was wilder and less controlled, appearing like mystical fire and becoming the basis of the Starhearts. Obvs this powers Alan and Jade (Green), The Sorovs and the Church of Blood (Red), Cobalt Blue (Blue), The Amazons' Purple Ray (Violet), Despero (Indigo), and various Wizards and Warlocks (Orange and Yellow). The Black Flame is particularly dangerous, resurrecting the dead but sublimating their will entirely to Nerkon.

[docgold13]

Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

S.T.R.I.P.E.

A brilliant inventor and engineer, Pat Dugan created an advanced battle suit that he called the Special Tactics Robotic Integrated Power Enhancer (or S.T.R.I.P.E.).  Dugan built this armor because his step daughter, Courtney Whitmore had obtained the Cosmic Staff and was headstrong set on using it to become the super heroine known as Stargirl.  Dugan was unable to dissuade Courtney from this brave yet dangerous path so he built STRIPE so that he might battle at her side and do his best to keep her out of trouble.  

Although he started out as merely an overly protective parent, Dugan actually thrived as STRIPE and he and Stargirl proved to be a highly formidable crime-fighting duo.  

When the Justice League expanded its ranks both Stargirl and STRIPE were invited to join.  Once more Dugan was hesitant over the potential dangers involved in accepting this offer, but his stepdaughter was not going to pass up the opportunity.  As such, both ended up members of the League.

As a part of the team, STRIPE aided in the battles against Amazo, Mordru, the Dark Heart invasion, the Ultimen as well as Deimos's army in Skartaris. Throughout it all, STRIPE and Stargirl fought side by side with Dugan continuously watching out for Stargirl and doing his best to keep his partner's youthful, reckless behavior in check.

Phil LaMarr provided the voice for STRIPE with the hero first appearing the premier episode of the first season of Justice League Unlimited, ‘Initiation.’  

[justjensenanddean]

In this exclusive clip from the DC animated film Justice League: Warworld, Batman (voiced by Jensen Ackles) finds himself a barbaric mercenary in the Hollow Earth realm of Skartaris where he strikes a deal for his freedom with the Warlord (voiced by The Flash's Teddy Sears).

DC’s Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman find themselves in mysterious lands and precarious circumstances with no memory of how they arrived there and only vague recollections of their true selves in Justice League: Warworld, available to purchase Digitally and on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and Blu-ray on July 25, 2023. The all-new, feature-length film brings together DC’s “Trinity” for the first time during the Butch Lukic-helmed DC Universe Movies arc. 

Reprising their roles as DC’s key trio of Super Heroes are Jensen Ackles (Supernatural, The Boys, The Winchesters) as Batman and Officer Wayne, Darren Criss (The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Glee) as Superman and Agent Kent, and Stana Katic (Castle, Absentia) as Wonder Woman and Diana Prince.

IGN

[sebeth]

Shikara

[protytwo]

LoSH Appreciation Week Day 3 - Headquarters

Ever since I was a kid, I went nuts over comics maps and diagrams. The maps of Kamandi's World. The lands of Skartaris found inside the hollow Earth in The Warlord. And of course, diagrams of the Legion Headquarters.

Look at all the rooms and support structures. You can start planning your visit today.

[zahri-melitor]

Sometimes I wonder if I do come across as one of 'those' DC readers hung up on Bat comics and only Bat comics, and then I look at myself and the fact I just squealed loudly at the sight of Jenny Sparks' skeleton in a comic and I think I'm probably doing okay, even if I have read more Bat comics than any other sort.