#comes with each and every universal or multiversal crisis event from time to time

[sunstormbudgie]

Existential Ponderings: The Reverse Multiverse

Here's an idea I had that might be existential crisis-inducing for some people.

So I think most people would be familiar with the idea of a multiverse. There are many different versions of this theory, but a common one is the idea of an indefinitely branching timeline of universes, with universes diverging as time goes by. For every decision you ever make, there exists an alternate universe in which you made a different decision. The more time goes by, the more universes exist.

Here's where my idea comes in. What if, instead of a multiverse that branches forward in time, we were in a universe that branches backward in time?

This idea came to me as I was thinking about dinosaurs. There's so much we don't know about how animals of the distant past lived. There's a lot we may never know. But you don't even have to go that far back in the history of the universe to find gaps in our knowledge that will likely never be filled.

It's easy to feel disconnected from stories of ancient history. Sure, intellectually, you know all those events happened. But it can be hard to visualise such things when all the fine details are lost. Even our own memories are flawed.

Here's an interesting philosophical question: is the past real? And I don't mean that in a Last Thursdayist sense. From a laws-of-physics point of view, is the past tangible?

The only way we can ever truly know what the past was like is through causality. Our memories are formed as we experience different things, we can infer what happened before based on how things are now. Causality is at the core of physics as we know it.

Here's where things get complicated. Thanks to something called thermodynamics, energy has a tendency to spread out over time; entropy ever increasing. Physicists have theorised that eventually, the universe will meet a state of maximum entropy, an event also known as the Heat Death.

Imagine, if you can, that you have been transported to a hypothetical universe which has already reached its heat death. In this universe, everything is already in its lowest possible energy state. Nothing can happen anymore. But this also means that you can't really figure out how all this stuff got here. Everything is pretty much just the same everywhere. In fact, it might even be that all matter in the universe has been trapped inside a single, unfathomably enormous black hole.

But even if you can't figure out what the universe looked like before its heat death, you might be able to figure out what it could have possibly looked like. You might even figure out multiple possibilities, although you'd never know which one was real.

But then, what if they were all real?

What if, instead of a multiverse with diverging branches, there was a multiverse with converging branches, where, as the details of past events are lost to entropy, universes that started out being distinct from one another eventually merged once they became identical? If the only thing that makes the past "real" is consequences, then it might be that multiple potential pasts exist, each one no more real than the next. Assuming all universes have the same total amount of energy, this would mean that no matter what happens now, no matter what decisions any humans make, there is no changing the fate of the multiverse.

(All that being said, I don't actually think there is a multiverse, but as a worldbuilder I love imagining what kinds of things could potentially exist. So I'm not taking myself too seriously here, and I'm not really expecting anyone else to. This was just a fun thought experiment.)

[bitimdrake]

Could I ask for a timeline for Jason Todd's Red Hood actions? Like when did UtRH, Seeing Red, Brothers in Blood, Attack on Titan's Tower all take place compared to each other/ other comic events?

Oh absolutely! Jason's timeline after coming back post-crisis is actually pretty straight forward. Here is every single issue he has a significant appearance in:

Red Hood: Lost Days was published later, but recounts the time between Jason coming back from the dead and returning to Gotham. (Batman Annual #25 also does this, but that one goes all the way through Hush and is included in Under the Hood, so for best reading order it should be later.)

Then Jason shows up in Batman: Hush specifically in Batman #617-618. At the time this is revealed to actually be Clayface, but later it will be revealed to actually actually be Jason.

A lot happens in between this and his next appearance. Dick's struggles in Bludhaven hit their peak. Young Justice and the Titans both split up, and the 2003 Teen Titans and Outsiders form. Tim is forced to quit Robin by his dad; Stephanie becomes Robin and then Bruce fires her. And then finally War Games and Identity Crisis happen right before Jason's return, leaving Stephanie and Jack Drake dead, every vigilante except Bruce leaving Gotham (Cass and Tim to Bludhaven; Dick initially to Detroit; Babs and the Birds of Prey initially to Metropolis), and Black Mask getting massive control over Gotham's underbelly.

Then Under the Hood begins with Batman #635-641, #645-647. At some point in here, insert Batman Annual #25, explaining Jason's past. In the middle of UtRH--after he's revealed his identity to Bruce, but before the dramatic end--Jason heads over to San Francisco to beat up Tim in Teen Titans vol 3 #29. At this point, Infinite Crisis has begun. Bruce is going from one earth shattering crisis to the next when UtRH hits its final confrontation in Batman #648-650. This occurs at literally the same time Bludhaven is destroyed.

At the end of this story, Jason either dies just before the universe is rewritten, or is seriously injured and flees. Either way, he is gone for awhile. Infinite Crisis ends; the day is saved; Bruce, Dick, and Tim go on a trip around the world; and the DC universe jumps forward with One Year Later.

Here's the only part where things get a little contradictory. Flashbacks in Outsiders vol 3 #44-46, Annual #1 show Jason helping Dick and the Outsiders with some information back during that skipped year. This was retroactively inserted though, and Outsider's timeline is pretty at odds with all the Bat-books/52's claims on what Dick did over that year--not to mention the emotional arcs conflicting wildly with what comes next:

At the end of the year jump, some cameos from Jason in World War II #1, #4 lead into Brothers in Blood, Nightwing #118-122, part of the One Year Later event, where Jason dons the Nightwing suit to commit murder and ruin Dick's life. (Meanwhile, Cass is in the terrible evil!Cass arc, and Tim is adopted.)

Again, Jason vanishes for a while, next popping up in Seeing Red, Green Arrow vol 3 #69-72, with Bruce, Ollie, and Mia. (At some point around here, could be before or after, Damian is first introduced, though he doesn't stick around.)

At this point is when DC tried to make him a main character in Countdown. This was intended to be the dramatic lead in to Final Crisis, only it wasn't that at all and nothing here matters ever again. But to be thorough, Jason witnesses Duela Dent's death in Countdown #51-48 [note: issue numbers run backwards], gets questioned about it in Teen Titans vol 3 #47 (the first time he, Dick, and Tim all appear together!), then Countdown #47, and Amazons Attack #2 where he starts to join up with Donna. He remains a major player from Countdown #46-1, plus a bunch of tie-ins I never read, as he, Donna, Kyle Rayner, and Bob the Monitor go on a trip through the multiverse.

Most of this matters not in the slightest. There is only one exception: one of the earths they visit has a similar history, but with a Bruce who did kill the Joker after Jason's death, and then promptly went off the deep end. (Which I desperately wish we could have had more follow-up on.) Said alt!Batman gives Jason the Red Robin suit, which he uses all the way back to the normal earth, before dropping in a dumpster. This is the suit Tim will eventually wear.

Events that occurred while he was gone include The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, Steph's return, Cass's return to the good side, and the formation of a new Titans team with Dick. Shortly after is Batman RIP, where Bruce vanishes. After RIP is also when Damian stays in Gotham.

(TIMELINE NOTE: the official timeline of Batman and Final Crisis says that FC happened immediately after RIP, meaning Bruce was missing for less than one night before he went off to die. This contradicts every other Bat-book there is, all of which heavily implied or else outright stated that Bruce was mysteriously missing for a significant period before he was known to be dead. I use the latter version, and sort accordingly. If you prefer the former, then Final Crisis should be placed here.)

While Batman is missing, Jason pops up again, this time with Tim in Robin #177, #182, where he gets sent to jail, and then Tim breaks him out. This will turn out to be an incredibly horrible idea. After this is when I place Final Crisis and Bruce's actual "death." Following which, Tim brings Jason to the cave to see Bruce's final message to him in Robin #183.

Then he loses it. Cue Battle for the Cowl. Jason's major appearances here are in the central three issues, but he shows up briefly in a few of the tie-ins. In order, Battle for the Cowl #1 and Azrael: Death’s Dark Knight #3, then Battle for the Cowl #2, BftC: The Underground #1, concluding in Battle for the Cowl #3. Once again, Jason ends the arc by seemingly dying, but of course will reappear later.

In the meantime, Dick becomes Batman, Damian becomes Robin, Tim becomes Red Robin and leaves the country, Cass also leaves the country, and Steph becomes Batgirl. We are in the Batman Reborn era.

Jason's final appearances are with Batman!Dick and Robin!Damian, in Batman and Robin #4-6, where he is again sent to prison, before breaking out in Batman and Robin #23-25, and flying off into the sunset with his new sidekick, Scarlet.

[musclesandhammering]

Every Single Issue I Have With S*lki (It’s Not Just The Selfcest)

Here goes. I threatened to post this a few days ago and never did, but I just saw a s*lki stan Twitter account claim that Loki caring about Sylvie more than the whole multiverse was a Good And Romantic thing and it pushed me over the fucking edge, so now you all have to read this. I’ve divided it into categories cause there’s just THAT much.

OOC Bullshit

• First and foremost, no amount of mental gymnastics you do will ever make me believe that this specific Loki- the one that just invaded New York, that just came off a year of Thanos Torture, that just got done being influenced by the sceptre, that was literally in the middle of a crisis already, and then on top of that went through all the trauma of Ep 1- would even be worried about a romantic relationship. That would be the furthest thing from his mind. Go back and watch how he acted in Avengers- you think that guy would abandon his previous mission to become a snivelling simp for a girl he’d just met 3 days prior? Yeah, there’s no universe in which that makes sense.

• “It’s very in character for Loki to fall in love with himself lololol-“ NO, it’s literally not. Out of all the characters in the mcu, I don’t think I can think of anyone that genuinely hates themselves more than Loki. He even referred to all his other male variants as “monsters” and said meeting them was “a nightmare” in this series. He’s got so much self-loathing, plus the fact that he genuinely thinks himself to be an evil backstabbing scourge- so there’s no evidence at all suggesting that he would ever develop a fondness for, or even be inclined to trust, another version of himself, after only knowing them for 3 days.

• Building on that, the whole concept of Loki falling in love with a version of himself just feeds into the annoying ass misconception that he’s a narcissist. No matter which way you stack it, he’s not. If you’re referring to NPD, he doesn’t fit the criteria, and if you’re saying “narcissist” just as a slang term meaning “selfish and arrogant”, that still doesn’t accurately describe him. But when creators like Waldron and Herron do things like having him fall in love with himself, it makes it so much easier for casual viewers to think that he is.

Shitty LGBT Rep

• It’s kinda sus that Loki’s are allegedly genderfluid and yet the only female-presenting variant we see (and apparently the only female-presenting variant there is, cause the male Loki’s all seemed unfamiliar with the concept) is treated as some kind of mind-bogglingly special paradox. Also very sus that, out of all the Loki variants, the one our Loki falls in love with just so happens to be the only female one. What a coincidence.

• The fact that the creators of the show went around bragging about Loki’s bisexuality and Marvel purposefully (lbr) allowed stories about Loki possibly having a male love interest to circulate, specifically enticing queer viewers to watch the show (you know, the definition of queerbaiting), and then instead of having a male love interest (Loki was the first queer main character, so it was the perfect opportunity) they gave us *gestures to this dumpster fire* this… it’s just a middle finger to LGBT fans. The fact that they would rather have this relationship with all its myriad of problems than have a gay relationship is just……. Very telling.

• While him being with a woman obviously doesn’t refute his bisexuality, the fact that they showed/talked about him being interested in 3 different women (flight attendant, Sylvie, Sif) and never even hinted at him being attracted to a man, definitely makes it seem like they were trying to cover up his bisexuality to smooth things over with the more homophobic viewers. You know? It’s like “I know you’re pissed that we sorta confirmed Loki as bi, so we promise we’ll never mention it again! Or even hint at it! As a matter of fact, we’ll give him lots of female lovies and make him seem as straight as possible! That’ll take your mind off of that horrible crumb of queer rep, right? Please please please keep giving us your money!!!”

• Aside from all the other issues, at its core, the biggest reason why I think I’m so irritated with s*lki is that it took one of the most interesting, complex, and diverse characters in cinema atm and squished him into a tired ass unnecessary heteronormative subplot…. Like literally every. single. other. protagonist. ever. Loki is such a unique character, and it’s so so so incredibly disappointing that they stuck him into that same boring cookie cutter romance that happens to every other character in every other movie I’ve ever seen. It’s a disservice, and it’s honestly just not compelling or entertaining at all.

Thematic Issues Galore

• His arc didn’t need a romance. With anyone. It was unnecessary and it didn’t make sense plot-wise. In fact, one of the reasons he was my fav prior to this was because he was the only big-name mcu character whose story wasn’t muddied-up by a romance that didn’t need to be there. So much for that.

• He wasn’t emotionally ready for a romantic relationship with anyone. Hell, just a genuine friendship would’ve been pushing it for him at this point. He was in such a bad state that any relationship he got into would’ve been toxic and unhealthy for both him and the other person, and it doesn’t make sense why the writers would want to put him in one when there were so many cons and essentially no pros (other than “Uwu aren’t they cute together”).

• Sylvie’s character in general was unnecessary and Loki’s character was robbed just by her being there. The whole show became about her post-Ep 2. They spent most of the time giving her backstory, building her up, telling us how awesome she is, trying to convince us to like her, etc when what they really needed to be doing was building Loki up- cause I gotta say, if I had to describe TVA!Loki in a few words, they would be Flat, Boring, and Weak.

• The romance overtakes the plot. They spend time portraying their supposed connection that could’ve been spent adding depth and complexity to literally any of the characters. They make the big Nexus Event them giving each other googly eyes on Lamentis when it could’ve been so many other way more profound things that speak to the fundamental nature of Loki’s. They have the climax of the finale be “oh no she betrayed him to kill He Who Remains” when it could’ve been something way more compelling (Loki having a moral crisis over whether or not to kill HWR, Loki contemplating the state of the multiverse and weighing the pros and cons of freedom vs order, Loki looking into some What If situations and getting emotional about what could’ve been regarding his family, Loki realising the gravity of HWR’s offer and finally coming to terms with how important he is to the universal cycle, etc etc). The entire plot suffered in favour of a romance that half of us didn’t even want.

• It essentially reduced all of Loki’s potential character growth down to “He did it for his crush.” He seemed to at least have some motivations of his own in Ep 1-2 (feeble as they were) but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, literally every action he took was just him being a simp for her. Why did he lie in the interrogation? To try to protect Sylvie. Why did he fight the minutemen and Timekeepers? To survive kinda, but mostly cause it was important to Sylvie. Why did he get pruned? Cause he got distracted trying to confess his crush to Sylvie. Why did he try to get out of The Void? Cause he thought Sylvie needed him. Why did he stay in The Void? Cause Sylvie was staying. Why did he try to enchant Alioth? Cause Sylvie told him to. Why did the multiverse get cracked open, leading to an infinite number of Kangs waging war on all of existence? Cause Loki didn’t wanna hurt Sylvie in their fight at the Citadel and then get distracted by her kissing him. It’s uninteresting and honestly pretty embarrassing.

• Throughout their “relationship arc” the writers do their absolute damndest to convince us that we should like Sylvie more than Loki. And you know what? It’s the most hypocritical shit I’ve ever seen. They preach and preach about how Sylvie’s life has been so difficult/we should feel bad for her/she had it so bad/poor poor sylvie/she had it SO much worse than pampered prince Loki…. But then they never even touch on any of Loki’s trauma of hardships (the ones that have been ignored for literally 3 movies now). They frame Sylvie as a good person and a Freedom Fighter after she spent literal decades/centuries mass-murdering brainwashed TVA agents and showing exactly zero remorse for it….. but then they make it their mission to constantly remind us that Loki is a terrible person and constantly put him in situations where he’s forced to acknowledge his wrongdoings/show remorse/admit to how “evil” he is for being a mass murderer for like 2 years. They show him on-screen having a wider range of powers than her, and perpetuate his whole shtick of being a “master manipulator” or whatever….. But then they make Sylvie “the brawn” more competent, intelligent, and physically capable than him. Tell me how it’s a good thing for a ship to be so narratively biased toward one character.

Missed Opportunities

• If they absolutely had to have a romance subplot, then they could’ve paired Loki with one of the characters that have already been established OR one of the characters that were a big part of the whole TVA storyline anyway. It would’ve been so interesting if they’d revealed that Loki had a history with some of the players from previous films (Sif and Fandral both come to mind). It also would’ve been really interesting if they’d given Loki a love interest that actually had some allegiance to the TVA as a whole (Mobius maybe, but not necessarily. It also could’ve been Renslayer or B-15). Hell, imo it would’ve been cool if they’d followed through with that “See you again someday” line that he said to the flight attendant in Ep 1. ALL of these characters have way more chemistry with him than Sylvie, and they were also already relevant to the plot without wasting half the show to give background info on them.

• If they absolutely had to have a hetero-presenting love story involving an enchantress-type figure, then there’s a whole Enchantress (Amora) that was actually Loki’s love interest in the comics. Plus, fans have been screaming for Amora to appear in the mcu for years. Plus, Tom literally pitched an Amora/Loki storyline way back in 2012-13. Also, Lorelei (another enchantress) is also one of Loki’s love interests in the comics, and she already exists in the mcu (she was on Agents of SHIELD). There were several different established characters for them to choose from. Creating a whole knew amalgamation of a character and going with the “she’s a Loki variant” storyline was just completely unnecessary and made no sense.

• They completely robbed us of a Chaos Twins dynamic. Had they handled Sylvie better and not forced her and Loki to smooch, the two of them could’ve had a really really complex and interesting sibling relationship. Loki could’ve stepped into Thor’s shoes and sort of used that new role to gain some self importance, and Sylvie could’ve finally had somebody to look out for her/teach her magic/be there for her. It would’ve been very aesthetically pleasing, the vibes would’ve been out of this world, it would’ve been way more profound than this bs, and frankly it would’ve been much more entertaining to watch.

• Loki’s relationship (read: obsession) with Sylvie completely overshadows all Loki’s other relationships in the show. Loki and Mobius were literally the focal point of the series in Ep 1-2, but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, they barely had any interactions with each other, and Mobius pretty much faded to the background entirely. Loki had the beginnings of a pretty interesting antagonistic relationship with Renslayer (with her wanting him pruned, then arguing with Mobius that he couldn’t be trusted), but after Sylvie showed up the dynamic shifted to focus on the history between her and Ravonna. Loki and B-15 started off very badly and openly disliked each other throughout Ep 1-2, and then in the end of Ep 2, Loki showed a little bit of concern for her when she was possessed, hinting that they might be inching toward a reconciliation- especially considering how obvious it was that Loki was gonna uncover the TVA’s sins eventually. There was so much potential for him to be the one to give her her memories back and convince her to change sides, but no, of course that honor went to Sylvie. In fact, after Sylvie showed up, Loki and B-15 never even spoke to each other again.

Various S*lki Fails

• If they were trying to convince us that this affection was mutual, they completely failed. There’s nothing I’ve seen that even hints at Sylvie feeling the same way about Loki that he does about her. At most, I’d say she has a slight endearment to him. She finds him likeable and she’s grudgingly fond of him, but she definitely isn’t in love with the guy. Maybe she thinks he’s cute and hopes that he gets out of this mess alright, but her mission obviously comes before him- whereas, it’s been confirmed multiple times that Loki cares about her above anything else. She doesn’t trust him, she looks at him like he’s an incompetent fool half the time, she shows little to no reaction during most of his confession moments, and she kissed him as a means to distract him so that she could get him out of her way. Look, all I’m saying is, when you get into a relationship where one of you is way more invested than the other, it never ends well.

• This goes without saying for a lot of us, but the selfcest is just straight up odd and cringey. If you’re cool with that sort of thing, fine! People can ship what they want! But don’t pretend it’s not at least a little bit uncomfortable. Yes, I know they’re not technically siblings so it’s not technically incest, and they’re also not technically the exact same person, but they’re similar enough that it makes things weird. And yes I know selfcest can’t happen in real life, so there’s no way to judge it morally, but neither can most of the other stuff that happens in these shows/movies (the Snap, Loki destroying jotunheim, superhero with powers being held accountable, mind control) and yet we still find ways to judge their morality, because they all mirror real-world events. (The snap= genocide; Loki destroying Jotunheim= bombing other countries; superhero accountability= weapons accountability; mind control= grooming and coercion). And lbr the closest real-world mirror to two versions of the same person (who may or may not share DNA, family, backgrounds, physical and emotion characteristics) being romantically involved with one another is incest. And you can be ok with that if you want- that’s your prerogative- but don’t get pissy just cause a lot of us are squicked out by it.

• The whole mirror metaphor (learning self love via each other) thing just fell completely flat. First of all, having Loki learn to love himself by looking at someone who mirrors him did not, in any way shape or form, require them to be romantically involved. But they were. Of course. Secondly, the creators have contradicted themselves so many times on whether Loki and Sylvie are the same or not, that it doesn’t even really register to the viewer that the mirroring thing was what they were going for. Finally, Loki and Sylvie are shown to have so little in common- and to have only the most bare minimum of similarities personality-wise- that it doesn’t even make sense that Loki would “learn to love himself through loving her”. Like? They’re nothing alike. So how would he make the connection that he himself is actually pretty cool, based on her alone? There’s virtually nothing in her that reflects him.

• I know the objective of the entire show was to convince us of how awesome and unique Sylvie is, but honestly her relationship with Loki just did the opposite. A hallmark of a Mary Sue is having her constantly upstage the male lead, and then having him instantly fall madly in love with her anyway. And that’s.. exactly what happened here. Everything they’re doing to try to force her character to be more stan-able is really just forcing her to look more like their self-insert OC. Which is exactly what she is. It would’ve been so much more satisfying if she didn’t have to try so hard to look cool, if they didn’t have to try so hard to make her backstory tear-inducing, if they didn’t have to turn our protagonist into a snivelling simp just to prove how incredible she supposedly is. Very much #GirlBoss energy and we all know how performative and cheap that is.

• The entire thing was too rushed, there was too little build-up, and it was nowhere near believable. As stated above, it’s ridiculously unlikely that Loki would canonically even be interested in Sylvie, and this show did nothing to explain why he was. He just suddenly was. There was nothing they showed us as viewers that would justify a guy as closed-off and preoccupied as Loki falling head-over-heels for a girl he just met. Their was no explanation, no big revelation, no reasoning, it just… kinda happened. And I’m also severely skeptical of any love story that has the characters go in this deep after only 3 45-minute episodes of exposition.

I’m sure there’s other stuff, so if anyone thinks of anything, let me know and I’ll be more than happy to add it. Tagging @janetsnakehole02 @raifenlf @natures-marvel and @brightredsunset800 for expressing interest. This is all your faults.

[hiddleloki]

*insert Mushu “I live” gif*

Ok, so I finally watched Loki and I loved it. Loki and Quicksilver are my fav characters and I was really, really mad at Marvel for what they did to my boy Quickie, but I’m still holding out hope that they somehow fix that at some point. I mean, hello, variants? That thing officially exists now.

Luckily Loki seems to be more favored by Feige/Marvel and seems like we’re gonna see lots more of him. Season 2 and possibly even MoM. Season 2 is old news as there were already reports of it actually happening last year, and this year in January Deadline confirmed S2 of Loki with Michael Waldron returning. But I was holding out hope for Loki making an appearance in MoM (I want to see Strange interact with Loki again) and it seems like there’s a good chance of this actually happening.

Anyway, some thoughts about the show:

- I loved the show’s cinematography. It didn’t feel like a tv show at all

- Soundtrack is just *chefs kiss*

- TVA Loki my beloved. I honestly think TVA Loki might be my favorite version of Tom’s Loki so far. This show finally gave us the opportunity to really delve deeper into Loki, who he is as a person, how does he form relationships with people outside his family. It was just so fun to see different sides of him, like making a friend, falling in love? I never thought I’d ever see that. Especially not after IW

- Really liked his reaction to watching his ‘greatest hits’ and realizing his family actually loved him. Loki was always kind of a softie who genuinely cared about his family and seeing his parents’ (and his own) deaths was so emotional

- Infinity Stones being used as paperweights for the TVA will never not be funny. It broke my mind and sent me into existential crisis just as it did with Loki. 

- Loki needs to give Casey a fish at some point. Or take him to an aquarium.

- Mobius needs his jet ski in season 2. I also want to know more about Mobius and his backstory. What was his Nexus event, does he have a family, what is his real name?

- I really liked his friendship with Loki and the fact that he’s canonically Loki’s first real friend. Loki needed a friend (the W3 and Sif were never really his friends, Loki just tagged along I guess) and I’m happy he finally has one

- I need to find out more about B-15, who she was, her real name...Wunmi absolutely killed it during “I looked happy.” scene. God, that bit broke me

- Ravonna was sus to me from the start and she’s also one of the characters I want them to explore more. Especially now since Kang and his variants are also involved.

- Sylvie is probably my favorite new character introduced. I knew Sophia’s gonna play Sylvie and she’s gonna have a large role, but damn I didn’t expect to love this character as much as I do. There’s so much more left of her to be explored and I think her arc in season 2 will be amazing

- I saw that Loki/Sylvie romance coming the moment Lamentis episode ended. There were so many hints in that episode, I’m actually surprised so many people viewed them as having a sibling type of dynamic.

- I know that their love story is not a typical straightforward romance, but also serves as a metaphor for self love, but I found the idea of Loki falling in love with someone who is an au version of him, but also isn’t him both interesting and hilarious. Also, it was adorable especially that blanket scene in the void. There’s just something adorable about Loki being a complete softie for someone else. You know what, I’m rooting for them. I hope they get their happy ending, they deserve it. 

- Literally every character in this show deserves their happy ending. Like, just the idea of the variants not knowing who they are, being brainwashed and forced to work for this organisation...*happy endings for everyone please*

- Majors’ variant of Kang, aka He Who Remains was everything and is right behind Sylvie as my new favorite character. The guy absolutely killed it and I need more of him and his (many) characters/variants right now. Plus I would’t mind if we see this particular version of He Who Remains again. 

- The way they made Loki come out as bi was also so well done and I’m so happy they acknowledged that. Disney is notoriously bad with LGBT+ representation so the fact that the creators of the show managed to put that in was everything. I heard the director was fighting real hard for that to be made canon and I appreciate her effort.

- We were shown more of Loki’s abilities. It was about damn time.

- Alligator Loki is the baby Yoda of the marvel verse. I loved the theory that there’s an universe in which Alligator Loki was adopted by Crocodile Odin.

- Classic Loki.....Richard E Grant stole that episode. God, I wouldn’t mind an episode that focuses strictly on Classic Loki, he was just such a great character and he broke my heart

- I wonder if Kid Loki will travel to the main timeline and join the Young Avengers at some point

- THROG

- I really liked how they established that variants are basically their own people. Their own beings, they each have their own backstories, autonomy, clear differences that make them THEM. They aren’t copies, they’re individuals. And that they aren’t genetically related, but that they share the same soul and role in their universes (basically temporal aura) because that will also clear up some confusion with upcoming multiverse movies, for example Spiderman

- I suppose Loki confirms that all Peter Parkers in NWH are basically variants of Peter Parker, but just like Lokis, they aren’t the same, which explains why they all look different and why they also have different aunts and families. It’s not DNA that makes someone a variant of a certain being, it’s a soul. A role.

- I really hope that that one rumour of various Stephens in MoM actually turns out to be true.

- Strange is gonna kill Loki and Sylvie

- Which brings me to the last take:

- Ralph is totally Peter. I am clowning yes, but lemme have this.

Overall, I really liked the show. I loved it in fact. It was really character driven and didn’t focus much on action, which is a plus for me, because I rather watch characters talk and interact with each other than action sequences. 

The bad thing is that now I’l have to wait at least 2 years to see what happens next. And I’m curious if there’ll be a bit of a time jump between both seasons.

[marveltrumpshate]

As we said in our closing message at the end of this year’s auction, 2020 has been a year of tremendous change—change that we had no control over and change that we made with our own hands. Many times this year—and the past four years under the Trump administration for those of us in the U.S.—we’ve felt helpless in the face of terrible upheaval. But rather than forcing us to give up, the calamities we’ve witnessed and experienced galvanized us. We’ve seen people volunteer to drop off groceries for immunocompromised neighbors during the pandemic. We’ve seen people donate generously during the worst global economic crisis in modern history. We’ve seen people become more politically active, taking to the streets to protest and voting in record numbers like they are tonight.

And we’ve seen that same passion, that same desire to make change and help people, fuel all the MTH participants this year.

We weren’t sure what the turnout would be like. Would people have the time or energy to sign up as creators? Would people be willing to donate, and would they have the means to do so?

Our worries proved to be baseless.

This year, 273 “Marvel”-ous creators came forward to offer 416 auctions.

And this year, we raised…

That’s just over $11,000 more than the MTH 2019 total. 😮💖🎉

We’re going to channel Beast here and exclaim, “Oh my stars and garters!”

The race started off with a bang, with bids racking up quickly on the first day. Even so, we were shocked when we matched last year’s total, which we weren’t sure we could do ($27,193.91 was beyond our wildest expectations), and then just ran right past it before the auction even ended!

It’s been an incredible journey, with the mod chat pinging at all hours with excited gifs, effusive heart emojis, and inarticulate keyboard smashes as we expressed our love for the wonderful people in our fandom. It’s been very hard not blurting out the milestones as we reached them when we desperately wanted to share these amazing results with you all.

Creators, we couldn’t have started this auction without you. We loved seeing so many veteran creators sign up again and were pleasantly surprised by how many new faces showed up to the party.

Bidders, as crazy as it sounds, most donations were small ones (including some of those crazily high winning bids—several were the result of people pooling their five dollars together!). This has been consistently the case since MTH began. It just goes to show how much of an impact you can have when you’re part of something bigger than yourself. Each donation has a ripple effect, and enough ripples can cause a wave. You matter, and you can make a difference.

We also owe our success to our amazing signal boosters. There can’t be an auction without any participants, so to every fandom community Tumblr that agreed to reblog our posts, every Discord server mod who let us post announcements, and every person who shared our posts and encouraged their fandom friends to sign up and/or bid, thank you so much! Together, we reached hundreds of fantastic creators and bidders from all corners of the Marvel fandom, many of whom we didn’t know and some who were hearing about us for the first time.

Thank you all. We’re so touched by the massive number of people who donated above and beyond their pledged amount, creators who took on multiple auctions and offered multiple winner slots, and bidders who accepted their second-place wins with such eagerness! We also had people make donations in the spirit of MTH even though they didn’t win an auction, which was beyond generous.

We’ve already seen how our donations are changing the world for the better. To name a few examples:

Partners In Health is on the ground testing, providing care, assisting local government response, and mobilizing community health workers in countries where the mortality rate for COVID-19 is expected to be much more severe than those with well-resourced health systems

The Southern Poverty Law Center raised $10 million to fight voter suppression in the South, with some great successes in Florida

World Central Kitchen has purchased over 10 million meals from small, independent restaurants in 400 cities, putting $105 million and counting directly back into the economy and helping both struggling businesses and people who need food the most during the pandemic

We’re sure that in the months and years to come, we’ll see even more wonderful results.

In addition to the astounding amount of money we were able to raise for charity, MTH was successful in other ways. We strove to be as inclusive as possible, determined to make this event a fandom-wide effort. Considering that the auctions covered over 369 unique platonic and romantic relationships (if we include “all ships/gen”-inclusive relationships, this number is even higher) across 31 universes within the Marvel multiverse, we can safely say that we accomplished our goal.

This spirit of inclusion also applies to our auctions and charities. Every one of 416 auctions was bid on, and every one of our 30 supported charities received donations. We’re in awe of your commitment to supporting all our creators and charities and thrilled that you spread all the love around, bidders!

Here’s our breakdown of the donations (click to enlarge the image and hover to see the donation amount per charity):

We’ve also listed the amount raised per charity on our 2020 auction results page.

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for helping us turn our third Marvel Trumps Hate auction into such a fantastic experience. We cherish every single message of love and support that we received and continue to receive on our Discord server and through DMs, Tumblr messages, emails, tweets, etc. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

To remember or learn why we created this auction in the first place, please check out our 2018 “thank you” post to all of our creators, bidders, signal boosters, and supporters.

If you’d like to stay updated on all of the 2020 Marvel Trumps Hate fills, follow us and/or check out the “mth 2020” tag on our Tumblr. You’ll also be able to find works posted on AO3 in our Marvel Trumps Hate 2020 collection and links to fills in our Discord server, which you can join to brainstorm prompts, chat about fills, and find out about other fandom events.

Thank you once again to everyone who volunteered their services, time, money, and platforms to spread the word. Though we may sometimes wonder how much of a difference we can make, it’s moments like this that show that every bit helps, no matter the size of our contribution. With that in mind, we’d like everyone to keep the following quote close to their hearts as we move forward and find ways to make the world a better place, to remember these words when they’re feeling lost or small.

“Purpose is the essential element of you. It is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in history. Your very existence is wrapped up in the things you are here to fulfill.” — Chadwick Boseman

Think about your purpose. Think about what you can do while you’re here. Know that you matter.

And with that, MTH 2020 has officially come to a close. We’re so beyond grateful to you all, and we can’t wait to see all of your fanworks over the coming year!

Lots of love and gratitude, Your 2020 MTH mods

[writingithink]

Improbable Multiversal Transcending Temporal Spacetime Event Pairing: Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler Rated: T Word Count: 7,101 Summary: The best way to show someone you care is to blow up their job ... right? Notes: I'm back! And it's not a Tangled Timelines update (sorry!) But it is something? I've had this in my WIPs for awHILE now, and when I was cleaning my studio the other night I found a planning page for it in a random tote bag and was like ... oh yeah. And the ending just came to me and I love it when that happens. Hopefully there will be another chapter up for Tangled Timelines soon, though!

As always, infinite thanks to my wonderful beta, @hey-there-juliet​ who is fine with me randomly sending her fics at all hours and with no warning XP

All mistakes are mine, as always.

<<READ IT ON AO3>>

If the other him in the other universe had taken the time to imagine their human life together in a parallel universe, the Doctor doubted he would have pictured this. His imagination, when it came to Rose Tyler, was always quite whimsical. Happiness had made him impractical, really. Because despite all of the drawbacks, all of the reasons he currently loathed himself, the Doctor knew every single reason why the other truly felt like this was the best possible option.

But maybe it wasn’t.

Sometimes, despite it not occurring too often, he was wrong.

They had spent five and a half hours on the beach at Bad Wolf Bay.

(I create myself.)

She had been so upset; said that after everything they’d went through, everything she did to get back, the other him owed her a proper goodbye. She had stopped speaking to him when he told her that, actually, he would never give her a proper goodbye.

And she didn’t let him explain why. Now that he finally could.

Now it had been 57 days since she’d last spoken to him. Since he’d gotten more than a brief glimpse of her with his own eyes. That he’d spent piecing together a picture of what her life had been like here, without him. Such a short time, really, now that it was over (almost over), but yet also some of the worst moments of his entire existence.

It seemed fair that the multiverse would demand just that extra sequence of pain, considering everything he could potentially get in return. What another version of himself could only hope for, bitterly gambling eternities, following their timeline through all of it’s complicated swirls and turns, names weaving around each other, stamping themselves on the structure of creation.

Forever isn’t something that ends.

(How long are you going to stay with me?)

Quite the opposite, actually. And he knew, eventually, she would remember that. Knew it, but didn’t feel it.

The Doctor finally understood what all of the human writers meant about falling in love. Not just the terrifying sensation of the unstoppable freefall, but also the immense pain of crashing into the immovable object at the end of the journey.

They had sat on opposite ends of a Zeppelin. He had gone back to the Tyler Manor with Jackie, and Rose had gone back to her flat. Hoping to see her, talk to her, he had immediately joined Torchwood (once they agreed to his very detailed, highly specific, entirely ironclad contract). Their paths rarely crossed, and when they did it was just tiny, insubstantial moments.

A flash of her at the far end of a hall. Her name in a report (a lot of reports). Snatches of her voice, there one moment and gone the next.

It all made everything hurt so much more, somehow, having her so close but yet further than he could have possibly imagined.

But yet …

His imagination, when it came to Rose Tyler, was still quite whimsical. So when he tried to think of the bigger picture, waxing poetic, alone on his office couch, the Doctor tried to look at the last few years as the impact, and this as the aftershock. Still, philosophical jaunts weren’t exactly a solution to his problem. A temporary solution was moving his office even further away, so that’s what he did. 

Plus, he found it kind of fitting, commandeering the inside of Big Ben. UNIT may have it in the prime universe, but in this universe he had the fancy landmark office. Well, office-slash-home (without Rose Tyler, a proper house with doors and things was absolutely unthinkable). Not that it was just about having a private laugh. The gears soothed him, the sound of ticking helped the gnawing emptiness that had filled his mind ever since the TARDIS dematerialized without him in it. The Doctor had thought it was kind of fitting - the closest he could possibly be right now to time.

Not that he wasn’t spending every possible spare moment working on the baby TARDIS, just a tiny piece of coral still, currently sitting in the extended electro-percussive environment chamber. He wondered if, in three years (his best-possible projected timetable), when the new TARDIS would be ready for flight, she would still not be speaking to him.

Incidentally, the emergence of that thought and the start of his supposed ‘self-isolation’ coincided to an alarming degree for how coincidental the two really were. The fact of the matter was, he was busy. Tons of experiments to run, alien equipment to identify, classify (and more often than not remove from Torchwood entirely), a baby TARDIS to tend to, and a backlog of Rose’s mission reports to hack into made spending slightly over three weeks in his tower easy.

The problem was the fact that during that time the Doctor avoided sleeping, barely remembered to eat, and existed on overly sugared tea alone. Not sleeping didn’t put the demons at bay, but at least when he was awake he wasn’t forced to confront the man he never wanted to remember being.

It had been 57 days since Rose Tyler had last spoken to him, and the Doctor detonated a bomb in the abandoned annex Torchwood had scheduled to be demolished and rebuilt.

Then the counter reset to zero.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” she yelled, barging into the top floor lab where he had been checking the readings on the EEPEC.

Everything that he wanted to say to her, and the Doctor was struck mute.

“Whatever plans you think you have, however good of an idea it is, for the good of the planet or, or the galaxy or what, you don’t just go blowing up buildings without a word to anyone! Do you know that everyone else was too scared to come up here and have a word with you, because that highly confidential ridiculous contract you drew up made its way through the gossips and isn’t so classified anymore. Now no one wants to go toe to toe with the man who ‘speaks for the planet’,” Rose growled through the air quotes. “So tell me, Doctor, what genius reason you’ve got for blowing up the Records Annex?”

A slow smile spread across his face.

“It worked.”

“What?”

“Remember ‘run’?” he asked, bouncing away from the baby TARDIS and circling her, picking up his new sonic screwdriver as he did and deadlock sealing the only door off the floor.

“Run?” she frowned as he circled back.

“Run,” he whispered in her ear as he passed, running up a small set of stairs to flip a giant switch that activated the clock-lights outside of their automated timer. Likely no one noticed outside with the sun still out, but it lit up the lab. “Henrik’s basement, Nestene Consciousness, shop window dummies, you and me. How did that night end?” he asked, with a manic grin as he skidded to a stop in front of her.

“Oh, that ‘run’,” Rose breathed, trying to fight back a smile. “You blew up my job.”

“I blew up your job.”

She huffed, blowing her bangs out of her eyes, and crossed her arms. His shoulders fell, exhaustion pressing down onto each and every bone of his new, much more fragile body.

“I just want to talk,” he told her, only a moment away from begging.

“Alright then. Talk.”

Everything he wanted to say to her, and all of it felt disjointed in his overtired mind. Yet she was here now, and if she left he didn’t have a new idea for getting her back again. So he talked.

“I’m sorry. That I made this choice for you, even if it was technically a different me who did it. I’m sorry that this is the best option, the safest option. I’m sorry I never got the chance to explain everything to you before. But I am never going to say goodbye to you, Rose. Never. And I know that the power of words doesn’t translate as well for you, the science of psycho-kinetic-telepathic influence on the elements of creation. But there are some things I can never risk saying aloud. There are some beings that exist, at least in our original universe, that could easily- … still, no matter what universe we’re in, I’m never going to say it. Forever, Rose Tyler. It’s longer than you can comprehend. An eternal silence stretching infinitely ahead, timelines swirling in every direction. This one is ours, if you’ll- if you could just- if you could see in twenty-odd dimensions and focused on individual temporal waveforms, the quantum reality of specific-”

“Doctor!” she shouted when his legs gave out, immediately grabbing hold of him, joining him on the floor.

“I’m fine,” he insisted, but when he moved to get back up she easily held him down. Rose gently manipulated his face, giving him a basic medical check. He couldn’t help but smile a little at how much she had learned while they were away, only to then frown at how hard he imagined it all must have been for her. Floundering, he tried to make a joke. “So, I’m still the Doctor?”

Which went ignored.

“You look like a wreck,” she told him, and it wasn’t new information. The Doctor now made much more frequent trips to the restroom and was well aware of how pale he was, of the dark circles under his bloodshot eyes. He had at least been making a disjointed effort to shave, which was another activity that had increased with his meta crisis, and admittedly it had slipped his mind for a couple days.

“It’s not easy, doing this without you,” he admitted. “But if you need more time, I want you to take it. I really am alright. There’s just so much I need to tell you, now that I can.”

“What do you mean, ‘now that you can’?”

“Different universe, firm walls in between. I don’t have to worry about using the wrong words at the wrong time and having cosmic consequences … for a lot of things, not all things. With our timeline in a different dimension and reality back as it should be, at least for the moment, I can tell you all sorts of things. Though the most important one, the one I’m never going to miss an opportunity to say, is that I love you, Rose Tyler. Forever.”

“I love you, too,” she sighed, caressing his cheek for a moment before helping him up. “But I’m still mad at you. Now you need sleep.”

“But I’m not done talking,” the Doctor complained, dragging his feet as she led him over to the sofa in the corner.

“We’ll talk more after you’ve gotten some rest, okay? I promise.”

“Thank you,” he sighed, more horizontal than he remembered being just a moment ago. Something soft and warm ensconced his body. He hadn’t realized how cold he had been until just then.

Another breath and black oblivion overtook him. Peaceful until it suddenly very much wasn’t. 

A shockwave. A rift in time and space. A breached void. A crack in reality. A big red button. No more. Howling, howling, howling.

“Wake up!”

His eyes snapped open.

He didn’t know where he was. Nothing felt right; not the air, not time, not even his own body. The Doctor tried to do a quick systems check, and the results were all wrong. His hand flew to his chest, where only one heart was beating.

A choking scream echoed through the space, which seemed to be tick tick ticking, and he didn’t realize that it was him who shouted until soothing hands were brushing through his hair. Vision focusing, he saw Rose Tyler kneeling next to him, or at least it was something that looked like Rose Tyler. She felt too cool. Or maybe he was too warm.

“Are you real?” he asked, hoping that she wouldn’t lie to him.

Just one heart working, and it was beating too fast, refusing to slow down. The air was too thick, he couldn’t breathe.

“Yeah.” A sad smile. “I’m real.”

The Doctor didn’t know if he believed her, closing his eyes so that he wouldn’t have to see the moment she inevitably vanished. “I’m dying,” he told the being-who-might-be-Rose as he shuddered and collapsed back onto some sort of sofa.

“You’re fine,” she lied, but it was a lie she seemed to believe.

“Only got one heart beating,” he admitted, trying to get his breathing under control as his malfunctioning body began to sweat. The room ticked away, and he wondered if all of this was about to explode, if he should be running, if he even could run. His legs felt like lead. So did his arms. The air was too thick, dragging him down.

“That’s-”

The Doctor shut his eyes tighter, tears escaping that he hadn’t even realized were there. She must have vanished, just like he knew she would. And if she was never real to begin with, why did it have to hurt so much for her to go?

A weight rested on top of him, and he would never forget the feel of her. He vaguely wondered what it meant for him, to be having tactile hallucinations. Olfactory hallucinations. Even the buzz of time that had never left her skin after she took in the vortex was present.

“You’ve still got two beating,” Rose whispered as his arms wrapped around her in a tight hold that didn’t feel nearly strong enough to keep her. He wasn’t strong enough to keep her.

Her heart beat steadily over where his right heart had failed.

“I’m scared,” the Doctor admitted, eyes still closed though it was oddly easier to breathe.

“I’ve got you.”

“Please be real,” he whimpered, even as his mind grew foggier.

She said something, but he didn’t know what. Everything was fading away, darkness becoming darker, becoming void.

Nothing.

The Doctor awoke alone on the couch in his office. According to his time sense, he had slept for eighteen hours and twenty-one minutes. He felt better than he had in weeks, but also so much worse. He grabbed his pillow and screamed into it.

“What’s wrong now?”

The pillow dropped from his hands and his eyes locked with Rose’s as she raced up the slight stair onto the platform that separated his primary workspace from the rest of the top floor.

“What?” His voice cracked.

Rose Tyler sat next to him on the couch, hand immediately resting on his forehead, primitively gauging his temperature. The Doctor cleared his throat before trying again.

“Rose, what are you doing here? Not that I’m not glad, I’m so very, very glad you’ve come.” Her hand dropped away and he was able to get a good look at her, dressed in a pair of his boxers and one of his shirts (Jackie had bought him a ridiculous amount of clothes before he left the manor, all of which he sent out to be cleaned). He swallowed audibly. “W-why are you wearing my clothes?”

“‘M locked in here. Door’s deadlock sealed.”

Flashes of memories began to speed through him. Attaching a re-calibrated Tziklian implosion grenade to a newly-repaired retroreflective Clishtahrr drone. Obsessively trying to circumvent his vision in order to peer at his own timeline, making himself sick. A contained rift event in the lower levels of the tower that made him feel like he had looked into the untempered schism again.

(Run, run, run!)

“I’m sorry. I don’t … I’ll just …”

He pushed himself up onto unsteady legs, found his sonic screwdriver and unsealed the door. And he wished he hadn’t trapped her with him, even if he was starting to remember why (inky black terror crawling up his spine, wrong universe, wrong universe, wrong universe).

“Do you remember what happened yesterday?” she asked, following him as he went to check the TARDIS on autopilot, looking as if she was worried he would collapse (again).

“It’s coming back to me,” the Doctor admitted. Still had a good four hours to go before the shatterfry process would be complete. He straightened his shoulders, trying to stand tall as he turned to face her. “Things got a little, uhm, unpleasant. I’ll do better.”

“Unpleasant,” Rose scoffed. “I’m pretty sure you had a bleedin’ breakdown!”

“It’s been a difficult regeneration,” he deflected, turning away, leaving the platform and making a beeline to the tiny kitchenette tucked off to the side. Tea. He just needed more tea.

“So, this how it’s gonna be, then? All that stuff about wanting to talk, but now you’re just done?”

He nearly spilled the kettle with the speed of his turn, brows furrowed and mouth falling open. “What? Of course I want to talk!” the Doctor exclaimed. “Just, er, what did I say? Before?”

Memory was still a bit of a blur. Successful energy funnel for the TARDIS’ growth tank. Vodka tasting different in a universe without potatoes. Reports saying: Correct universe. Wrong time - past. No contact.

“You don’t remember?”

“I said it was coming back to me, it’s just not coming in the right order.” he sighed, refocusing on the tea.

“Well, what’s the last thing that you vividly remember?” Rose asked, moving around him, easily finding mugs and sugar and milk.

“Thirteen days ago, creating a temporal disruption chrono-field manipulator. Needed to siphon rift energy for our TARDIS. She needs a very specific growth environment.”

“Thirteen days?! Wait, siphoning the-” She leaned against the tiny countertop and covered her face with her hands. The only sound for a few moments was of the electric kettle quickly boiling the water. “Our TARDIS?”

“If you want,” the Doctor muttered, lifting a hand, wanting to touch her, but then thinking better of it. He clenched his fist as it dropped to his side.

Rose groaned as she turned back to him. “Of course I want that, you daft alien git! But you don’t exactly make things easy, do ya? I spent years getting back to you, and then suddenly there’s two of you and one of you abandons me just like I was always afraid of, but one of you stays and I’m expected to be able to process any of it? And then for weeks it’s an effort just to give myself space, knowing that wherever I go you’re so close, part of me wondering why I’m even trying to stay away when all I wanted for ages was to be back with you. Then suddenly you’re gone! I still know where you are, but there isn’t a chance that I’d actually run into you. And I still don’t know what to feel, but coming here yesterday, seeing you … I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look so broken.” There were tears in her eyes. His nails dug into his palms with the effort it took not to wrap his arms around her, to wipe them away. “I can’t help but feel like it’s my fault.”

“It’s not. It’s my own fault. You haven’t done a single thing wrong,” he assured her.

“That’s not true and you know it,” she tried to laugh, but it came out watery. “I’ve been an absolute cow. And I still haven’t answered your question. You’d said some things about words being a type of science, and that you could say things here that you couldn’t in the other universe. Like you were paranoid, under surveillance or something? I think you tried to describe how your time sense stuff works, but you almost fainted.”

“Fifty-seven days without you and that’s what I was talking about?” The Doctor grimaced.

The kettle clicked off.

“If it makes you feel better, it was kinda romantic. The stuff about not saying goodbye and forever and blowing up my job.”

“Blowing up your what?!”

“That’s why I had to come here. You blew up the old Records Annex.”

“Riiiiight. That explains the drone bomb. It’s not like they weren’t going to blow it up anyway. Didn’t I help?”

Rose rolled her eyes before moving to fix both their teas. “We’ll get into that later. Right now I don’t even want to talk about us. I wanna know about you, what you’ve been doing these past two months. Because I didn’t even stop to think what this all must be like for you.”

Cuppa in hand, the Doctor led her back to the couch as he tried to think of how best to explain something that he barely understood himself.

“I was created in a two-way human-Time Lord instant biological meta crisis. Hundreds of years as one being, then suddenly two. Exact same mind, almost the exact same body, but different enough that I can barely comprehend existing in it. If you remember, the first forty-eight hours of the regeneration cycle are complicated and dangerous. Barely a few hours into mine I was dropped outside of the prime universe that all Gallifreyans are meant to exist in, cut off from all telepathic contact as the walls of reality continued to sway, slowly falling back into place. It’s been … an adjustment. Sometimes things don’t feel real, even when they are. Sometimes things feel incredibly real, even when they aren’t.”

“You had a nightmare,” Rose told him, placing a hand on his shoulder, thumb rubbing soothing circles through his layers. “I woke you up, tried to help. You didn’t think I was real. You thought you were dying, because you only had one heart.”

He tried to smile, and the action felt painful. “Sounds about right.”

“I’m sorry. If I hadn’t been so selfish-”

“There’s nothing for you to apologize for. I want you to put yourself first.”

“But I can’t stand seeing you in pain like this. What can I do to help?” she asked, a desperation in her eyes that he couldn’t bear.

“You’re already helping,” the Doctor sighed, finally giving in and leaning into her touch, lying his head on her shoulder. It was the closest he’d felt to time since they’d been left on that bloody beach.

Memories were still racing through his head. Energy coils radiating artron energy into a centrifuge. The smell of burnt flesh against the remains of a Bverni navigational system. Reports saying: Correct universe. Wrong time - future. No contact.

“The other Doctor said that you needed me.”

He laughed, but there was no humor in it.

“Yes, because he needs you. He also said that I was dangerous. I am. He is. We are. But you already knew that. It’s easy, you know, to yell at yourself. Not often that there’s actually a separate you there to yell at. I destroyed the Daleks, but we’d already done that before we met. In fact, so did you. The other me was lashing out, knowing what he would have to do but not wanting to do it.”

“That’s another thing,” Rose said, moving to face him, dislodging his head, “you said that us being here, in this universe, was the best, safest option. What was that about?”

“Something’s coming. Has come. Ended and began. There’s a massive paradox surrounding me in the other universe. Incredibly dangerous, potentially catastrophic. All I know is that it has something to do with a woman named River Song who claims to be my wife.”

“Your wife?!”

“I said claims. And she did seem to be telling the truth, besides the fact that what she was saying was entirely preposterous. My soul is entirely bound to yours.” The Doctor took her hand and squeezed it. “So I think I have an idea of the kind of man I’ll have to become in order to keep the universe intact.”

“What’s that?”

“A liar. If she is going to believe that I could possibly join myself to someone else, someone who isn’t you, I’m going to have to lie. I’m going to have to forget. I’m going to have to lie so well and for so long that even I believe the fiction I’ve created for myself.”

He wondered what the other him in the other universe would think, then, whenever he caught a rare glimpse at their timeline surrounded in gold, bound with Rose’s for all eternity. What kind of explanation he would craft. The Doctor shuddered.

“But that sounds horrible!” she cried.

“It’s the sacrifice he’s making for the sake of the universe. My timeline is dangerous and someone, something is tampering with it. You and I made one tiny little paradox and it almost destroyed everything. This one is circular, might be able to be maintained, but the scale of it, Rose. And who knows if it will even work. River seems great and all, at least I hope so, but I don’t think she has much of a handle on time travel. That, or she’s a manipulative psychopath. Suppose that’s a surprise for the other me to find out.”

Rose sniffled and he pulled her into a hug.

“He’s going to be all alone.” The words were muffled into his shoulder, his shirt growing damp with her tears. He cringed and tried to think rationally, that of course she would feel this way, that it had nothing to do with how she felt about him him. But then again, maybe it did.

“He won’t be alone. He’ll find someone. I always do, eventually.”

“B-but I-”

“We’ll figure it out. How to get you back there, once it’s safe,” he whispered into the top of her head. Maybe that would be it- what she needed this him for. And if so, it would be enough. It would have to be enough.

“Really?”

The Doctor nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

“So it’s not- you really weren’t abandoning me here?” Rose lifted her head, eyes brimming with a hope that had been missing before.

“Never.” The word felt as if it was torn out of his very being.

She cupped his cheek, stubble beginning to smooth out into the beginnings of a beard. He really needed to shave.

“I thought you said to never say never ever?”

“That was before.”

It occurred to him that he had tea, so he took a sip - it had gone cold.

“Oh, right, all the, uhm, psychic-kinetic-telepathy science stuff.”

He opened his mouth to correct her - she was very close, though - but was interrupted by the ringing of the giant clock. It was heavily muffled by the sound proofing adjustments he had made while setting up the office, but still audible enough.

“It’s eight now, yeah?” Rose asked, even as she moved away.

“Yes.”

She walked over to his desk, where the Doctor now noticed a pile of her folded clothes sat. He frowned when she brought them over to him.

“Do you think you could sonic these clean for me? I’m gonna quick hop into your decontamination shower.”

“Th- there’s a proper shower, it’s two floors down. First left, third right, door marked ‘Security Level Alpha’.”

“What, really?”

“Didn’t want random lab techs using it. Has a retina scan. It’ll let you in.”

Rose laughed, ruffled his hair, and gave him a kiss on the cheek before disappearing to get ready for work. The whole thing left him confused. He went through his list again, checking and double checking to make sure that this all was real . It was, just as it had been all morning.

More memories. Recalibrating the tower’s new sub-basement weapon’s vault. Burnt toast and no more jam left. Reports saying: Correct universe. Wrong time - future. Contact made.

It wasn’t fair that she had spent almost an entire day with him yet he had missed most of it. Still, he sonicked her clothes, as well as his tea. Finished his cuppa, and then had a second before Rose came back from her shower.

“Why’s there no one around?”

“Dangerous radiation leak,” the Doctor shrugged. “I fixed it almost as soon as it happened, but apparently there’s ‘procedures’. How’d you get in?”

She bit her lip, fighting a smile. “Mighta shot a few of your doors,” Rose admitted, picking up an electro-pulse blaster off of a nearby cart. Non-lethal on organic matter. Very effective on fancy doors. “Nobody told me anything about a radiation leak, though.”

“Classified radiation leak.”

“And why’s that?” she scowled, hands on her hips.

“Everything to do with time travel is classified to this office. Bethany is not being very cooperative about putting you down as a liaison-whatever. Please believe me, I wasn’t trying to keep anything a secret.”

“Oh.” Rose glanced over at the EEPEC, absently biting her thumbnail.

The Doctor didn’t know what she was thinking, didn’t know if he should ask. After a moment she disappeared into the loo to change, promising to be back in a tick.

It was a funny multiverse, really, that his reunion with Rose Tyler would be such a stilted thing. That it would be about him and her, but not this him. Acknowledged with a few questions after his health, sure, but that was just polite. She’d always been compassionate, caring for others. Rose didn’t see him as the Doctor. Not the proper one. Sure, she used his name, but it would be easier for her to do that this time around.

He looked just like him.

He was him.

But he wasn’t.

Memories were still coming. Adjustments to Torchwood’s alien tech retrieval protocols. Nutrition shots. Reports reading: Correct universe. Wrong time - past. Contact made.

He went through the list again. Still real.

Unless it wasn’t.

Unless he wasn’t.

What would have stopped the other Doctor from knocking him out and uploading him into a matrix? Giving him a half-life with a programmed Rose Tyler?

The air here felt wrong.

(Wrong universe. Wrong universe. Wrong universe.)

“Doctor!”

(Daleks exploding. “What have you done?!”)

Pressure against his hands. Why was it so dark?

The Doctor opened his eyes to see Rose in front of him, pulling his fingers away from his palms. Oh. He was bleeding. Hadn’t even noticed.

“Sorry, sorry.” He spun away from her in order to grab the first aid kit from his desk.

“What happened?” she asked, vibrating with barely contained panic.

“Nothing, nothing. Things just got jumbled for a second,” he assured her, efficiently cleaning his palms and wrapping them in gauze in a practiced motion.

“How often do you-”

“Hard to say. I’ve been graphing them. Seems to be stress contingent, but generally decreasing. My senses are gradually acclimating to this universe, so I have to hope that once they do, I’ll be fine. Perfect. Molto bene. No inconvenient lapses.”

“Stress? What h- oh.”

He didn’t like the sound of that ‘oh’. The Doctor clenched his jaw before facing her.

“We still haven’t talked about us,” Rose pointed out, approaching him slowly. Like he was a wild animal. Like he would hurt her. “And you … you don’t really remember yesterday still, do you?”

“Not really.”

His hands hurt. His body ached. One heart, and it was beating so quickly that he was sure it would give out.

Rose wrapped her arms around him and he automatically returned the embrace.

“Maybe I should just call in,” she suggested as she pulled away. “We can just take the day?”

“Or don’t and stay anyway,” the Doctor couldn’t help pointing out. “Some bits have come back, and didn’t they send you here?”

She burst into laughter. “Oh my god, they did!”

And it was beyond words, how great it was to hear her laughing again. To see her smiling.

But …

That was wrong.

Rose was upset with him.

Time didn’t feel right.

The air tasted off.

Wrong Universe. Wrong Universe. Wrong Universe.

The Doctor staggered backwards.

His respiratory bypass was malfunctioning. It was like it wasn’t even there. He couldn’t get air into his lungs.

Everything went black.

There was a shot of gold, and then a different kind of black.

“Doctor,” said a whisper in the dark. “The timer went off for the TARDIS. ‘M I supposed to take her out of that thing?”

A TARDIS timer?

TARDIS … timer …

The timer for the extended electro-percussive environment chamber!!!

The Doctor shot up from where he had apparently been lying on the couch and ran over to the EEPEC, swiftly shut it off, removed the tank housing their baby TARDIS, and then poured in the pre-prepared aqueous nutrient solution before inserting the tank into the quasi-dimensional artron chamber (currently set to it’s highest opacity setting). 

“Hah!” he exclaimed, punching his fist in the air and itching to switch the chamber’s outside view settings to transparent. He turned to Rose, opened his mouth to ask her, and then paused.

It all came back to him, all of it, not just the jumbled recollections he had been getting earlier. Apparently he had fallen into a healing coma, and it seems to have been just what he needed … but it all truly hadn’t been fair to Rose. Though, to be fair, she was currently smiling like it was Christmas, so-

Christmas. Healing comas. 

Huh.

“Shall we switch it to transparent?” the Doctor asked, unable to reign himself in any longer. “It was clear when Benny - quite the coincidence, right? - helped me set it up. This is a quasi-dimensional artron chamber. It’s funnelling in rift energy and centrifuging artron particles, and the end result in that chamber is the specific environment needed to properly grow a TARDIS. Well, along with the chrono-nutritio aqueous habitat. Benny describes looking into it as being similar to taking DMT, which, by the way, is completely inaccurate. It’s exactly like looking into an Eye of Harmony. If it’s malfunctioning, it’s like looking into the untempered schism, which I don’t recommend. But everything’s stable now, we could-”

“I thought I wasn’t supposed to look into the vortex?” Rose interrupted, and …

“Right … erm, well ,” he hedged, scratching the back of his neck, “I mean, it isn’t actually the vortex, but you’re probably not completely wrong. Best not risk it.”

Excitement abating, the Doctor slumped against the chamber and at that moment realized that he had been changed into jim jams.

Jim jams. Healing comas.

Huh.

At least these were his own pajamas, and not some ‘friend’ of Jackie’s, though how strange was it that he owned his own pajamas in the first place?

“C’mere,” Rose said, beckoning him back toward the couch, which she was sitting next to, but not on. Not your typical decision, but he had likely taken up all of the space earlier. “I made you some tea.”

It really wasn’t worth it, cataloguing the similarities between this and when he had first regenerated into this body … even though the list did seem to be growing.

“Perfect! Just what I need!” the Doctor smiled as he walked over, taking a seat next to Rose on the floor.

Silence fell as he sipped his tea, and he found himself unsure of what to do or say next. There was too much to say, and he’d certainly done a piss poor job of organizing his thoughts earlier. 

“Feeling better?” she asked, after another moment. 

Small talk. He could definitely do small talk.

“Mmm yes, very much so.”

“Better enough to talk?”

The Doctor coughed, having swallowed his tea incorrectly (bloody hybrid body, still acting up), before nodding. Rose moved onto the couch and he scrambled to join her. 

“So,” she began and paused, face scrunching up in concentration (it was nice to know that he wasn’t the only one who found this whole business incredibly awkward), “I guess … what is it that you actually want? Aside from a working TARDIS, that is.”

His brows furrowed.

Sure, there were plenty of ways he could answer that question and have all of them be true, but he had a feeling that she was looking for a specific type of ‘want’. 

Problem was, the Doctor wasn’t quite sure what that was .

“What?” he asked, in lieu of any better things to say (as the runner up response was to ask for some jam, or maybe a banana, or some of the takeaway from the shop down the corner and blimey, he was hungry). 

“This whole time, all of it, since you c- since you were- since you stopped just bein’ a hand- ” the Doctor had a list of complaints and corrections that he barely held in “- nobody’s asked what you wanted. The D- the other Doctor chose for both of us, really, and I hadn’t really looked at it that way before. An’ I wanna know. What do you want?”

Removed from the actual experience itself (and therefore not feeling incredibly, deathly ill), visions of the slight peek he’d gotten four days ago of his own timeline played in his head.

The Doctor grabbed Rose’s hand, weaving their fingers together.

“I want this.”

She smiled and gave his hand a squeeze.

“Care to elaborate?” she asked with a slight laugh.

“Nope,” he replied, popping the ‘p’. “Because as long as you’re happy, everything else is just- just semantics. I mean, obviously it’s going to be a bit dull until the TARDIS has grown enough for proper travel, but I think we can make do?” At least, he really hoped so. It hadn’t been going swimmingly so far, but the Doctor sincerely hoped that he could chalk all that up to the initial side effects of the meta crisis, compounded by all of the, er … technical difficulties he had run into while constructing the TARDIS’ growth tank. Also, his new hybrid body needed much more maintenance than he was used to, including sleep. Really was rubbish without regular sleep. Such a waste of time.

“So, if I were to suggest you moving into the flat?”

He opened his mouth, intending to immediately agree, but then frowned. The TARDIS was here, after all. And he absolutely could not move her. Not at this stage. Not until she could connect to other dimensions on her own. The Doctor looked over at the quasi-dimensional artron chamber, once again wishing that he could switch it to transparent and watch the process unfold.

“How moved in is moved in?” he asked once he forced himself to turn back toward Rose.

“You’d sleep there, shower there, eat some of your meals. Most of your clothes an’ stuff would be there. Y’know. It’d be where you live. With me. If you want.”

“And that’s what you want?” he double checked, trying not to telegraph his surprise - he must have missed a lot while in a coma, as last he knew they were teetering on the edge of a row.

Rose rolled her eyes, and that was much more in line with where he thought they were at, er, relationship-wise.

“Well, I don’t fancy living in a clocktower office. When I’m done working, I’d like to not still be at work, ta.”

She did make some excellent points … but still, it all implied that they would be staying together. And that was what he wanted, of course it was, but the Doctor still couldn’t help but feel he had missed something crucial despite the fact that he could now remember everything clearly.

“You blew up my job. ”

“I love you, too. But I’m still mad at you.”

“You’ve still got two beating.”

Maybe there wasn’t something to have missed. Human emotions were relatively complex, after all, and there was no rule requiring them to happen in isolation.

“Are you still mad at me?” he asked, realizing as he did that to Rose it was coming from seemingly out of nowhere.

This was confirmed as she blinked, brows furrowing.

“I don’t know. Maybe a little, but …”

“But?” the Doctor repeated, unable to stand the suspense.

“It’s hardly the first time we’ve had a fight, yeah?”

He nodded, unsure of where she was planning on going with this and hoping that he wouldn’t need to begin apologizing for every insensitive thing he’d said or done since they first met. It would take ages.

“Well, we always end up workin’ it out. And we did live together, travelin’ on the TARDIS, whether we had a row or not, so …” Rose shrugged, now examining her fingernails.

Speaking of the TARDIS, though …

“First things first,” the Doctor began, rubbing the back of his neck as he stood up and began pacing, “I want it on record that I would absolutely love to live in a flat with you, with carpets and doors and things. Assuming we’d spend much of our time traveling about, that is.” He turned back toward her, having paced his way back over to the TARDIS’ QDA chamber. “The thing is, it’s … I don’t want you to think that- the TARDIS. She needs me here. This is a critical development period. For the next three to six months, the TARDIS will be growing in the chamber, learning how to connect to and create dimensions. Until she can manage it, I can’t move her and she requires near-constant monitoring. Every hour or two.” 

“She’s like a newborn baby,” Rose commented, getting up and joining him at the chamber, where she stroked the side.

“Exactly.”

“Well, I suppose this’ll have to do then,” she reluctantly … agreed? “As long as we’re living in the flat as soon as she’s moveable, mind. The bathroom here is two floors away.”

“It’s a clocktower, Rose! There’s only so much space.” The Doctor scrunched up his face as he said the word. 

“Then why’d you pick this place? I know because of the Rift, but doesn’t it stretch further than just the tower?”

“Nope,” he shrugged.

It’s not as though he hadn’t checked. 

“Really?”

“Small rift.”

“Yeah,” Rose laughed, “a small rift right under Big Ben.”

The Doctor laughed with her, amazed that he finally could.

Then he frowned.

It was all a little too good to be true.

Was this real?

“Hey.”

He refocused. Rose was right in front of him, their eyes locked.

“You were getting that look in your eyes,” she informed him.

“Look? What look?” the Doctor asked, though he was pretty sure he already knew. Some sort of dazed tell, some sort of glaringly obvious indicator that his grasp on reality was failing him.

“This look you get when you start thinkin’ you’re in the wrong universe.”

Wrong universe, wrong universe, wrong universe.

“Well, I am in the wrong universe,” he couldn’t help but point out.

“Yeah, I know. Me too. But y’know what?”

Rose wrapped her arms around him, and it was almost as if she were his tether, grounding him to this new reality they’d found themselves in.

“It’s better with two.”

[redantsunderneath]

DC COMICS: Incoherence as Not-a-Bug-but-a-Feature (Spoilers for Batman 89-100)

Due to the emergence of the new Batman villain character Punchline, I wound up buying the last 12 issues of Batman and reading them in a single sitting. I’ve had trouble following DC comics for a while, constantly feeling that they were in trouble since back in the mid 2000s (with a glimmer of hope here and there). The act of reading DC comics has been a frustrating experience, where individual good stories and runs were laying around in the context of a lot of things that didn’t make sense while the company’s thrust felt chaotic and ideas not well blended. Every status quo change seemed hard to figure out the rules of enough to parse the context.  We’ll get into the background of this, but my reading today of this extended stretch of comics that keeps losing the plot in favor of a fever dream of what’s happening at the moment with specific characters that refuse to cohere, it became obvious that what I had been looking at as subtext or critique was actually the text. I could see the messed up trees but was missing the the forest the universe was trying to describe.

What happens in these issues (Batman current series 89-100, I missed the beginning of the first of 2 arcs) is rolling war between the major Batman villains and the heroes (plus Harley Quinn and Catwoman), which shifts into a Joker and Joker adjacent vs. all as the Joker double crosses everyone then manages to steal Bruce Wayne’s fortune.  We meet 3 new baddies – Underbroker, whose schtick is putting ill-gotten gains beyond the reach of the legal system (with an explicit line to rich globalists drawn), the Designer, who back in the day offered the four A list Batman villains plans to achieve what they most wanted, and Punchline, who is your toxic ex’s new millennial GF who really has it in for you (there is also a new good guy Clownhunter, which is a whole different thing, and a new costumed detective that predates Batman).  This doesn’t convey the chaotic nature of what is happening issue to issue, but there’s more than one Batman hallucinogenic spirit quest, dead characters ostensibly walking around, a plan revolving around the Bat’s origin story that tells some version of it several times, and a no-nonsense declaration that the Joker, as the Devil of the Batman spiritual system, cannot die.   The whole thing has the effect of convincing you there is no definitive sequence of events, only versions.

Alan Moore’s Killing Joke is not a favorite of mine, for a number of reasons.  But the ending holds up.  The Joker has done terrible things there is no antecedent for, and Batman wonders aloud if this never-ending dance they do ends in anything but both of their deaths; can they uncouple from the unhealthy duality the cycle of which simply repeats.  The Joker responds, well, with a joke about two lunatics trying to escape an asylum.  One jumps the roof to the next building, while the other is too scared to try.  The escapee offers to hold a light while the other crosses on a beam but he says no, no you’ll just cut the light while I’m half way across.  This not very funny joke nonetheless has a bunch of resonances – BM and Joker as conspiring co inmates, BM wanting to break out, a commentary about their natures (almost a reversal of the frog and scorpion story where the scorpion won’t go because he knows how this ends), but mostly it implicates BM as the one who is enabling the cycle, the reason why it won’t end.  They both laugh uproariously, and the ambiguous final panels can be read as the fundamental realization of his complicity causing BM to kill J.  A lethal joke indeed… except, next month, we see the both of them again.  In broader context, the ceaseless cycle of the diad is reaffirmed.  This has been hellaciously sticky as an idea in the Batmen universe.

My realization of what DC has been doing is pretty banal in its pieces. Marvel has “ground level” heroes while DC has a mythos, a pantheon.  Their archetypal makeup is strong, the seven JLA members lining up with the pantheon of Greek gods and the Chakras weirdly closely.  DC has big characters that are somewhat flat which they can use tell big bold individual stories that are cool the way legends and fables are cool. But these stories require bold strokes that a bit incompatible with each other. People get attached to these iterations. Meanwhile, Marvel trucks in soap operas where the characters give you an empathetic stand in and are narratively flexible. Marvel events are usually about the writer vs. the company, asking you to sympathize or deconstruct the creative impulse amid efforts to impose control or order.  DC’s events are about editorial vs. the audience, the shapers vs. the forces of the world.  It may seem obvious, given this description, that DC’s focus is on an archetypal tableau though it may be less obvious that this tableau is under extreme pressure from expectations when trying to tell ongoing tales month in, month out (or semi-monthly in some cases). The stories are constantly compared against the big stories that have gone before, and the audience’s ideas of the characters exert pressure to push them in directions that capture “the” version they believe in.  This circle is not possible to square.

DC and Marvel both have a multiverse of sorts.  DC used to tell “Elseworlds” stories which were later tucked into pocket universes.  DC invented crossing over between “realities.”  DC’s continuity is heavy baggage and they began to have “Crises” to resolve the narrative incompatibilities.  These only made things worse as you can’t get rid of the past people have a relationship with – it will come back.  Now you have to explain that away too.  Marvel just lets it lay – forget about the iffy stories, they count, sure, just no one is ever going to talk about them unless they have an angle.  Marvel continuity is all angles and amnesia. This is just easier to do with dating and rent and your ancient aunt’s medical bills than with Gods. Marvel’s multiverse is about sandboxes that you can always dump into the mainframe if they work (and never really mention the sandbox again).

There is a shift that occurred in the industry in the 2004 to 2005 era that is less remarked upon than many upheavals in comic’s history. Marvel had gone through a period of incredible new idea generation in the early 2000s after a late 90s creative cratering but had just fired the pro wrestling inflected soul of that moment (Bill Jemas).  DC was coming off of a period of trying to do moderately updated versions of what they basically been doing all along. The attitude was “yeah we’re under stress from the combined history of these characters, but we got to keep telling the stories.” Geoff Johns was one voice of DC over the 99-04 period that showed potential - he seemed to get how to find the core of characters and push them into a new in sync directions if they over the years have lost a clear identity.  But mostly he had internalized a basic schism between something mean that the audience wanted, and something good and wholesome about the characters themselves, and figured out how to mess around with this in a equilibrating fashion.

Interestingly, the ignition point of the main forces that were going to blow DC over the next decade and a half was a comic that had virtually nothing to do with any of those main forces. Brad Meltzer, a novelist, was hired to do a comic called Infinity Crisis, which sold extremely well and was, justifiably or not, recognized as an event.  At the same time, everyone also kind of hated it because the dark desires of some DC fans were pushed forward just a bit too much for comfort and for a comic with Crisis in the name it didn’t do a whole lot other than “darken” things.  Nonetheless, this lit an “event” fire at both companies.  Marvel chose a shake up the status quo for a year, then do it again, pattern and was off to the races (I have written about this, and more, here) while continuing its Randian framing of beleaguered do-gooders opposed by rule making freedom haters.

As this was playing out, Dan Didio quietly took power in DC Editorial.  His outlook was more Bloomian – he seemed to spark off of writers who exhibited anxiety of influence. He recognized Johns was the one person they had could be promoted into something of a universe architect, starting work on two key projects from which the rest would evolve. The first, was bringing back Hal Jordan as Green Lantern and diffracting the GL universe into its own symbolic system, with parts frisson-ing other parts, and almost a Magic the Gathering color scheme of ideas. The other was to build up to Infinite Crisis, which would become the model for most of their universe changing events until the present day.

The basic frame is this: DC heroes want to be good (in a sense of their inherent nature) but forces outside form a context that makes them fall.  It’s a very gnostic universe, DC.  They  examine reflections of the concepts, invent scapegoats for certain tendencies (see Superboy Prime as entitled fanboy, Dr. Manhattan as editors that try and fail to mend things, etc), make characters violate principles, rehabilitate them, then show that the world if anything is more broken than before.  This is kind of Johns’ thing and it fits Didio’s narrative as historicval tension fetish.  But then came Scott Snyder (not to be confused with Zack) who began to work on Batman in 2011.  Since then, as much as Justice League is pushed as the central title and Lex Luthor has been pimped, Batman has been the core of the universe and the Joker the core villain.

Snyder had the same continuity conflict wavelength but was significantly more meta and able to contain multitudes than Johns.  He was the first to make an explicit mystery of how there could be several Jokers around at one time (who are the same but not, he posited 3 – man, Christians!) that seems prescient given the near future coexistence of filmic Jokers that are not able to be resolved.  I believe he was the first to begin to tease out an idea – that different versions of things in comics are not a diffraction or filter effect, a using the set of things that work best for that story and leaving the rest, but are a matter of the archetypal system of the audience coming apart. From an in story perspective what appears to happen is that multiple versions of incompatible things exist in the collective unconscious of the continuing narrative, and this is something that the characters may become conscious of.  

The run I just read is written by James Tynion IV building on the above trends.  The trick seems to be going all in on the Jungian aspect (at Jung’s most religiously epiphanic).  The Designer was a progenitor and adversary to Batman’s predecessor and his intellectual approach eventually defeated the detective… broke him.  At some point in early Batman history, the Designer brought the top four Bat-baddies together and offered each, in turn, a plan to achieve what they most desired: the Riddler, a way to achieve an empire of the mind; the Penguin, power; and Catwoman, money.  They are all elated as they await the Joker to come out.  The Joker emerges with a furious Designer on his heals and promptly shoots him dead.  He explains that he didn’t like his joke in the form of a fable – the devil offered four people the path to their greatest desire: the three chose earthly things, but the Joker’s wish was to be him, to become the devil.  The story proceeds to suggest that the Joker just exists, he is present as a necessary component in the system.   You can kill him, yet he is alive.

DC has been using physics metaphors for the nature of their reality since Flash of Two Worlds in 1963.  The multiverse as a continuity concept was their idea and the holographic universe of the hypertime was a thing.  It seems like since Dan Didio took over, they’ve been heading towards a concept of broad superimposition, of measurement effect being weak, of the universe being like a quantum computer with all possibilities coexisting and the story instantiating not one reality but a path through all the possible ones.  By making Batman trip balls through quite a few issues and relive his origin from different angles, the story is one of its own instability and the heroic task that confronts our hero is attempting to actualize the world.  The Joker is the Devil in the sense of lack of fixed meaning, of relativistic chaos, of the world not making sense because it’s unmoored nature with ultimately no knowability.  Batman, in this story, functions as a postmodern knight crusading against the impossibility of epistemological grounding.

There’s more going on, sure.  One plot is, literally, defund Batman.  There is rioting, people brainwashed by being exposed to toxic ether, people paid to go to theaters even though they will die as a result, and questions about neoliberalism similar to that one Joker movie. Punchline has no personality yet (Tynion’s not the best at that) but she serves well as a generational foil for Harley – a rudderless ideological vacuum susceptible to Joker-as-idea-virus rather than an unfulfilled MD who felt alienated due to the structures of her life and was seeking escape into structureless possibility.  The Designer stuff is both continuity play (See why they changed from goofy villains to more “realistic” ones! Look how pulp heroes informed superheroes!), a comment on the nature of a longstanding narrative (strong intentions die out as Brownian motion overwhelms momentum), and a lawful evil/chaotic evil setup of the dualism of apocalypses (overdetermined authoritarian vs. center does not hold barbarism).  But the thing that ties this to the past decade and a half of DC is the sense that the reality is fluid and susceptible to change or outright s’cool incompatibility.

This is different than other flavors of meta in superhero comics.  Grant Morrison believes the archetypes are stronger than the forces that seek to bend them.  Alan Moore wants you to deconstruct your sacred cows and probably hates you personally.  Marvel might play with self-awareness, but effortlessly resolves inconsistencies after it’s finished playing.  DC, at this point, allows you to watch the waves solidfy into symbols and dissolve, and the constant confusion and lack of grounding is more of a choice then I thought this time yesterday.  The conflict theory of DC reality has been in full swing but this looks to be turning towards a kind of Zen historicism, holding contradictory things in your mind at once. Warren Ellis’ JLA/Authority book is the nearest comparable text I can think of. I need to call this, but I didn’t even talk about Death Metal, DC character multiplicity as meta-psychosis event extraordinaire.  Comics just keep getting weirder.

[hotdadslade]

DC’s Failed Shared Continuity

This is a subject that I see touched on a lot but not really addressed, so I wanted to break it down.

DC’s core comics (That is, Batman, Superman, Justice League, etc, and not the elseworld style books like DCeased or White Knight) are generally understood to be happening in a shared continuity. That is, what happens in one book reflects in the other. The series cross over, because they take place in the same universe.

Only that isn’t true anymore.

There are a lot of plot holes that don’t really make sense, but that isn’t what I want to talk about. Instead, I want to talk about the fact that DC has absolutely no timeline, the absolute glut of events happening in and out of main books, and the fact that each DC comic is effectively its own universe, rather than shared between it.

I’m going to address the following examples, just to give people an idea of what’s going on and exactly what I mean when I talk about a shared continuity:

The fact that Alfred Pennyworth’s funeral happened before he died.

The fact that Bruce Wayne was in at least three places at once at the start of Perpetua’s invasion.

DC’s insane event schedule through 2019.

The lack of impact events are having with the readers, such as the fact that fact that the entire of South America went to war, China engaged in mass orgies, and the entire of Britain stared at the sky for days on end and almost no reader has heard about it.

City of Bane’s complete lack of impact in the larger DC universe

And last but not least: Why does this matter, and where does DC go from here?

Alfred’s Funeral is before his Death:

Alfred Pennyworth dies during City of Bane. We see his funeral in Pennyworth: R.I.P., where we see the family come together and share stories before immediately getting into a slap fight over it.

This unquestionably happens after City of Bane, because City of Bane is when Alfred died. Despite this, Ric is still around:

That little note in the bottom left makes it clear that this happens before Nightwing Annual #2.

The majority of Annual #2 is a flashback, but it specifically ends with the Court of Owls telling Cobb (that is, Talon) that Dick will soon be his, and telling him to move in. This happens in Nightwing 63, when Cobb shows up (aided by Apex Lex’s gift), and starts screwing with Dick’s life. I’ll skip over the most of it: what matters is that Talon brainwashing Dick Grayson appears the same night Perpetua’s symbol appears over the city (in Nightwing 66 and a number of other issues), Dick attacks the Nightwings, fights Condor Red, and then is freed from the mind control all in one night.

Which is great. Except this can’t happen after Alfred’s death, because the symbol of Perpetua (which appears everywhere at once) appears over Gotham during City of Bane (in Batman 81):

So we have one event happening simultaneously in Nightwing and Batman, only one happens before/during Alfred’s death, and the other supposedly happens well after.

Which leads us into...

Batman apparently can be everywhere at once

So up above we have Batman 81. Bruce is, at this point, in the city rushing to beat Bane when the symbol pops up.

Here’s the symbol popping up in Detective Comics (1014) while fighting the Freezes (the city, I’ll note, is normal Gotham at this point, not controlled by Bane):

Bruce is in Paris (in theory, after his coma) in Outsiders #6, and then arrives back in Gotham just in time for the symbol to appear in the sky in issue 7:

Even just while researching this, I realized that it happened in other issues too. The symbol appears in the sky in Batman/Superman issue 3 while Bruce is being attacked by the infected:

It also happens in Justice League, but I can’t be bothered to get pages.

This is all taking place in a shared universe, so the fact that there’s three or four different Bruce’s in three or four different books who are all doing completely different things in different areas is... baffling. DC has always played a bit fast and lose with Detective Comics and Batman, rarely defining which is happening first or what their exact order of events is, but this takes it a step beyond that.

It also leads into...

DC has how many events? and What happened to the infected?

2019 was a year. Specifically, it was the year of the Villain, but it really should have been year of the event, because DC had so many events happening almost concurrently that it was impossible to figure out what was going on when.

You had Heroes in Crisis running from late September 2018 to May 2019 (acknowledged in Batman, Flash, Green Arrow, Red Hood, and Titans, but largely inconsequential and rarely referenced again).

Year of the Villain itself spanned the whole year, with two dedicated series (YoTV and YoTV: Hell Arisen), a huge Justice League arc (14 issues!), literally dozens of tie in issues in main books, and 8 oneshots focusing on specific villains and their upgrades. 

This also tied into The Infected storline, where the Batman who Laughs infected six heroes and sent them out into the universe to torment people. This, too, got a number of oneshots and tie-in issues.

You had Event Leviathan, a six issue series which then got a spinoff and soon a sequel through the second half of 2019, which promised to ‘stretch across the DC universe and touch every character’, which has been, outside of Action Comics (which spun it off), a complete non-entity.

You also had Doomsday Clock, which launched all the way back in 2017 and only finished in late 2019. This was intended to ‘impact the entire DC universe’, with the idea that when the series ended, the rest of the continuity would catch up to it and you’d see the repercussions. It’s effectively been rendered non-canon, taking place outside the universe in a single line in Justice League.

So many things were happening, and they were all stressed as extremely important, but when the chips were down...

Most of them weren’t.

Half the Villain upgrades went away with the blink of an eye (Black Mask hasn’t shown up since his oneshot, and Riddler threw his retirement out in favor of being cRaZy in Batman). Heroes in Crisis had almost no affect. Event Leviathan is waiting on its sequel, having meant almost nothing despite the fact that an entire country was taken over. Doomsday Clock is now effectively out of canon.

Many of these (mostly YOTV itself) lead into the Death Metal event happening now, but that’s the thing: they only lead into that. There’s minimal acknowledgement of those events happening in other books. Even when huge things that should be impossible to ignore happen, they have minimal to no effect on the wider continuity. When is Death Metal happening, in continuity? No idea. What about the infected arc? What about Justice League?

Who knows? DC doesn’t seem to.

Which leads into the finale, the great big ‘are you kidding me’ moment:

Remember that time hundreds of thousands of people died, the whole of South America went to war, and China descended into mass orgies?

No?

Neither does anyone else.

In Wonder Woman issue 50 (and some issues around it), a series of dark gods emerge from (you guessed it) the dark multiverse. Each takes control over a single country, enacting their dark bidding. 

(Brief Suicide CW in the description below)

The goddess of war causes the entire of South America to literally go to war, invading and murdering each other. The mob god causes the whole of Britain to walk outside and stare up at the sky, not eating or drinking until they started to drop dead. A god of indulgence causes the entire of China to engage in bacchanalia, which is effectively a frenzied orgy of celebration and dancing. The nameless god has taken over Saint Petersburg, causing those within to commit mass-suicide impulsively.

And of course this has been happening world wide. Tens, if not hundreds of thousands are dead. We see shots of other places - mass murder in the streets of Hong Kong, for example.

We actually see other heroes in this. The whole arc actually starts with Supergirl fighting Diana, and then while she's briefly out of commission, the Justice League (Bruce, Arthur, Barry, J’onn, Victor, and Kendra) show up to help only to get absorbed by the big bad. That’s when the above panel happens, and then even more heroes get thrown at the problem.

In the end, Diana ‘wins’ - by sacrificing her brother Jason to the Dark Gods. The gods return the Justice League, and undo the damage they’ve caused on Earth. Those dead aren’t actually dead, for example. Time gets rewound... partially. We see the Justice League who only partially remember what happened, but the damage around the area is still there.

This should be, by any metric, a huge fucking deal. Literal gods appeared from the multiverse and fucked over huge chunks of the planet. Hundreds of thousands died and then were, in theory, un-killed. The heroes are aware of this, and have at least partial memories.

And yet it’s never acknowledged. 

This is supposed to be a huge event. The stakes literally could not be higher, and yet I’ve never seen this arc even acknowledged in any other book. This isn’t even a unique thing, either: all of New York (and most of the world) flooded in Doctor Fate and no one noticed outside that book.

So what about City of Bane?

But by far the most significant example of this is City of Bane itself. City of Bane was a huge event. Some of the top selling issues of 2019 were the City of Bane issues. It received numerous ads in other books, as well as major attention. It was the culmination of Tom King’s entire run, and lasted for more than half a year. It involved Gotham taken over by the titular Bane, ruling it with an iron fist and using mind-controlled villains as his own personal police force. It was a huge, game-changing event.

And outside of the pages of Batman (and Gotham City Monsters), it might as well not have happened. Any time it is acknowledged, it’s in the most awkward and confusing manner possible.

Batman and the Outsiders, Issue 6, Bruce is in Paris, Alfred gets a callout from Ra’s, and calls Bruce home: 

Bruce immediately gets on a plane and flies home, landing at the end of issue 7 when the Perpetua symbol goes up.

In issue eight, taking place immediately after, we are lead to believe that the entire City of Bane arc happened in between Bruce flying home from Paris and arriving in time to help:

This is far from the only example. City of Bane tends to be acknowledged exclusively in terms of ‘this issue takes place before City of Bane’ editor notes. The only real thing that gets acknowledged is Alfred’s absence: Detective Comics skips over City of Bane entirely (The YOTV issues taking place before, and then going straight to ‘after), Red Hood and the Outlaws ignores it, and Batgirls acknowledgement is effectively skipping City of Bane itself to go right back to talking about ‘cleaning up the city’ with a one line mention of ‘what Bane did to Gotham’. Plenty of other books either don’t mention it at all, or the mention is so minor I completely missed it.

So why does this matter?

Early on in my time in this fandom, I noted that the more a fan is into DC comics (not the fandom, but specifically the comics), the more they’d hate the comics themselves. This extends beyond what most people on tumblr would consider the ‘fandom space’ - I’m talking reddit, league of comic geeks, comic review sites, etc. The fact is that DC has created a scenario where the more you read their work, the worse it gets. Any individual comic from the examples above reads just fine on its own, but when you read multiple comics you start getting confused about why nothing makes sense. There’s no order to things, no continuity. Things are said in one issue and ignored in the next. Major events are trumpeted as changing the status quo but don’t change a thing. DC is actively pushing away their most dedicated readers, the ones who are going out and buying 5+ issues a week.

So what comes next?

The original reason this all came up was the news that DC’s upper editorial staff had been hit with major layoffs. While nothing yet has been confirmed (this happened only three days ago), the general rumors is that DC is going to be majorly cutting back the number of titles. With Death Metal almost certainly heralding a continuity reboot ala Flashpoint, now is the perfect time for DC to figure out what it’s doing with its continuity, and realistically, they have two options.

Option One: Forsake Shared Continuity.

I’m sure a lot of people would hate this idea, because shared continuity is such an intrinsic part of DC’s history, but looking realistically at sales numbers, there’s some major appeal. There’s far less work to it (important with the loss of their editors), and this isn’t to say all the books will be separate, just that they won’t all be inherently linked. Maybe they keep TEC and JL in the same canon. Maybe Nightwing, Batman, and Batgirl share too. The point is, though, that the fact that Gotham is burning to the ground will no longer reflect on Clark, who is apparently just out of earshot with his thumb up his ass doing nothing.

There’s precedent for this as well. Injustice, DCeased, Criminal Sanity, and White Knight are all stories in their own world that are selling (or have sold) extremely well. DC’s top fifteen issues sold for January to March of this year include seven issues of Batman, one issue of Wonder Woman, one issue of Flash, and then two issues of Unkillables, the Robin 80th oneshot, Strange Adventures (its own continuity), and an issue of Batman: Curse of the White Knight. If you go farther down, it’s more of the same - you have to go through every issue of Curse of the White Knight released, as well as Criminal Sanity, to get to Batman/Superman, Detective Comics, Justice League, and Superman.

I’m not sure this is the best choice, but I can’t imagine it’s not an appealing choice just the same.

Option Two: Fix Shared Continuity.

Without question, DC’s going to be (at least temporarily) paring down the number of books they have, and there’s never been a better time for figuring out what’s going on with their continuity. Less books means less to organize. A reboot and one very determined editor could help establish a baseline to work from, but that would require DC to focus on it as a priority.

I’m sure this is the choice most people will lean for, but it’s definitely the more intensive option, and we can only hope DC decides it’s worth it.

[thegeekerynj]

All Death Metal Review (And nothing from Sweden!)

Death Metal: Trinity Crisis One Shot 

Writer: Scott Snyder   Artist: Francis Manapul

‘And who are YOU supposed to be? I’ve faced enough Dark Knights that no Batman scares me anymore!

Ha! Then it’s a good thing I’m not a Batman! I’m his MOTHER!’

———————————————————————————————————

Sweet Christmas! That took me by surprise!

Harley kissing Jonah Hex, that was really sweet, and gods awful creepy, and kinda gross,  after the exchange, and some thought…

This is it, Gentle Readers… the Beginning of the End of the Beginning of… Oh, crap, now I’m lost… This is where the story starts rockin’!

The Gang’s all together, and the Black Lantern Bat has determined what they need to do.

The plan? Split up, naturally. That AL-ways works…

When we left them in DM #3, the Lanterns are protecting the Home Base, and taking out the Crisis Energy Antennae on the Earths left in the known Universes, The Flashes are off and running through the Speed Force, trying to find Metron, and stay ahead of the Bathattan who Laughs, while the Trinity (Superman / Antilife, Black Lantern Batman and  Warden Wonder Woman) along with Swamp Thing, Harley, Hex and Jarro, head for Castle Bat, to gain access to the Crisis Earths, where the Crisis Energy is being harvested for Perpetua.

**WHEW!**

Getting into the Castle involves getting past an army of Dark Knights… and we have a bunch of real winners here! 

Bat Monday - Salomon Grundy in Bat ears, I could have busted a gut laughing, until I thought about what kind of weapon a zombie with Batman’s training could be, and shivered…

Kull, the daughter of Batman and Wonder Woman, corrupted by the Dark Universe…

Ark, the living embodiment of Arkham, with all of the knowledge and abilities of ALL her worst inmates…

Chiroptor, the amalgam of Batman and Chemo (Great Elder Gods!!)… 

And the Pearl, Martha Wayne, in the equivalent of HellBat Armor, complete with her iconic pearl necklace.

This is a real mindscrew for Batman, and the panels depict it, most intently.

One nice thing about Scott Snyder… he is consistent about tying up loose ends. Once we are in Castle Bat, we find out what happened to Barbatos, the Big Bad from Dark Nights: Metal. Not that we were actually wondering, since we got Perpetual, and the Batman Who Laughs, but, like I said, it ties up the package nicely.

Then, we are introduced to the character I have been most happily waiting for… the Robin King, and his Utility Belt of Death!

Gentle Readers, this is the story we have been waiting for, the chapter which tells us what the Heroes Plan of Action is, and where the story has been going, for over 40 years. You see, the opening page of this book tells us where this story began… with Marv Wolfman and George Perez, and Crisis on Infinite Earths!

Not to spoil too much, but Crisis, Infinite Crisis, and Final Crisis, ]well… they have all played a part in getting us to this story. It seems, the “Crisis Energy’ has fed Perpetua while she was trapped within the Source Wall, and, now, she wants it all, so she can recreate the Universes in her image.

Great job, if you can get it…

I can’t say enough good things about this story and artwork, as Snyder and Manapul have put together a really tight, hard hitting bottle / lead story, bringing us to the next step in the saga… 

Jeebus on a popsicle stick, I hope no one lets me down… that will hurt!

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶.5

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Death Metal: Multiverse’s End #1

Writer: James Tynion IV   Artist: Juan Gedeon

‘Mr. Rabbit?

Yes, Young Lady?

Thank you for saving me.

What a kind thing to say! It was so scary out there, and you stayed so brave. I don’t think I could have done it without your courage.

You’re really, really soft.

I use a special carrot shampoo.

———————————————————————————————————

Once upon a time, about a million, bazillion years ago in cranky fat man years, somewhere around 1982, Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw! brought Earth-C into the DC Multiverse, the earth of anthropomorphic animals… yes, they brought Super-Hero Cartoon Animals to the Super Hero Universe.

Our introduction to this Earth was Rodney Rabbit, a comics writing and drawing hare, who created the Just’a Lotta Animals comic by day, and was Captain Carrot, a Superman-esque rabbit, who got his powers from super charged carrots, when danger struck.

But, I digress… because I got really excited!

So, we have teams on the 6 Earths, each Earth holding a tuning fork, focusing the psychic pain energy of the population to Perpetual, powering her attempts to recreate the Multiverse in her image. The Earths in play, Earth - 3 (Crime Syndicate), Earth - X (Nazi Earth), Earth - 29 (Bizarroworld), Earth - 43 (Blood League World) and Earth - 50 (Justice Lords Earth) are all worlds of pain and suffering.

Their energy is the right flavor for destroying, and creating.

The heroes, organized and led by the Green Lanterns of Sector 2814 (Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz), are working to take down the Antennae before the energy can be fed to Perpetual to power her Cosmic Undoing. 

So, teamed with the Lanterns, we have Hawkgirl, Kid Flash (Earth-22), President Superman (Earth-23), Wonder Woman (Earth-6) and Captain Carrot, all hellbent on stopping the respective Antennae.

The problem… Each Earth’s inhabitants have been laced into the antennae, to directly feed the psychic energy to it..since the energy is effectively terror, well, what better way to induce some? Of course, this isn’t the only problem to be contended with…

Leave it to James Tynion IV to come up with a way to make a villain creepier than the Batman Who Laughs… How, you ask? Well, take the true polar opposite of Batman, and make him realize HE IS what Giggles says he is, and you have an interesting new ballgame.

You see, while the Batman who Laughs is the Ultimate CORRUPTED Batman, Owlman is the Anthesis of Batman, the purest EVIL to the Batman’s GOOD. And he plans to make sure that he continues to be the True Opposite…

Gedeon’s artwork is rough, but considering the story being told, and the pain portrayed by the characters, it fits, perfectly. Some times, I see Joe Staton and Nic Cuti in these pages, a little cartoony, but that’s not a complaint… The story concentrates a bunch on Guy Gardner and Cap, so, it seems to fit (and the art is reminiscent of the ‘A Guy and his G’Nort’ storyline from 1991). 

All in all, a very good story, and a fantastic use of a truly underused treasure.

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Speed Metal #1

Writer: Joshua Williamson   Pencils: Eddy Barrow   Inks: Eber Ferreira

‘Hey, Flash Family, Is it true a Flash has to die in every Crisis?!’

———————————————————————————————————

And the levels of snark from the Darkest Knight have reached Epic Levels!

The first three pages of this issue give us a rehash of everything  having to do with Wally West, since the beginning of the Rebirth Era, from Barry pulling Wally out of the Speed Force, to Barry and Batman finding the Comedian’s Smiley Face button embedded in the Batcave wall, to the events of Heroes in Crisis and Flash Forward.

The action picks up as Barry, Wally, Wallace and Jay leave the Batman’s Vault, in search of Metron’s Chair, with the Darkest Knight hot on their trails. 

In the Speed Force.

With the Darkest Knight’s presence corrupting the Speed Force, Barry and Wally bickering the entire time, I’m reminded of why I hated the post Crisis Flash… Wally wasn’t mature enough to wear the mantle of Barry’s fame.

Sure, he had the speed, he was even faster than Barry, but he was still the same jealous little kid inside, the one who needed to be patted on the head, the one who couldn’t get on with the Titans, even though he was probably the most powerful of them. 

He was just an immature kid, and here, Williamson dragged that all into the foreground once again.

All so Wally West, the King of the Redemption Arc, could have another Redemption Arc…

Sorry, that did me in. 

The rest of the story is pretty good… the art is wonderful, the Jay / Barry / Wallace interplay is really kinda neat, and all the Black Flashes… well, I’m a sucker for Death icons, so a mass of Death Speedsters, well that’s fun with a CAPITAL F!

But, did we need another Wally gets to whine story?

Sorry, this wasn’t the finest arc of the Death Metal Saga.

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Death Metal #4 ‘Shot In The Dark’

Writer: Scott ‘Scream King’ Snyder   Artist: Greg ‘The Muscle’ Capullo  Inks: Jonathan ‘Bloodied’ Glapion

“So, ever wonder why you never see A Harley Who Laughs’?’

———————————————————————————————————

And, that Gentle Readers, is the crux of one of those puzzles about this series… Why don’t we ever see more twisted versions of the Villains who infest Earth Prime?

The Robin King (this is the character who rates SECOND on my memorable Characters list, especially with his own One-Shot—— Who’s First?? Time, Gentle Ones in time…) puts the explanation out there, and it is very simple.

And worth the read… But, I digress.

So, Issue 4 picks up with Sergeant Rock describing what has been happening on Earth - Prime, and we finally get to see who has been carrying him around… AMBUSH BUG! Yes, the character that made the Fourth Wall more transparent than an open Anderson window has been carrying Rock around as his own personal narrator…

Which, if you know the Bug, is a joke unto itself.

So, here we go, the ride is picking up steam, and we are now following 6, count’em SIX, separate story lines. A guy could get whiplash, or Bullwhip or some other third rate character… But, I digress.

We have the Trinity storyline, the SpeedMetal storyline, Multiverse’s End, and the Lantern Storyline from the last issue, the Justice League / Legion of Doom story… am I forgetting anything? 

Oh, and of course, the Robin King.

Where to start with this… I guess the simplest place to start is the artwork.

Greg Capullo’s pencils are absolutely wonderful. For anybody who it's to watch the process of drawing I want to watch so he's got a really wonderful touch I recommend Greg Capullo’s Instagram site. As he's drawing pages for these books, he posts the pencils as he finishes pieces of the process . Normally, he has six or seven photo panels showing exactly what he's been doing.  In man cases, this involves crowd scenes, with extensive detail. His work is beautiful, it’s easy to see why he is such a sought after talent.

Jonathan Glapion’s inks on Capullo’s pencils are comparable to Austin on Byrne, and Janson over Miller, Janson over Colan… Enhancing, and not hiding the intricate detail rendered in the pencils, adding that last flash of lightning to bring it all together. The balance struck between them is almost organic, a constant growth between the two, bringing them to levels bordering on the true Classic Art teams of the last 50 years.

I do not make these comparisons lightly

Now, to the story. Scott Snyder is powering a roller coaster with a rocket sled. The coordination between the different aspects of these stories is both intricate and daring. With all the different aspects of this story spinning like plates on sticks, Snyder juggles the plot lines, and what is left to him by the myriad of writers as Emmet Kelly did in the heyday of Ringling Brothers.

His deft touch, and subtle influences are balanced by lace covered sledgehammer blows, leaving the reader reeling, and wanting so very much more.

Scott Snyder, much like Tom Taylor, has pulled out all the stops, cut the brake lines, kicked out the jams, insert favorite euphemism for creating a high speed, non-stop mad ride to Hell!

And, much to my wallet’s chagrin, I am very happy about it.

Now, as it crosses to other books, and other writers pick up the reins, I am sure Snyder will still be the whip hand driving the story, not allowing some of these writers to go too far astray (unless it’s Tom King… then, well Woo Hoooo!)

I can’t say enough good things about this story, or the team creating it. I’m beginning t feel a little biased, but, what the heck.

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶.5

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Death Metal: Robin King #1 ‘The Robin Who Would Be King’

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi   Artist: Riley Rossmo

‘Aw! Come on, this is the fun part!

Get up and let’s FIGHT!’

———————————————————————————————————

Games, within games, within games…

So, the Batman who Laughs wasn’t infallible.

And the Robin King is going to be the bigger threat to the Darkest Knight than any combination of the Trinity, Flashes or their cohorts.

At least, that’s my takeaway from this issue.

We continue the story of the Robin King, as started in the Tales of the Dark Universe one shot.  Bruce has grown up, and grown into his sociopathy, and genius. He has used the family fortune to get all the training necessary, and to accumulate all the tools, to begin his reign as the true Evil Overlord of Gotham.

Utilizing his accumulated weapons, he has taken out Commissioner Gordon, Firestorm, Animal Man, Adam Strange Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), and the Red Tornado, all in truly spectacular and extraordinarily grisly fashion.

While the Black Hole Implosion for Firestorm was a particularly well thought out death, I think, so far, the ‘Mortal Coil’ Death, for the Red Tornado was the most imaginative… making his powers totally uncontrollable, while moving him closer to his ultimate dream, to be a real person, before his form totally destroys itself from the stresses of his own speed.

Marvelous! Fantastic! Gross!

Enter the Batman who Laughs, with the proposition to make the Robin King special, one of his own…

But, he’s a Robin, so, off to the Groblin Pit he goes!

Hence, his mistake, and possibly another chink in the boiler plate of his plans… since Bruce Wayne is NO Robin!

Peter Tomasi’s scripting for this issue is simply remarkable. The creep factor he brings to this iteration of Bruce Wayne is almost eviscerating. Reading this was painful to my eyes and psyche, feeling the levels of insanity drip off the page, and scratch across my mind like a little bird’s unnaturally sharp talons.

He really hit all the horror factors.

Then, there was the artwork for this story. Riley Rossmo’s artwork set the mood for this story. His shattered pencil / inks style, which can be distracting, was integral to telling this story. It allowed the Reader to view this story as if it were playing out in Bruce’s mind, its all the fracturing being how he is viewing the world.

For me, this story has been the highlight of the series… thus far. I am anticipating this, which is near the midpoint of things, is setting up the Wednesday Night Episode…so, - 

Tune In, Gentle Readers! 

Same Bat-Time

Same Bat Channel!

The Best Is Yet To Come!

Did I neglect there is a B-story, with Signal, Spoiler, Orphan and Red Robin taking on Quietus, the amalgam of Batman Ras’ al Ghul and Duke Thimas, from another Dark Universe, written by Tony Patrick and drawn by Daniel Sampere?

This story brings in a plot line for ‘What’s happening for the Other Bat-Family Elements’, as they try to find their way through Castle Bat’s myriad streets… 

I am guessing we will start to see more of these stories.

I am completely fine with this, rather than having to recap things later…

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶.5

[comixconnection]

Choose Your Three Free Comics!

At long, long last...Free Comic Book Day is here! Unlike the usual “first Saturday in May” celebration that has defined the even in normal years, due to issues with the ongoing pandemic the folks in charge have decided to move this year’s celebration back to August 14th. Want a sneak-peak at the books...?

The following titles will be available at Comix Connection on Aug 14th (while supplies last!). Everybody gets to pick three! Unlike previous years, we will NOT be accepting FOOD DONATIONS in exchange for additional comics. Instead we will be collecting monetary donations to give to the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. For every DOLLAR donates, you may select an additional free comic book!

We know the line for the FCBD comics can get long (if you want to come in and shop first, you can skip the line and head straight inside!) so in an effort to both entertain you while you’re in that long line and to help it go a little faster by giving you a preview of the various titles so you can decide ahead of time what looks good, the Comix Connection Counter Monkeys have read and reviewed all of the available FCBD books! Take a peek!

CHOOSE YOUR FREE COMICS:

One hundred years before the Skywalker Saga began, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy! In this prelude to the ongoing Star Wars: High Republic Adventures comic series, follow padawans Ram Jomaram, Lula Talisola, and Zeen Mrala as they try to save Lonisa City from the dreaded Nihil. Also read the beginning of Star Wars: High Republic Adventures #1! [All Ages]

“Two brand-new adventures from the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender! In Clearing the Air, Tenzin attempts to teach his rambunctious children a lesson Aang taught him about how to resolve conflicts. In Match Makers, Iroh runs into some trouble with a few friends...that just might lead him to something fun he’s been trying to hide from!” [All Ages]

Who Sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott? gives a sample of the upcoming graphic novel by the same name, a tale telling the true story of the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” Rosa Parks! This excerpt features the immediate aftermath of Rosa’s arrest, and her decision to start a legal battle that would change the course of American freedom! [All Ages]

“There's nothing better than a beautiful sunny day reading comics, so join us for a look at this summer's fantastic all-ages reads, courtesy of Oni Press! From the gentle, magical worlds of The Tea Dragon Tapestry (by K. O'Neill) and The Sprite and the Gardner (by Rii Abrego and Joe Whitt), the adventurous magical mystery of Mooncakes (by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu), and the action-packed Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters (Chris and Laura Samnee), there's something for everyone. Sneak a peek at these four fantastic fantasy graphic novels!” [All Ages]

Sonic is 30 years old! Celebrate the anniversary of the world’s fastest hedgehog with this peek into the ongoing Sonic comic series. Things get meta when Amy Rose starts drawing a comic about Sonic, Tails, and their friends...but what will Sonic think when he finds out he’s been turned into a comic book? Prepare for the big 30th Anniversary Sonic Celebration here! [All Ages]

It's the crisis of infinite Archies! Celebrate 80 years of the Riverdale Gang with this tale featuring a dimension-hopping Archie Andrews in his quest to save the multiverse. Then, witness Archie go toe-to-toe with... himself?! May the best Archie win! Plus, get a preview of the newest Archie One-Shot in shops! This title includes several versions of Archie (from classic to TV to horror) and showcases his evolution as a character over eight decades, all while being a tie-in to the company's 80th Anniversary plans. [All Ages]

“Despite the pandemic and the swirl of world events, back issue comics are booming! It's not all record prices (though there are many) or bargain basement deals, but rather it's many different categories! The team that brings you The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide shines the spotlight on this exciting part of the universe of comic books. Includes tips on how to collect, care for your comics, and preserve them, among other things.” [All Ages]

“Get a sneak peek at book four in the bestselling InvestiGators series! With agent Brash trapped in a mysterious coma, the technicians at S.U.I.T. have designed the ultimate replacement: RoboBrash! This high-tech replica has been programmed with all of the original Brash's crime-fighting skills and know-how--but it seems he's got a few bugs in his system! Will Mango and his new partner be enough to stop the giant ants that are on a rampage in the city? Orchestrated by the spaced-out villain, Maestronaut, and Houdino, the dinosaur escape artist, it seems criminals are certainly upping the ANT-e!” [All Ages]

“My name is Grace, not ‘Kyle's little sister’!” Having a good-looking, friendly, outgoing older brother sucks--especially when you're the total opposite: someone who likes staying home and playing video games. Your parents like him better (even if they deny it!) and everyone calls you "Kyle's little sister" while looking disappointed that you're not more like him. Grace was really hoping she'd get to go to a different middle school, but no such luck. At least she has her friends...until he finds a way to ruin that, too! What will Grace have to do to get out of his shadow?! [All Ages]

Jewish mythology has it that when God created the universe, He left one corner of it unfinished. Opinion is divided on why, but everyone agrees that the Unfinished Corner is a dangerous place full of monsters. Twelve-year-old Miriam is too busy preparing for her Bat Mitzvah to care about the Unfished Corner. She spends her days wrestling with whether she even wants to be Jewish--until a peculiar angel appears, whisking her, her two best friends, and her worst frenemy off to this monstrous land with one mission: finish the Unfinished Corner. [All Ages]

“The City of Gloomhaven isn't "safe" at the best of times, but lately, more folks than usual seem to be disappearing. In a city paralyzed by an unknown menace, only one adventuring crew will do: The Jaws of the Lion! Based on the hit games, Gloomhaven and Jaws of the Lion from Cephalofair Games, comes a fantasy adventure with humor and heart.” [All Ages]

The Last Kids on Earth and their friends each tell their own best story of the Monster Apocalypse, including Jack's high-stakes baseball game, Globlet's attempt to take over the world, Quint's bad-day-away invention, Dirk's bragain with a witch, and June and Skaelka's creepy carnival--plus a surprise story from some bad guys on the run... [All Ages]

Being the new kid is tough, even for a superhero/ward and heir to a billionaire, Damian Wayne (aka Robin)! Join Damian as he struggles to learn patience and understanding from the students at Gotham Metro Academy, including star student and all-around Great Guy, Howard! Plus, an adventure of Amethyst, princess of the mystical realm of Gemworld by bestselling authors Shannon Hale and Dean Hale! [All Ages]

To celebrate the new animated TV series premiering on Nickelodeon Fall 2021, Papercutz is releasing a new series of graphic novels entitled The Smurfs Tales. Preview it here with a number of silly short Smurfs Tales, with a back-up appearance by one of Peyo’s other beloved creations: Johan and Peewit, the young page and the court jester. [All Ages]

In Edge of Balance, a new High Republic story set in the wake of the Hyperspace Disaster, meet new Jedi and their enemies 100 years before the events of the Skywalker Saga! Young Jedi Knight Lily Tora-Asi is assigned to help displaced civilians relocate to Banchii in the Outer Rim. She and her padawans will face more threats there than just anxious settlers, from the insidious Drengir to the Nihil! And in Guardian of the Whills, encounter Baze and Chirrut before they join the Rebellion against the Empire in Rogue One! Presiding over the Kyber Temple on Jedha, the Guardians of the Whills had hoped to maintain the balance despite the growing presence of the Empire in their Holy City. Yet when a rebel named Saw Gerrera appears, Baze and Chirrut must decide if they're willing to compromise for peace, or if Saw's plan is too dangerous to risk. Read the first chapter of these two new Star Wars Manga Graphic Novels here! [Teen]

It wouldn’t be the Teen Titans without heightened teenage emotions and romance! Fan favorites Beast Boy and Raven are travelling away from the dwellings they know to find homes they can feel comfortable in. Along the way, their paths cross, sparks fly, and even a destiny or two might be found. [Teen]

“Street Fighter heads back to school, as the world's young fighters flex both their academic and martial arts prowess! Fan favorites Sakura, Ibuki, Karin, Makoto, and Elena come face-to-face with a new challenger - the leather-clad, motorcycle-riding Akira! It's a square-off of (rival) schools in this action-packed one-shot!” [Teen]

[NOT FINAL ART] “This Fall, jump on board here as VALIANT UPRISING overthrows the status quo with new titles, new creators, and new takes on Valiant's most iconic characters! The VALIANT UPRISING FCBD SPECIAL features: A brand new X-O MANOWAR story from Harvey Award-winning writer Dennis Hopeless and breakout star Emilio Laiso. It's the perfect jumping-on point as Valiant's flagship hero prepares to "Upgrade the World"! Then, get a special advance preview of THE HARBINGER #1, an all-new series from co-writers Jackson Lanzing and Colin Kelly join superstar artist Robbi Rodriguez that promises to take Valiant's psiot rebel in a vivid new direction! Plus, find out how the world's greatest spy responds to being unmasked, hunted, and trapped in a first look at NINJAK #1, the pulse-pounding thrill ride from Ringo Award-winning writer Jeff Parker and legendary artist Javier Pulido. Finally, get a sneak peek from writer Cullen Bunn and artist Jon Davis-Hunt of what's to come when SHADOWMAN returns!” [Teen]

Three epic new Marvel moments begin here! Read the beginning of the upcoming Spider-Man Beyond story that will be starting in Amazing Spider-Man #75! Big changes are coming to everyone’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man...but are they for good, or ill? Also discover the new Venom series, which will take spider symbiosis to whole new levels in the wake of King In Black. And last, sneak a peek at the Luke Cage: City On Fire mini-series, which will pit Luke against not just the Kingpin, but Daredevil too! [Teen]

Gotham is under attack, and it’s by the people claiming to keep it safe! Billionaire Simon Saint has slowly been taking over the institutions of Gotham with his insidious private security Magistrate program. Meanwhile, Batman finds his mind infected by Scarecrow’s fear gas, forcing him to question every decision he makes. It is all leading to the DC-spanning event FEAR STATE that will rock Gotham to its core. Plus, read a preview of Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridely’s I Am Batman series in which the sons of Lucius Fox struggle with the legacy of both their father and Bruce Wayne as they take up the cowl to defend Gotham. [Teen]

Who is Avenger Prime? And what has spurred the chronal collapse that has them sending their army of Deathloks out to save all of space and time? Discover the start of the end here! Then, journey into the unknown with the Incredible Hulk! Bruce Banner never wanted to smash, he wanted to discover. Now, it’s finally time for the Hulk to expand his horizons with Operation: Smashtronaut! [Teen]

In this story from Critical Role, explore a small but important corner from the adventures of the Mighty Nein. Then, in The Witcher, it's an original tale featuring the iconic witcher himself, Geralt! Created in close collaboration with CD Projekt Red! [Teen]

A fascinating graphic adaptation of historian Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny, a collections of essays and reflections on lessons from history and how they can help America steer away from the course of authoritarianism. Recommended for anyone looking to learn more about how tyrants all through history have manipulated people and systems to take away the freedoms of others. [Teen]

“Side A: "BLACK: Interlude" What else was going on the night Kareem Jenkins was shot by police and discovered only Black people have superpowers? Find out in this FCBD one-shot! Side B: "CALEXIT: Hollywood Babylon" Once California refused to be ruled by the US government, its resistance fighters became overnight celebrities. Zora used her infamy for recruiting, but Emmie-X has other ideas.” [Mature]

In 2019, James Tynion IV (Batman) and Werther Dell'Edera (Briggs Land) introduced the world to Erica Slaughter, the iconic monster hunter who came to Archer's Peak, Wisconsin to save the town's children from the monsters only she can see. But Erica is not the only member of the House of Slaughter... With nearly half a million copies sold, Something is Killing the Children has become a true comic phenomenon and this Free Comic Book Day you are invited to enter the House of Slaughter...if you dare. [Teen]

Crewed by teenage geniuses frozen in cryosleep, the JEMISON is on a mission to terraform other worlds and provide hope for the human race. But when the ship is mysteriously stopped over a planet that isn't on any of their maps, the crew finds themselves suddenly awoken ten years early. One half remains behind to try and assess the damage and the other is dispatched to the planet below to figure out the answer to a perilous question: What stopped the ship, and is it friend or foe? [Teen]

As the earth dies, salvation is offered to five thousand children who will be spirited away from our planet’s apocalypse -- but what of the other children, still hoping to find one of the bracelets that give them their ticket off planet? In this wistful one-shot from the sci-fi hit We Live, go into the Broken Lands with a group of friends...but there are four of them, and only one bracelet to be found. How will they decide who gets to leave? Then, preview the Rainbow Bridge graphic novel where Andy has to help his beloved dog Rocket save eternity! [Teen]

“The comic adventures of Max, Chloe, and Rachel from the award-winning video game Life Is Strange continue in this exclusive lead-in to an epic new story arc! This FCBD special features the first comic book appearance of an all-new character who will feature heavily in the Life is Strange universe in 2021! This FCBD issue contains exclusive original material!” [Teen]

“To reclaim the Dungeon that fell to the scheming William Delacour, the plan is simple: Marvin the dragon, Isis, and Herbert the duck must find some magic “fugus purit” and use it to dislodge the current occupants of the fortress. But is this really the Guardian's plan? Our heroes will have to fight against everyone to save the Dungeon. Meanwhile, will Marvin succeed in his engagement blast-of-firebreath 'Tong Deum'? Preview the new series here!” [Teen]

See the next chapter of the super-powered scifi epic The Resistance, and then meeet the “Moths��: a subset of the super-powered Reborn. The pandemic that granted the Reborn their gifts during The Great Death gave power to people like  Emily Kai and the rest of the Moths, too...but the moment they use their gifts, their clock starts ticking and they have six months to live. Also, get a sneak-peek at the just-released Not All Robots futuristic techno-depressive-thriller! [Teen]

The second semester of School for Extraterrestrial Girls is in session! Peer into the lives of Tara Smith (fire lizard!), Misako Sato (extra-dimensional fairy!), Summer Cortez (pink tentacle void beast!), and Ekaterina and Zvenislava (anthropomorphic Russian kittens!). They’re all normal teenage girls...except that they’re all aliens stuck on Earth, and since Tara partially destroyed their old school they’ve been sent to bunk at the School for Extraterrestrial Boys while it’s repaired...that’ll go fine, right? Read the first issue here! [Teen]

This official spinoff manga of Rent-A-Girlfriend, the rom-com turned hit anime, features fan-favorite Sumi, the shy girl longing to come out of her shell. Written and illustrated by original creator Reiji Miyajima! Catch up on the manga before the Rent-A-Girlfriend anime returns for a second season, coming soon! [Teen]

Zom 100 is a violent and funny take on the zombie apocalypse! Its main character, Akira, is so depressed in his soul-crushing job that he uses the undead hordes as motivation to finally complete his bucket list! Also included is a sample of the hit fantasy manga Demon Slayer. [Teen]

“Known as the the Weakest Hunter of All Mankind, E-rank hunter Jinwoo Sung's contribution to raids amounts to trying not to get killed. Unfortunately, between his mother's hospital bills, his sister's tuition, and his own lack of job prospects, he has no choice but to continue to put his life on the line. So when an opportunity arises for a bigger payout, he takes it...only to come face-to-face with a being whose power outranks anything he's ever seen! With the party leader missing an arm and the only healer a quivering mess, can Jinwoo somehow find them a way out?” [Teen]

In the small Pennsylvania town of White Ash, there isn’t much going on aside from mining...and keeping the fact that there are elves and dwarves living in the town secret, of course! In this pre-launch of Season Two of the ongoing series, a romantic rendezvous for the grieving dwarf Alex and mischievous elf Lillian doesn’t go as planned...with potentially disastrous consequences! Also read a preview of The Game, a new series where your every action affects impacts the score of your life! Plus a sneak-peak at some vampiric troubles in colonial America in Stake! [Teen]

World of Zorro gives readers a peak at the upcoming titles for the legendary masked swashbuckler, both new stories (that range from the familiar to supernatural horror) as well as newly-translated classic tales! [Teen]

For FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, enjoy this special expanded edition of the hit IMAGE series, STRAY DOGS! Stray Dogs is a comic thriller that features art inspired by classic Don Bluth-style animation, telling the story of a group of dogs brought together by a mysterious loner. Rather than behave like four-legged humans, the brilliance of Stray Dogs is that it gets inside the heads of its canine characters, showing the human world from their perspective. Unique, entertaining, and creepy. [Teen]

The undead Vampirella has been around since 1969, and as the celebrations of her 50th anniversary draw to a close, Dynamite presents a reprint of the first issue of their series that kicked-off her modern adventures! [Teen+]

Take an inside look at everyone’s favorite bipedal shark god, King Shark (aka Nanaue)! Suicide Squad’s many-toothed muscle is currently inside Belle Reve prison, but he won’t remain there for long. PLUS: a sneak peak at the just-released Suicide Squad miniseries Get Joker! [Mature]

“After 20 years of antics coming out of Sunnyvale trailer park, the underground TV phenomenon Trailer Park Boys is finally coming to comics! Full of short stories and activity pages, several of comics' finest join to create a series of comic book specials in 2021 and beyond honoring Ricky, Bubbles and Julian and everything fans have come to love about the series.”  [Mature]

Fungirl is a humor comic that is as unpredictable and hilarious as it is observant and smart. Cartoonist Elizabeth Pich’s creation does as much smashing the patriarchy as she does dreaming of delicious donuts and being spit on by llamas. [Mature]

“Tensions between the clans are high, so when Cecily Bain, an enforcer for the Twin Cities' vampiric elite, takes a mysterious new vampire under her wing she finds herself in over her head and dragged into a massive undead conspiracy! Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the city, a rebellious found-family of clan-less vampire cast-outs investigates a vicious killing.” [Mature]

“Preview the forthcoming full color, original Space Pirate Captain Harlock series from ABLAZE, personally overseen by the legendary Leiji Matsumoto!  In this brand-new Captain Harlock adventure, planet Earth is threatened by an upcoming invasion by the Sylvidres and despite being banished as a pirate, Captain Harlock won't give up trying to save the world. Will Captain Harlock and his crew manage to solve this mystery and save the Earth from yet another menace?  Also includes teasers for 3 highly anticipated upcoming manga/manhwa releases from ABLAZE, including The Breaker Vol 1 omnibus (critically acclaimed martial arts manhwa), Versus Fighting Story Vol 1 (Capcom e-sports shonen manga) and Crueler Than Dead Vol 1 (zombie horror seinen manga).” [Mature] 

“An evil so profound it threatens all mankind... the mightiest heroes on the planet uniting to defend us all... a secret crisis of such utter finality that a countdown to civil or infinite war seems unavoidable... but have you ever wondered what really happens during Crossovers? The Seven, Payback, Teenage Kix, Fantastico and every other supe on Earth team up for an annual event like no other... and where the supes go, can a certain "five complications and a dog" be far behind? Vought-American prepare to make their move, in a story that will change the world of the Boys forever: Herogasm #1. The first-ever Boys spin-off mini-series features the pairing of Ennis with Hitman artist John McCrea and covers by Boys artist and co-creator Darick Robertson!” [Mature]

“The most eagerly-anticipated series of 2021 gets the FCBD treatment with this ALL-NEW "bonus" issue of the series! Featuring 33 pages of comics produced exclusively for FCBD, from the creator of Hip Hop Family Tree and X-Men: Grand Design, designed as a perfect entry point for new readers and a must-have for those already on board. Aided by the anonymous dark web and nearly untraceable crypto-currency, there has emerged a subculture of criminals who live-stream and patronize webcam murders for entertainment. Who are the murderers? Who are the victims? Who is the audience? How do we stop it? An outlaw, splatterpunk masterpiece, as seen on Piskor's YouTube channel sensation, Cartoonist Kayfabe!” [Mature]

“An award-winning comic and soon to be Netflix anime series!  When dusk arrives in the city of Manila, that's when you become the most likely prey of the underworld. Kidnappers and thieves will be the least of your worries. Beware the criminals that can't be bound with handcuffs nor harmed with bullets.  Beware the ones that crave your blood, those who hold your heart ransom, and the ones that come to steal your soul. When crime takes a turn for the weird, the police call Alexandra Trese. Featuring a preview from TRESE Vol 2: Unreported Murders, a section on the forthcoming Netflix TRESE anime series launching this summer (including an interview with Director Jay Oliva), bonus pages with w/ background about the monsters of Philippine myth as told by TRESE creators Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo, and a teaser on TRESE Vol 3: Mass Murders, coming this Sept from ABLAZE!” [Mature]

“2000 AD Presents All-Star Judge Dredd is a thrill-powered showcase of the past and shocking present of the iconic lawman of the future! Witness the birth of the world of Judge Dredd in an incendiary preview of upcoming prequel graphic novel Dreadnoughts by Michael Carroll with art by Watchmen's John Higgins. Fan-favourite Judge Hershey travels to the ends of the earth to dispense her own brand of justice in long-anticipated blockbuster spin-off, Hershey: Disease by Rob Williams (Suicide Squad) and Simon Fraser (Doctor Who). Along-side these teases for Fall 2021 epics enjoy a bone-rattling all new stand-alone Dredd caper from elite writer Al Ewing (Immortal Hulk, Marvel's Empyre) and Caspar Wijngaard (Star Wars, Home Sick Pilots)!” [Teen]

“Four titanic tales of pure fun and entertainment for everyone to enjoy! First up. It's no dog and pony show here! Bringing back the iconic puppets from the San Francisco Bay Area "Charlie and Humphrey"!! The modern-day Gumby and Pokey! A true love for al ages featuring a tale by Justin Sane and John Hageman! Next up is "Red Dawn" Written and created by Brandon McKinney, with inks by Bill Anderson and vibrant colors from Ross Hughes!! The government has created the first "controlled" superhero doing the bidding of a shadow operation until things go bad leaving our hero to blame and now on the run. The following story is only exclusive to this FCBD edition. Written by Greg Boucher and illustrated by Victor Moya they bring you "Rock and Roll Biographies: FIGHt" See how a troubled Rob Halford leaves the world biggest heavy metal band to form his own supergroup and take metal back!! Our last preview is written by Mel Smith, illustrated by Frank Cirocco/Alex Sheikman and hand colored by Gerhard! "Becoming Frankenstein" takes down the journey of a troubled Victor Frankenstein as he grieves the loss of his mother while harvesting the body parts of victims to create life again for his monster! Learn the tales of the victims and who they were before they became what becomes Frankenstein's ultimate creation! : This will be the only edition to feature this Rock and Roll Biographies story featuring FIGHT “ [Mature]

Enjoyed your Free Comic Book Day books? Want to read more? Let your friendly neighborhood Comix Connection Counter Monkey know which ones caught your eye, and we’ll be happy to direct you to the next part of the story!

[ranger-report]

Opinion: DC and Marvel’s Multiverses Are Crucial To The Future of Superhero Film

Alright, buckle up kids, this is going to be a long one. Get some soda and some popcorn, or some green tea and avocado toast.

Back in the long-distant year of 1989, a little film called Batman released into theaters and became the film of the Summer. Directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson as Batman and the Joker respectively, it was a cinematic triumph that heralded a new wave of superhero films taking their source material seriously. Followed up in 1992 by Batman Returns, a sequel which increased the fantastic elements but was criticized for its darker tones, Batman’s role in movies was cemented in place by continued success. Of course, Keaton and Burton would leave to be replaced by Val Kilmer as Batman with Joel Schumacher directing for 1995′s Batman Forever, with George Clooney stepping into the cape and cowl for 1997′s Batman and Robin, a wild disaster of a film which nearly destroyed Batman’s chances in movies. But then, in 2005, Christopher Nolan brought a gritty realism to the caped crusader in Batman Begins, and continued this successful experiment with 2008′s Best Film Of The Year, The Dark Knight, and 2012′s The Dark Knight Rises (which was....fine). By this time the DCEU was beginning to get started, so a new Batman was cast for Zack Synder’s 2016 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and this role went to Ben Affleck. He reprised the role in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad and Joss Whedon’s Justice League, but bowed out of the opportunity to write and direct his own solo Bat-flick. So director Matt Reeves was tapped to direct a new Batman film starring a controversial choice of Robert Pattinson as Batman. With all of this, the question of the past 30-odd years is: which is your favorite Batman? Which one was the best? And how do these films fit into an increasingly convoluted canon in which a film series is rebooted every ten years or so?

What if the answer is: they’re all great and they all fit into canon?

Now, before we think too hard about that, let’s take a look at Spider-Man’s cinematic installments, which is almost more convoluted and in a more compressed amount of time. Beginning with 2002′s Spider-Man directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire, the amazing wall-crawler enjoyed a fantastic amount of success on the big screen, followed up by one of the best superhero films of all time, 2004′s Spider-Man 2. But Spider-Man 3 in 2007 took all of that goodwill and smashed it into the ground with a failure almost as bad as Batman and Robin a decade earlier. Plans for a Spider-Man 4 were scrapped, and eventually in 2012 director Mark Webb and star Andrew Garfield would bring a brand new Spidey to life with The Amazing Spider-Man, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014. Both films were lively and energetic, but criticized for trying to stuff too much into their films -- especially the second one. Sony Pictures was attempting to ramp up a cinematic universe much like Marvel Films was doing at the time, but it was too much too fast. 2017 brought another reboot of the moviefilm version of Spidey, this time directed by Jon Watts and starring Tom Holland, with Spider-Man: Homecoming, this time under Marvel Film’s banner (thanks to backdoor dealing), and another cinematic triumph in 2019′s Spider-Man: Far From Home. But, unlike Batman, Spider-Man’s dealings behind the scenes are nearly as convoluted as his series. Sony Pictures owned the rights to make Spider-Man flicks for years, until Marvel managed to make a ludicrous offer after Amazing 2 failed to catch on the way producers hoped. So Spidey came to the MCU under a joint production, which is how we got Homecoming and Far From Home, but also maintained a different universe with the Amazing films, and then 2018′s Venom, and a little animated motion picture also in 2018 by the name of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.

Class, this is where I would like to direct your attention to the origin of the extraordinary events we are discussing today. Or is it the origin?

Into The Spider-Verse successfully proved that not only is the idea of multiple universes all connecting on screen a good idea, it’s an Oscar winning idea. Spider-Verse is hands down the best animated superhero film ever, and one of the best superhero films period. But here we must take note of certain ideas. The film provided much setup for a world where young Miles Morales begins to emerge with spider powers, but then Spider-Man is killed right in front of him before he can learn how to use them. Enter a Spider-Man from a slightly different parallel dimension, who not only turns Miles around, but find himself inspired to realign his own life. Spider-people abound through the film, all of them having equal weight and the possibility of spawning their own franchise without having to worry about impacting the canon of other universes. This is something comic books have done for literal decades, but Spider-Verse did it with such care and devotion that it won Best Animated Picture and became a mainstream smash hit. Marvel and Sony both sit up at attention; could this work with the major mainstream films they’ve been producing? So the experiment begins: we have a teaser trailer for Morbius, based on a vampiric Spider-Man villain, which features a cameo from the Vulture character first seen in Homecoming. And after dropping hints that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man could cross over with Tom Hardy’s Venom, Jamie Foxx recently posted about being cast as Electro -- a role he played in Amazing Spider-Man 2 -- for the third Tom Holland Spidey flick. Pictures went up on his Instragram seeming to confirm that not only was this the same Electro, but that all three previous Spider-Men -- Maguire, Garfield, and Holland -- would team up for the film. Multiple universes collide, a live action Spider-Verse, where everyone is crossing over with each other. Now, this lines up perfectly with Marvel’s MCU plans, as Doctor Strange has established in his film that multiple universes exist, and his announced sequel is even titled Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It’s here. It’s happening. Every Spider-Man film is canon, they’ve all happened, and we don’t need to worry about which of them make sense or belong. They all make sense.

But just before this announcement, a month or so ago DC let slip that their plans for an upcoming Flash movie are taking cues from the Flashpoint comic books, in which Barry Allen goes back in time and accidentally creates a brand new timeline that he has to correct. Michael Keaton has even been cast as Bruce Wayne, the same Bruce Wayne that he played 30-odd years ago, a casting choice many fans have been clamoring for for years. On top of that, once word was put out that Keaton’s role would be similar to Samuel L. Jackson’s role as Nick Fury in the MCU, Ben Affleck was reported to be joining the picture as Batman also, a team-up no one saw coming. Even Christian Bale is being courted to join the universe-spanning flick, but reportedly only if director Christopher Nolan gives his blessing. Multiple Batmen teaming up together in a Flash movie to combat crime? Of course I’ve already bought tickets. Batman is the biggest box-office draw outside of The Avengers. And this concept opens up plenty of opportunities for DC, who’ve done Elseworlds stories in the comic for years. Joker with Joaquin Phoenix proved that DC films not directly tied to the DCEU can and will do well on their own; The Batman with Pattinson will no doubt further confirm that. But now Batman Returns is once again a viable film mixed into a comic book cocktail of wonder and excitement? And what’s wonderful is that this isn’t DC’s first big attempt at this. Slowly and surely, The CW’s Arrowverse TV shows -- Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow -- have been doing multiverse crossovers for years, building up to 2019′s mega-event Crisis on Infinite Earths, which saw Brandon Routh reprise his role as Superman from 2006′s Superman Returns, which itself is a sequel to Christopher Reeve’s Superman and Superman II. And for one wonderful scene, TV’s Flash, Grant Gustin, got to interact with the DCEU’s Flash, Ezra Miller, confirming that these TV and film universes are indeed one big cocktail of parallel lives and dimensions that all interconnect while still being separate. Hell, we even saw Burt Ward, Robin from the 1966 Batman show, alive and well an in his own little world. Batman ‘66 is part of the wider DC Multiverse! How crazy is that? And we even got a small tease that Batman ‘89 is part of all of this as well, when we got to see reporter Alexander Knox look up to the Batsignal in the sky as Danny Elfman’s iconic score played. In one fell swoop, in as few as a casual couple of cameos, DC made all of their live-action properties canon in the multiverse, meaning no matter which version you like the best, they all work together and work from a franchising and audience standpoint. The 1978 Superman and the 1989 Batman both existed in worlds that ran sidecar to 2019′s Joker and 2011′s Green Lantern. It’s wild, unprecedented in cinematic history, and wonderful for fans of all ages.

Why is this the future of superhero flicks, though? It ought to be simple: no matter what movies come out, no matter how wild or crazy or outside “canon” they seem to be, they all can work and they all can coexist without having to confuse fans. Many people were feeling the reboot fatigue as early as 2012′s Amazing Spider-Man, and while there was a huge tone shift between Batman Returns and Batman Forever, the Bat-films were considered all part of the same line until Batman Begins started all the way over. Now we have Batman 89 and Returns in one world, Forever and Batman and Robin in another (which was already a fan theory, mind you). Sequels that don’t line up with their predecessors can just be shunted into a hidden multiverse timeline and left alone without the convoluted explanation of having to “ignore” certain sequels. Superman III & IV were ignored when Superman Returns chose to connect only to the first and second films, but now we can say that they definitely happened....just somewhere else. There is now a freedom of ideas and creation that can once again occur when making big-budget films based on superheroes. No longer do creative minds need to be restrained to the canon and timeline and overarching plots defined by studios years in advance; “creative differences” don’t need to drive frustrated directors away from characters or stories they truly love. Possibly -- just possibly -- good ideas can become the gold standard once again for comic book films, not just ten-year plans for how to get Captain America from scrawny Marine to Mjolnir-wielding badass. Remember when filmmakers decided to make Joker the same person who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents? Or when they decided to give Spider-Man the ability to shoot webs from his body instead of technology? That certainly wouldn’t fly these days; studio mandates would require adherence to previously established guidelines, or at least what has been seen in the comic. What if now we could get a three-episode limited series on HBO Max of Gotham By Gaslight? Or a big-budget adaptation of Marvel’s 1602? Simply trying to wedge old comic book storylines into existing Cinematic Universes no longer need be a thing! We could get some of the wildest interpretations of superheroes this side of Superman: Red Son. At least, that’s the hope, anyway.

When comic books can step away from canon for just a few minutes, worlds open up and expand. An entire multiverse of ideas can become a feast of entertainment for many. And when there’s already so many beautiful, well-told stories set in alternate universes as comic book precedent, so too can there be beautiful, well-told stories set in alternate universes for film. And the best part? Now they all matter. And I think that’s the future.

[doyelikehaggis]

Turn the world back in time just to never say goodbye

Steelatom + Crisis Angst, requested by a lovely, patient anon [also on ao3]

Gonna be honest, this feels a little less like Steelatom and more just Team Legends angst, but there is a little bit of it in there, I hope??

The Waverider's silent for once. It's not right. Everything about it feels wrong, like the calm before a storm, and Nate can't help but think that that's exactly what this is right now.

There's been no word from Sara or Ray since they last contacted them to tell them they were gonna help Barry and Oliver out with some crisis that could apparently destroy the universe. 

He paces the library; three of his nails are already bitten down to the beds and a fourth is soon to join them. This is his fault.

Maybe not the crisis—or who knows, actually, they could have easily messed something up in the timeline after everything that went down with Neron.

But he should have gone with Ray and Sara. They asked if anyone wanted to help, but everyone was reluctant. The last crossover, as Ray's been dubbing it, that they had to do wasn't so great and it lost them Stein.  

But now not going could have left Sara and Ray without additional backup that they might have needed.

He, at the very least, should have volunteered to go. His powers combined with Supergirl's would certainly have upped the odds by a fraction.

And he wouldn't be here with the rest of the team, waiting with growing anxiety. Charlie's the only one talking, but her attempts to lighten the mood a little falls flat when no one can bring themselves to be distracted. 

"Gideon?" he asks, stopping in front of the screen on the wall. "Any news on Ray and Sara?"

"I'm afraid not, Mr. Heywood," Gideon informs him. 

Nate closes his eyes. He forces himself to take in a slow breath. 

"But I feel I should inform you that there have been several more aberrations created to the timeline since you last asked," Gideon continues, and the screen lights up as Nate opens his eyes. Red lights flash to life all over the map of the timeline. "They all appear to be located in the future."

"What does that mean?" Nate asks, shaking his head. "More time-jumping escapees?"

"No. These appear to be created by unexpected changes to events in 2020, affecting the future timeline. Including the future of the Legends, as well as Barry Allen, Kara Zor-El, Oliver Queen, and a few others. It appears as if Crisis happening earlier than it was supposed to has changed the course of the events and ruptured the timeline that had been in place."

Nate can feel a balloon inside his stomach filling with air, expanding until it's in his chest, getting closer and closer to exploding.

He sucks in another deep breath and silently tells himself to stay calm. It doesn't sound so bad.

"What kind of things have changed, Gideon?" he asks, scanning the screen of dots and dates. 

"Well, for one, The Flash and Supergirl are alive," Gideon answers, and a small pang of relief hits him. "Oliver Queen is not. His death was altered; it happened sooner than it was originally meant to by cause of some ripple effect in the timeline, from what I can tell. He died two days ago."

Nate's heart drops at that. Oliver's dead. They weren't exactly best friends, but—Oliver was the Green Arrow, but also, he was Oliver Queen. A legend all of his own. He wasn't supposed to—how can he just be dead? Just like that, with no warning?

"What else?" he forces out through gritted teeth. 

"I'm afraid if I tell you much more, it could only make the rupture worse, Mr. Heywood," Gideon apologizes.

"Gideon, what else has changed?" he asks again, because he doesn't like the sound of that one bit. "What parts of the future are different?"

"Nate?"

He turns around at the sound of Charlie's voice. She's hovering uncertainly in the doorway, but her eyes dart to the screen with some glint of understanding held in them that tells him she may have heard a word or two.

He sighs and faintly registers that Gideon stays silent. Probably for the best, some part of him thinks. 

"Hey, what's up?" he asks softly, crossing his arms. Even he can hear the weariness in his voice. He just wants this Crisis to be over.

Charlie shakes her head but steps further in at the implied invite. "Nothing. Just wanted to see how you were doing."

Nate doesn't even know how to begin answering that. It must show on his face because Charlie's own expression turns sympathetic for a moment.

This thing is affecting all of them, but part of him can't help but think she has a little bit of luxury, not knowing anyone else well enough to really be that worried. To not have this pit of dread in her stomach, or have this hollow aching in her heart that's telling her something is wrong. 

"No news then, I take it?" she asks, dropping the pretence as she motions her head to the screen.

He glances at it and all of the little dots—more time aberrations they'll have to fix now thanks to whatever the hell the multiverse is doing this time—before shaking his head. He presses his lips together and tries not to think about what that means. 

"Not about Ray or Sara, no." He shifts his eyes back to her, and he stops. 

Her face has dropped, a crease between her eyebrows. It's such a familiar expression and yet completely foreign to him at the same time, because never has he seen Charlie look this upset or really worried.

It occurs to him that he's wrong, was too caught up in his own mind to really focus. Of course she has just as much reason to worry as he does. 

Guilty, he sighs once more, then steps forward, trying to mold his expression into something resembling assurance. 

"I'm sure it doesn't mean anything," he tries, getting Charlie to look him in the eyes. He falters. "It's...I mean, no news is good news, right?"

"Don't think that really applies when the universe might be ending," Charlie says, and yeah, he wasn't buying it either. 

He at least manages to crack a small smile at that, Charlie giving one in return. Nate reaches out, resting a hand on her shoulder for a moment, squeezing gently. Charlie glances at it, and her smile slips ever so slightly. 

"I know everyone's worried about Sara and Ray," she starts, and he nods slowly, remembering seeing Mick sitting quietly in a corner of the kitchen, just staring at a full bottle of beer. "But...you're really worried about Ray, aren't you?"

Nate pauses, his head tilting. But Charlie's looking at him with wide, gentle eyes that look just as scared as he feels. His hand slips from her shoulder, back to his side as his tongue darts out across his bottom lip.

He is terrified of losing either of them, because they have lost so many people already, and he loves them. They're his family. Especially Ray. It just feels...different.

"That obvious that I'm a mess, huh?" he jokes, but it's not really a joke at all, because he feels like a mess, and he's sure it is obvious. 

He leans back against the table behind him, staring up at the ceiling as he feels Charlie move closer to stand beside him.

"Kinda, yeah," she says. 

He snorts at her honesty, throwing her a glance, and she shrugs. He just returns to staring at the ceiling as his shoulders sink a little.

"I just got him back..." he says softly, his heart twisting. "I can't handle going through that again. Losing him. Or Sara—or any of you guys. But I just...I need him to be okay. He's not supposed to go off and die in some heroic attempt to save the entire freaking multiverse from being destroyed in some crossover that we weren't meant to be a part of, not before—especially not without—"

He cuts himself off, closing his eyes. 

"Not without knowing that you're in love with him?" Charlie ventures, and it's really not like she has to go that far.

She already sounds like it's common knowledge but she's trying her hardest to not be obvious about it. He appreciates the effort.

Sighing again, he nods.

"Yeah. Exactly. I didn't sign up to be a part of one of those tragic romance novels where one of them dies before they get together—or at least confess how they feel! Those suck, and we are time travellers. We shouldn't have to deal with that stuff, because we should be able to go back and fix all of the bad things before they even happen so that we can avoid situations exactly like this!"

Charlie's the one placing a hand on his shoulder now. He turns his head to meet her gaze, and he already knows.

"That's not how this works for us, though," she tells him gently. "You lot taught me that. Bad things happen sometimes that we can't fix. If we could go back and redo every situation that could have gone a different way with just one decision without messing up time itself, we would, but...we can't. Not even for stuff like this."

Nate deflates. Why did she have to be right?

Why couldn't she just suggest they hop in the timeship and go fix whatever mess is happening, or at the very least help out everyone else with it like they should have been doing already?

The team's really rubbing off on her. It makes him a little happy, to be honest.

"Besides," Charlie gives his shoulder a light squeeze, smiling once more as she points out, "nothing bad has actually happened. We would know about it by now if it had. So, really, there's nothing to fix."

"I guess that's true," Nate agrees, willing to look on the light side of things. It's all he has, and he'll cling to it for as long as he can. "Alright. Come on. Why don't we—"

An alarm sounds throughout the entire ship, piercing the air like a screech.

Nate and Charlie look at each other, wide-eyed, then they're both running out of the library. The rest of the team are all quick to join, panicked and confused, the alarm still blaring and the lights flashing red. 

"What the hell is that?" Mick roars, looking ready to fight the ship itself if it doesn't pipe down. 

"Gideon!" Nate shouts, striding over to the panel. "What's going on?"

"A large wave of antimatter has been detected heading straight for the ship," Gideon answers, a projection of her most basic form—a simple, featureless head—appearing to them. "I'm afraid that the attempt to prevent the Crisis from finishing its course has failed. In twenty-seconds, we will be consumed by the antimatter and erased from existence."

Nate's heart drops into his stomach, his skin going ice cold. 

"Guessing that'll have something to do with that then." Constantine nods his head towards the window with an edge of resignation in his voice. 

They all look up, and Nate couldn't possibly fee more nauseous right now. Space is no longer endless black with stars lighting the way, but bright, burning red flames tearing apart everything in sight. And soon, them.

"Well, what do we do then?" Charlie asks urgently, gesturing at the window as well. "How the bloody hell are we supposed to stop that?"

"You can't," Gideon says. "Once we are destroyed, the antimatter wave will consume Earth-1 and it will be the end of the multiverse. It's up to the Paragons to restore it, if they can."

"The Para—what do you mean?!" Nate sputters, the desperation seeping into his voice. "Gideon, we are literally about to be wiped out. We can't just sit here, and—let the multiverse be destroyed!"

"I don't think we've got a say in that, mate," Constantine says, his voice strangely quiet.

There's something dark in his eyes as he stares out at their supposed end. It's as if he isn't surprised, as if he was expecting this. They don't have the time for pointless questions. 

Nate shakes his head. "No. No. Ray and Sara—"

"Captain Lance will be okay," Gideon cuts him off, as if agreeing. "She is a Paragon. It is up to her and the others to stop the anti-monitor."

Hope lights up in him for a second, because that sounds good. Right? But then it flickers back out, because—wait. 

"Well—what about Ray then?" he can't help but ask, his hands tightening a little on the edge of the console. "He's with Sara, right? So, the two of them—they can fix this? They can...restore the multiverse or stop the antimatter or whatever?"

Gideon pauses. Gideon never pauses. She's an AI, she doesn't have reason to pause, and yet, she actually pauses before answering him. If her projected face could have physical expressions, he's got a good feeling he knows exactly what one she would be wearing.

"Mr Palmer is not a Paragon," she says, and Nate doesn't fully understand what exactly the hell that means, but he knows it isn't good, so everything in him still drops like an anchor. "I'm afraid he will be erased by the antimatter as well."

Nate closes his eyes, dropping his head forward. Just hearing it makes his stomach turn and have to swallow past that lump in his throat. This can't be real.

This isn't how this happens. Ray isn't even here, he can't just be erased on a completely different earth, not without the rest of them being there as well, at the very least. Not without him.

The control panel lights up, and Nate can feel it now. The resignation. Knowing this is it. 

"Ten seconds until the antimatter reaches the waverider," Gideon informs them, a timer now displayed on the screen in front of them all.

"Do something!" Mick shouts, whether at Nate or Gideon or just the universe itself.

"There's nothing that can be done!" Constantine shouts back, waving his hand at the console. "We're screwed. That's all there is to it."

"Five seconds."

"Could we not just take the ship somewhere else?" Charlie asks, already scrambling to turn dials and hit buttons despite nothing happening when she does. "Go back in time, or—or forward? Just anywhere but here?"

Nate shakes his head, even if he scans the console desperately for something, anything, a last resort that will get them out of this.

But the waverider would never be able to outrun a wave of antimatter this big and this close to destruction, and even if they did, that would mean leaving Sara and Ray behind on Earth-1. 

"No. It's over," Nate says quietly.

He lifts his head to look up out the window as the timer hit three seconds. Those three seconds as he just stares out at the burning red antimatter feel like they pass in slow-motion, part of him wishing that they were facing Earth. All of him wishing he were on Earth-1 with Ray. 

All he can hope for in that last second as he feels the ship start to burn, the antimatter tearing through the window like it's nothing, is that Sara can really find some way to fix this.

He can't let this be the end for any of them, not like this, they deserve more. He closes his eyes, breathes out, and thinks of how he would be saying goodbye to Ray in this very moment if he could as the antimatter engulfs the entire ship. He's almost glad that he doesn't have to. And then there's nothing.

[aion-rsa]

DC FanDome: Schedule, Date, Time, and How to Watch

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Fans hoping for major DC news in lieu of an actual San Diego Comic-Con are definitely going to get just that at DC FanDome, a digital event designed to be watched at home like a real con.

Originally set up as one epic night of panels and reveals, DC announced that it will be splitting FanDome into two separate and distinct events: Hall of Heroes, which will be held in late August, and WatchVerse in mid-September.

The August date still holds most of the big-ticket items. It’s billed by DC as “an epic world designed personally by Jim Lee featuring special programming, panels and exclusive reveals from a wide variety of films, TV series, games, comics and more.” Functionally, it’s the Hall H of FanDome.

This DC FanDome trailer gives fans a good glimpse at what they can expect from the event:

Here’s everything else you need to know about DC FanDome:

DC FanDome Date and Time

The first DC FanDome event, Hall of Heroes, kicks off on Saturday, Aug. 22 at 1 pm ET. Sign up to watch here!

DC FanDome Schedule

Here’s a rundown of all the panels happening during DC FanDome: Hall of Heroes. The panel descriptions below are courtesy of DC. All times are ET:

1:00 PM – Wonder Woman 1984 Panel

“Wonder Woman 1984 stars Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal, and director/co-writer/producer Patty Jenkins join forces with Brazilian hosts Érico Borgo and Aline Diniz to celebrate the fans in a big way. They will answer questions from fans from all over the world, talk fan art and cosplay, and reveal an all-new sneak peek at the upcoming film — plus a few more surprises!”

1:25 PM – WB Games Montreal Announcement

“Gamers! You won’t want to miss this first look at an exciting new game, and Q&A with its developers.”

1:45 PM – The Sandman Universe: Enter the Dreaming Panel

“Neil Gaiman, Dirk Maggs, G. Willow Wilson and Michael Sheen discuss the legacy of The Sandman comic book series and how it has been expanded with new stories, adapted into new mediums, and enthralled audiences around the world.”

2:15 PM – Multiverse 101 Panel

“Get schooled in this engaging refresher course on the creation of the Multiverse with DC Chief Creative Officer/Publisher Jim Lee, Warner Bros. Pictures President of DC-Based Film Production Walter Hamada, and Berlanti Productions founder/DCTV mega-producer Greg Berlanti.”

2:40 PM – Flash Movie Panel

“This 101-style conversation with The Flash filmmakers Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti, star Ezra Miller and screenwriter Christina Hodson will give fans a speedy rundown on the first-ever Flash feature film.”

2:50 PM – Beyond Batman Short

“The Batman of Swinging Sixties culture clashes with the Batman of the far-flung future when Batman Beyond and his mentor, Old Bruce Wayne, intercept a broadcast of the 1966 Batman TV show!”

2:55 PM – The Suicide Squad Panel

“What else would you expect from The Suicide Squad but the ultimate elimination game? First up, writer/director James Gunn takes on fan questions, then brings out Task Force X for a fast-paced, no-holds-barred Squad Showdown that tests every team member’s Squad knowledge — and survival skills!”

3:40 PM – BAWSE Females of Color within the DCU Panel

“What’s a BAWSE? Find out here as some of the hottest actresses across DC television and film sit down with celebrity DJ D-Nice and Grammy-winning singer/actress Estelle to discuss how they use their confidence and vulnerability to navigate their careers in Hollywood. Panelists include Meagan Good (SHAZAM!), Javicia Leslie (Batwoman), Candice Patton (The Flash), Tala Ashe (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow), Nafessa Williams and Chantal Thuy (Black Lightning), and Anna Diop and Damaris Lewis (Titans). Catch the entire full-length conversation at McDuffie’s Dakota in the DC WatchVerse.”

4:00 PM – Legacy of the Bat Panel

“Calling all Batman fans! Don’t miss this discussion on the wide scope of the Batman universe, including the Batman Family of characters. Key talent from comics, TV, and games will provide insight into the world of Caped Crusader.”

4:30 PM – Joker: Put on a Happy Face

“Featuring interviews with filmmakers and industry legends, discover the origins and evolution of The Joker, and learn why the Clown Prince of Crime is universally hailed as the greatest comic book Super-Villain of all time.”

4:45 PM – Surprise DC Comics Panel

TBA

5:10 PM – I’m Batman: The Voices Behind the Cowl Panel

“Everyone has their favorite Batman. But for audiences around the world, their favorite Batman has a local sound. It’s time to meet the voices behind the cowl. Hear what it’s like to be one of the many global vocal actors portraying the Dark Knight when the Super Dubbers, who lend their talents to the Caped Crusader on screens big and small all over the world, come together for the first time ever.”

5:30 PM – The Snyder Cut of Justice League Panel

“Zack Snyder fields questions from fans and a few surprise guests as he discusses his eagerly awaited upcoming cut of the 2017 feature film and the movement that made it happen.”

5:54 PM – The Flash TV Panel

“Executive producer Eric Wallace joins cast members Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Danielle Nicolet, Kayla Compton, and Brandon McKnight to discuss all things Flash with Entertainment Weekly’s Chancellor Agard. Team Flash will break down both parts of season six and look ahead at what is to come with an exclusive trailer for season seven. Fans will also get a look at the exclusive black-and-white noir episode ‘Kiss Kiss Breach Breach,’ which will be available on The Flash season six Blu-ray and DVD on August 25.”

6:10 PM – Black Adam Panel

“Star of the first-ever Black Adam feature film Dwayne Johnson sets the stage for the story and tone of the new movie with a fans-first Q&A…and a few surprises.”

6:30 PM – CNN Heroes: Real Life Heroes in the Age of the Coronavirus

“While DC features iconic fictional Super Heroes recognized around the world, CNN Heroes shines a light on real-life, everyday people making a difference in their communities. Now, as the global Covid-19 pandemic has turned all of our worlds upside down, CNN’s Anderson Cooper introduces you to the frontline workers, advocates, neighbors, and friendly strangers who are coming together to help us through this crisis.”

6:50 PM – Titans TV Panel

“’Titans are back, b*tches!’ That phrase kicked off an explosive second season of Titans that culminated with the long-awaited emergence of Nightwing as their leader and the tragic death of one of their own. And as a new mysterious threat looms, season three promises to be the biggest yet! Join executive producer Greg Walker and series stars Brenton Thwaites, Anna Diop, Teagan Croft, Ryan Potter, Conor Leslie, Curran Walters, Joshua Orpin, Damaris Lewis, with Alan Ritchson and Minka Kelly for a preview of the new season as well as a discussion on the ‘Fan Favorite Moments’ of the first two seasons.”

7:05 PM – Aquaman Panel

“Aquaman director James Wan and King Orm himself, Patrick Wilson, take a deep dive into the world of Atlantis that Wan created, revealing their favorite behind-the-scenes moments from the largest DC movie ever!”

7:15 PM – “Ask Harley Quinn”

“She has gone toe-to-toe with Batman and the Justice League, and taken down The Joker and the toughest villains of Gotham City, but at DC FanDome, Harley Quinn faces her toughest challenge yet — answering burning questions from DC’s biggest fans in her own tell it as it is, no-BS style. If you love the Harley Quinn animated series, this is one you cannot f—king miss!”

7:20 PM – Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary Celebration Panel

“As an Amazon and a god, Wonder Woman is truly timeless. So, it’s hard to believe she’s turning 80! Join Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot, along with a very special guest, as they reflect on the character’s influence on them personally, and look forward to the 2021 celebrations!”

7:25 – Tomorrow’s Superheroes with Jim Lee

“DC Chief Creative Officer/Publisher Jim Lee joins Bing Chen, founder of the global non-profit collective Gold House, to discuss the important contributions of Asian artists and writers in comics and comic book–inspired entertainment.”

7:40 PM – SHAZAM! Panel

“Zac Levi and the cast can’t tell you s#&t! Sworn to secrecy on the new script for their upcoming movie, Zac and a few of his SHAZAM! castmates talk with the Philippines’ #1 DC fan, Gino Quillamor, about what the next movie might be about, while commenting on everything from panels to the other Zack’s cut — and even have a few surprise guests drop in!”

8:10 PM – Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Panel

“Will Arnett hosts the highly anticipated video game reveal from Rocksteady Studios, creators of the Batman: Arkham franchise.”

8:30 PM – The Batman Panel

“The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves joins host and self-professed fangirl Aisha Tyler for a discussion of the upcoming film…with a surprise (or two) for the fans!”

You can check out the full DC FanDome schedule here.

DC FanDome Live Stream

While DC FanDome is free for all to enjoy, you will need to create an account on DCFanDome.com in order to watch the event. You’ll then be able to access each panel via the DC FanDome program scheduler.

Following the conclusion of The Batman panel at the end of Hall of Heroes, the Fandome schedule will then cycle back through two more times, giving you three shots to watch in a 24-hour period.

DC FanDome: WatchVerse Date and Time

DC will host a second, on-demand FanDome event called WatchVerse on Saturday, Sept. 12 at 1 pm ET. While viewers will be able to access all content in any order they please, the event will only be available for 24 hours.

This event will include the previously announced panel on the expansion of “DC’s Watchmen Universe” discussion with Damon Lindelof and Tom King talking Rorschach, a Joker War panel with Batman writer James Tynion IV and Batgirl scribe Cecil Castellucci, a Three Jokers panel with Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok, a panel on John Ridley’s exciting upcoming The Other History of the DC Universe, and more.

The post DC FanDome: Schedule, Date, Time, and How to Watch appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/34jSTev

[that-shamrock-vibe]

TV Review: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Spoilers)

Parts 4 & 5: Arrow & Legends of Tomorrow

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review the day after the episodes air in the U.S, so if you haven’t yet seen the final two parts of the crossover then don’t read on until you have.

Overview:

Wow! I can’t decide if it’s the fanboy in me but I am really impressed with how Warner Bros/DC and The CW were able to finish telling this ultimate crossover story. I will draw a lot of parallels to Avengers: Endgame in this review because you can’t really not but while obviously Infinity War and its conclusion in the comics was a massive event, Crisis is seismic, it is the event...in many respects it is Event One. So the pressure was on to not only payoff the last 8 years of storytelling in essentially 5 hours, but also honour this iconic comic-book event.

And did they do it? Well after a slightly shaky start with Arrow, in my humble opinion yes and, with Legends of Tomorrow no less, I think left audiences and fans especially with one exciting feast of food for thought...potential. There is so much potential and so many doors opened not just to our now core four shows, but for shows to come and even shows affiliated.

But with the doors now burst open for the future of the DC Multiverse, because after this I can’t just call it the Arrowverse anymore, just exactly where does The CW go from here?

Disclaimer: Because this was a two-part finalé of sorts and I am time-constrained with other responsibilities, I will be saying what I loved, what I hated and what I thought was “meh”, because there is still some “meh”.

The Great:

Earth-Prime:

So of course the first great thing for me was this new reality that all our main heroes find themselves now inhabiting, save for Oliver who I will get to. But yes, after the events of Arrow which saw our seven Paragons, and Spectre Oliver, supposedly defeat the Anti-Monitor and reboot the universe, they create Earth-Prime...as well as a new Multiverse but getting to that.

Earth-Prime now hosts not only the original inhabitants of Earth-1 (The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman etc) but also combines them with Earth-38 (Supergirl) and even Black Lightning’s Earth...which we never had an official designation for which is annoying.

So now, it’s widely speculated which state all of these relatively fictional cities are in, but from what I know you have Star City in Washington, Central City in Missouri, National City in California, Gotham City in New Jersey, Metropolis in New York and Freeland in Georgia. All of which are now in the same reality as they should have been from the start but I digress.

This is possibly a novelty that will soon wear off, particularly when our individual heroes face off against a big-bad and cannot call one of their new allies for help, but for the time being it is really awesome to see that not only has this happened, but it is a direct ramification of the events of the crossover that is permanent...this doesn’t get retconned and isn’t temporary...Earth-Prime is now the main setting of the Arrowverse.

Justice League?:

Right at the end of the episode when our main heroes (Genuinely everyone who is the main character of a current series or future series as well as Martian Manhunter are lined up) to mourn their fallen friend Oliver, it turns out that where they have decided to do this is the same S.T.A.R. Labs Hall that the first major team-up first assembled in.

The reasoning for this is because Barry has decided to make this all-star team-up official for “future missions” (meaning future crossovers) and even has brought in a round table with chairs for every member there as well as an empty seat for Oliver.

This is clearly either a nod or an introduction to the Justice League of the Arrowverse. Obviously here the founding members are The Flash, Supergirl, Martian Manhunter, Superman, White Canary, Batwoman, Black Lightning and, posthumously, Green Arrow.

Although on that note, I feel that Green Arrow slot may soon be filled by Mia Smoak given that she is set to become the new Green Arrow. Although how she gets back from the future remains a mystery even if she does.

Regardless, this is something that has been either preluded to or wanted by fans since the all-star team up first came together during the Invasion crossover. I love the logos on each chair representing each character, I love the characters that are involved. I mean it may seem a bit biased to have three characters from Supergirl involved but not only do I feel this is because Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman is getting his own series but also you can’t have a Justice League-style founding team without Martian Manhunter.

Also, it’s unclear as to exactly how large this team is. Yes these 7/8 are the founding members but do the rest of Teams Arrow, Flash, Superfriends and the Legends act as subsidiaries akin to Justice League Unlimited? Only time will tell.

I mean we know that both Black Canaries are heading over to Green Arrow and the Canaries with Mia but I would love to see Elongated Man, Mister Terrific, Vixen, Brainiac 5 and Ragman being part of this team going forward.

Going Meta:

Tying into this Justice League scene, I did love how Meta the last episode got, not so much Part 4 but definitely Part 5. I will admit the constant Meta-References on Legends of Tomorrow is one of the reasons why I’m so annoyed with the show recently but because I guess Legends hasn’t been on until now in this current run I guess I missed it.

Also on a side-note the very term of “Meta” is bemusing to me in regards to this series of shows because of course there’s meta-referencing but also here metahumans that are also called “metas”.

But anyway, there’s been a running gag throughout the crossover about how the Legends don’t want to be a part of the crossover, yet Ray seems to be excited that there was a crossover. Sara seems to want the crossover to finish as soon as possible despite she, and Barry, being the de-facto leaders of the all-star team before Barry formally forms the Justice League team.

I also enjoyed the interaction between Kate and Jefferson, who essentially are the two relative newbies to the Arrowverse with Batwoman joining last year and Black Lightning officially joining this year.

When Jefferson clicks that this whole saving the world situation will be a recurring thing, Kate tries to reassure him by saying she was “the new kid” last year.

It is interesting because, aside from Supergirl, the newcomers in the year of the crossover usually sit it out or are barely in it. Nate and Amaya during Invasion! for example were only in it during their episode.

Here we of course only have Black Lightning representing because as I understand it there is something going on his his show with his team which is why they’re not active here but still.

Also on the subject of Meta references, Rene’s corrolation of Mick’s surname being Rory as a similarity to a Rory that was once on Team Arrow, being Ragman, just makes me miss Ragman on the show. I know Joe Dinicol is returning for the Arrow finalé so I am thrilled for that.

Heat, Frost & Lightning:

This does sound like I’m only loving this last episode rather than the two episodes but I’m getting to that.

Anyway Prime-Earth Heat Wave reunites with Killer Frost after two years and I am thrilled. I love these two together, I think Mick and Frost really bounce off each other well and Dominic Purcell and Danielle Panabaker do have good comedic and antihero chemistry together.

But also, they have added and somewhat unwanted assistance this time as Black Lightning shows up. I knew Cress Williams would be back in the crossover after his minor appearance in Part 3, it was also a sign that all The CW shows now inhabit this one Earth and to have three elemental heroes working together (it pains me that both Heat Wave and Killer Frost have become heroes) was very cool. I hope there’s more of this trio down the line.

Lex Luthor - Paragon of Deception:

I am not Jon Cryer’s biggest fan but I really enjoy him as Lex Luthor. While I thought his mission to kill all the Supermen was fun, him becoming the Paragon of Truth replacing Kingdom Come Superman at the last minute, as I said in my last review, was a stroke of genius that I did not see coming.

I do love the fact that, rather than becoming a good guy through becoming a Paragon, he is still Lex Luthor and still self-serving while also trying to help restart the universe.

The fact he gave himself powers with the Book of Destiny which allowed him to fend off Supergirl, I would say “and Ryan” but really Ryan Choi didn’t really do much until Part 5.

Lex also had possibly my favourite line of the two episodes which was “In the contest of Mind over Muscle, Mind wins every time”. It’s a very Eobard Thawne type of line but I can imagine any version of Lex I’ve seen saying it which makes it so classic.

Also, if they are in fact doing a Justice League-style team, they need some sort of Injustice League with Lex and Eobard. I mean they’ve had the Legion of Doom but that didn’t work out so maybe this would?

Also, I’m sorry, the fact he was the one to figure out how to save the universe and yet ends up not only back being alive but as National City’s good guy as well as the owner of the D.E.O, I am most excited to see what happens in Supergirl next because of this development.

Parallel Earths for Non-Arrowverse Properties:

So in this new Multiverse, Earth-Prime is the Arrowverse Earth. The reality where Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman and Black Lightning all take place.

The other Earths this time around seem to be Earths for other shows that aren’t Arrowverse inclusive. Earth-2 seems to belong to the upcoming Stargirl series, Earth-9 is still Titans, Earth-96 is still Kingdom Come Superman’s Earth which combines the Christopher Reeves Superman with Routh’s Superman Returns, Earth-21 is Doom Patrol which many fans believe is the same universe as Titans but despite both being DC Universe shows, they’re separate universes.

Earth-19 is where it gets interesting as what we see is the planet Oh, meaning this is a universe the Green Lantern Corps exist on and is most likely an allusion to the upcoming Green Lantern series in development on HBOMax produced by Greg Berlanti. However, originally Earth-19 was the home of the Collectors such as Gypsy and the Accelerated Man, so whether or not they cohabit I do not know

I liked this set up because Earths 2, 9, 19 and 21 are all the main settings for either current or upcoming shows. This echos the comics beautifully as now the Arrowverse is one Earth, and the affiliates are different Earths.

Also the fact that Kingdom Come Superman was shown in this line-up is probably an assurance to fans that he either could or will return at a later date. The Superman and Lois series is definitely based on Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch’s versions of the characters but Brandon Routh is stepping down from Legends this season so while he may be pulling back on The Atom he could appear as a guest or recurring guest on that show maybe?

It is also fair to assume, because of these Earth designations being the same as they were Pre-Crisis (love being able to say that), that Earth-666 is still the Earth that Lucifer is based on, Earth-89 is still the Burtonverse Batman reality, Earth-66 is still the 60s Batman reality and Earth-167 is still Smallville’s reality. Just because we don’t see them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Also it’s unclear about how Earths established on The Flash such as Earth-3, Earth-90 and Earth-X fit in to all of this. Because Pre-Crisis Earth-2 isn’t confirmed to be part of Earth-Prime so Earth-2 Laurel could easily cohabit the same universe as Stargirl, it can be assumed that the 90s Flash is still a separate reality and Jay Garrick still exists on his own Earth.

Wonder Twins:

While not featured directly in this crossover, the very end of the final episode features the sound of a monkey the floor above the main S.T.A.R. Labs Hall, and while the team go to investigate, the camera reveals a cage with a busted open door and the name “Gleek” on the side of it.

Gleek, as far as I am aware, is the pet monkey of Zan and Jayna better known as the Wonder Twins. Also apparently as this commotion was going on the theme music from the Wonder Twins animated series was playing over it.

I only know of Zan and Jayna primarily from Smallville in their one appearance but I do also know of them as a duo that they are.

From what I know, the Wonder Twins are alien members of the Super Friends and Justice League, so for them to be alluded to just as the Arrowverse’s Justice League are forming is quite poetic.

Whether or not they are being saved for the next crossover or if they will be featured in upcoming episodes of Supergirl, The Flash or Legends of Tomorrow remains to be seen, but I do imagine the fact that characters from these main shows, and Black Lightning and Batwoman, will not be mentioned in the next episode of each series.

The Bad:

Spectre:

Alright so I mentioned me being a fanboy at the start of the review, however I am not as familiar with the comics as I am with the movies and shows. Because of this, I still to this day have no idea who Spectre actually is and what his role in the larger DC Universe is.

For instance, when Emmett J. Scanlan was introduced in Constantine as Jim Corrigan, I understood in the comics he was supposed to become Spectre and the fact those premonitions preluded to that was interesting...but then he became Lobo on Krypton and I really wanted to see Lobo here but didn’t.

Now with have this other Jim Corrigan from some random other Earth, because Constantine made it clear that this wasn’t the Corrigan he knows, but this one has become the Spectre of the Multiverse because there can only be one Spectre at a time.

Simultaneously, Oliver dies, is brought back by the Lazarus Pit, but his soul becomes the new Spectre after Corrigan passes on that burden so now Oliver is Spectre. Which is where we find him here...sparingly.

Honestly, in the episode dedicated to him, Arrow, it is criminal how little he is actually used particularly as it’s his second death episode of the crossover.

But in regards to who the Spectre is and what he does, people can tell me to read the comics or watch other shows with Spectre in, but if this current show that I am watching doesn’t explain what this Spectre is or does, that’s bad and, in my opinion, a waste of time.

From what I gather Spectre is a lot like Pariah, he is there to bear witness to events. However, like Pariah, Spectre’s power set is never really explained, he’s just there.

He can travel interdimensionally, okay how? He had the power to ignite the flame for the new universe...okay how? The Spectre can be passed on from person to person...okay how? None of this is ever truly explained and then he dies...so does Spectre die? Will there never be another Spectre?

Speed Force Scavenger Hunt:

So I am sure this was supposed to be poignant for the fact it was the Arrow episode and all but one of the Speed Force scenes are essentially flashbacks to previous scenes from Arrow. However, the way they were filmed was completely distracting.

How do you use previous scenes while incorporating new footage? Cheat and film a new scene and clumsily stitch the two together with “clever” angles. You literally had the one scene that the Paragons were witnessing, then their own scene which were never shown together. You always have the characters talking at the camera as if they’re talking to each other, it’s disconcerting and really uncomfortable to watch.

The aim of this mission was for all the Paragons to come back together after they were scattered through the Speed Force...why? Because.

Also the scene from Invasion! with Oliver and Kara, Kara is clearly present day Kara but surely in the memory of the scene she should be wearing the suit she wore back then and had the hairstyle she had back then?

Speaking of Invasion! because it was mentioned in this scene, the Arrow episode from Invasion! celebrating 100 episodes and being another Batman rip off, was a lot better and tugging the nostalgic heartstrings than this.

The only two new scenes we get both involve Barry, the first is an odd inclusion and involves Arrowverse Barry Allen coming face to face with the DCEU’s Barry Allen, Ezra Miller.

This was the most unexpected and bizarre cameo in the entire crossover. This also calls into question how DCEU Flash is still alive considering the entirety of reality has been wiped out. They could have explained that the Vanishing Point and Speed Force were the only two places Antimatter cannot reach, but they didn’t.

It was still fun to at least see Ezra Miller’s Flash, not just because Ezra Miller agreed to appear on the TV series, but also because after Justice League I feel he needed a second chance before his movie comes.

The second new scene was after Sara is murdered and brought to the Arrowcave, John is there telling Laurel to take Sara’s place and become the new Canary...despite not being too happy that she becomes the new Canary in episodes that follow this scene but I digress.

Barry shows up, and because John and Laurel don’t know of The Flash at this time they don’t know who he is, but he electroshocks Sara back to life and she is revealed to be the modern-day Sara.

This is what I don’t understand, Marc Guggenheim made it quite clear that Earth-1 Laurel would have be a major plot point in this crossover, but all she did was extend her original emotional scene into what is, in my opinion, a plot-hole. 

Giant Beebo:

Can someone please explain this freakin’ toy obsession. I know it’s not real, yet for some reason it is all Legends of Tomorrow usually resort to for a cheap laugh or a cooky villain.

Here, Giant Beebo is back, but it’s not actually Giant Beebo it’s an illusion. However, the very fact this gave the freedom for the show to reference the time the Legends transformed into a giant Megazord-like Beebo to defeat Mallus, there’s so much epic stuff happening in this episode so why go back to what makes Legends of Tomorrow so bad.

The most part of this final episode was where I want Legends to be at, not resorting to cheap gags.

The Meh:

Weather Witch:

Alright so before getting into the biggest “meh” point of this conclusion for me I do need to touch on the fact that the minor threat that started the ball rolling on discovering Earth-Prime was all-inclusive in the final episode was by Weather Witch...why?

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with Weather Witch...but what was the point in Weather Witch being there? You could have had quite literally any other villain still living from Arrow, Flash, Supergirl or Legends...have the New Rogues as a team being the conflict. It just makes no sense.

Rules of Earth-Prime:

Alright so with this new Multiverse now comes potentially new rules. For example, John and Lyla (who by the way never got a comeuppance unlike Nash) now not only have JJ but also Sara is back, as if she never left as she seems to be the same age as JJ...so does this mean they’re now twins?

It’s also stated that Connor is gone, and because we never see Mia or William it’s implied they’ve gone back to the future ready for the next Arrow episode which is also the Green Arrow and the Canaries backdoor pilot.

However, with Sara being back, what does that mean for the rest of reality? Clearly Flashpoint never happens in this reality so with Sara and JJ in the same universe are others back from non-existence? Is Cisco’s brother Dante alive? Reverse-Flash clearly can’t die but where was he during all this?

What about others who were previously dead? Captain Cold, Earth-1 Laurel? I know some of these things will probably be explored over time or at the convenience of the writers but some revelations in this episode other than Sara Diggle would have been nice to see.

Also, for some strange reason, Superman and Lois of Supergirl now have two sons rather than just the one...why? 

Overall I rate the entire crossover a strong 9/10. Part 4 did let the crossover down a bit but Parts 1-3 and especially Part 5 were just so good that I cannot mark it down too far.

This was the crossover every DC fan was going to be watching and critiquing not just because of the comic-book story it is based on but the fact it is the most ambitious TV crossover to ever exist crossing over not just the five main shows, but other shows past and present and even movies.

I loved the nostalgia that played into seeing Smallville, 1989 Batman, 1960s Batman, Kevin Conroy, all of the cameos and additions were just so well done.

So that’s my review of the conclusion to Crisis on Infinite Earths, what did you guys think? Post your comments down below and check out more DC TV Reviews as well as other TV Reviews and posts.

[omniversalobservations]

Arrow (2020)

After being chased by the Anti-Monitor, Grant Gustin's Flash winds up in a memory of STAR Labs inside the Speed Force where he comes face-to-face with Miller's Flash. The meeting of TV and movie Flashes is played for laughs as Miller asks if Gustin is cosplaying, while Gustin calls Miller The Flash, a name the latter has yet to go by in the movies - before both Flashes reveal that they're named Barry Allen. The scene ends when Miller fades away, saying, "I told Victor this was possible," presumably referring to his buddy Vic Stone aka Cyborg.

This means that the Arrowverse is a parallel universe to the DC movie universe (referred to by fans as the DC Extended Universe or DCEU) where Miller’s Flash resides and the events of Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam! took place.

This crossover has been a long time coming. Back in 2015, Miller told MTV about how he was psyched about there being two different versions of the Flash and how he wanted to interact with Gustin’s version of Barry Allen.

“I think it's awesome,” Miller enthused. “And come on, we're the Flash! It's parallel universes! Grant Gustin is the Flash and I'm the Flash, don't you see? It's the event horizon, we crossed it baby! Grant and I are chillin'. We're gonna have a race, it's gonna be dope. Like Jay Garrick and Barry Allen back in the day, it's gonna be dope."

Source: IGN

The CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover confirms the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is part of the Arrowverse with a cameo from Justice League star Ezra Miller, who plays Barry Allen aka. The Flash. The network launched its small-screen shared DC universe in 2012, while Warner Bros. worked to launch its own DC Comics franchise on the big screen. That big screen series, come to be known unofficially as the DCEU expanded in a big way in 2016 with the release of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, which introduced key heroes like Ben Affleck's Batman, Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa's Aquaman and Miller's The Flash. The heroes united in 2017's Justice League, but The Flash movie is still to come in 2022.

Last month, The CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths event kicked off and proceeded to confirm all manner of DC movies and TV shows as canon within the Arrowverse. DC Universe's Titans, the classic 60s Batman series, the short-lived Birds of Prey TV show,  Smallville and more have all been confirmed to be included in the Arrowverse's multiverse. In Crisis On Infinite Earths Part 4, though, The CW makes arguably its biggest confirmation - and has its most surprising cameo - yet.

Partway through Crisis On Infinite Earths Part 4, Miller's DCEU version of the Flash appears in the Speed Force while The CW's Flash (Grant Gustin) is searching for his friends. After a short conversation, Miller's Flash disappears, and their brief exchange ends with the DCEU Barry Allen saying, "I told Victor this was possible." This is a clear reference to fellow Justice League member Victor Stone aka Cyborg (Ray Fisher).

Ever since Miller was cast as the DCEU's Flash in 2014, fans of Gustin's version of the Scarlet Speedster have wanted the duo to meet on screen. Now, The CW has brought the fan service moment to life in Crisis on Infinite Earths. The brief conversation between the two Flash heroes includes Miller's character asking Gustin's if he's cosplaying, treating the CW superhero like a fan. When Arrowverse Barry introduces himself as The Flash, DCEU Barry looks contemplative, hinting this is how the Justice League character gets his superhero name. They compliment each other's costumes, and go to shake hands, both saying, "I'm Barry Allen," at the exact same time. The exchange ends with Arrowverse Flash alluding to the destruction of the multiverse, saying, "This should be impossible now." Miller's Flash seems confused, but then fades away, making the reference to Cyborg.

Arrowverse Flash has a point that he shouldn't be able to run into another Flash from the multiverse considering the Anti-Monitor had destroyed every single Earth. However, it's possible Barry ran across a remnant or memory of the DCEU's Flash within the Speed Force since it connects to the multiverse - it just wasn't his own memory. It's unclear how exactly that works, and it's possible the Arrowverse producers were focused more on bringing the fan service moment to life than on explaining how and why it's possible. For the fans, seeing two Flashes interact on screen was no doubt an exciting moment in DC TV history, and they can have even more fun speculating about what it means for not only the Arrowverse, but the DCEU and The Flash movie.

Source: ScreenRant

(images via YouTube)

[oliverdant]

The Hollywood Reporter rounds up the major twists, epic fights and big reveals on all the DC Comics TV shows.

Welcome back to The Hollywood Reporter's weekly DC TV Watch, a rundown of all things DC Comics on the small screen. Every Saturday, we round up the major twists, epic fights, new mysteries and anything else that goes down on The CW's Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Black Lightning and new series Batwoman. This week, we're rounding up all the teases to the upcoming Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover so far and what it means for the Arrow-verse.

Which shows are participating? | For the first time, the Arrow-verse crossover will be five episodes long, one hour for each Arrow-verse series: Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow and new series Batwoman. The epic event will be split into two chapters: three episodes airing December 2019 and the remaining two airing January 2020 with the holiday hiatus in the middle. This will be the last crossover including Arrow, as the flagship series of the franchise will end with a 10-episode final season that brings it right to the crossover (with one or two episodes remaining after to tie up loose ends and say goodbye with a proper series finale).

Which character will die? | Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past six months, you already have a pretty clear idea of what the Crisis is. First introduced during this past Elseworlds crossover, otherworldly being Mar Novu aka The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) came to Earth-1 to test the heroes of the world to see if they'd be enough to fight the impending Crisis. In the fight, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) made a deal with The Monitor to save Barry (Grant Gustin) and Kara's (Melissa Benoist) lives. But as fans learned in the Arrow season seven finale, Oliver had no idea what kind of a deal he made. It wasn't until The Monitor showed up at Oliver's new off-the-grid home after he had retired from the superhero life with his wife Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and their newborn daughter that he learned it was his life he traded for theirs. Oliver now knows that he will die in the Crisis, but he went with The Monitor anyways to help save the world. And in the Arrow season seven finale, his death was confirmed in the future flash forwards, as his gravestone revealed the year he died: 2019. That means Oliver will die at some point in the first chapter of the crossover (the first three episodes airing in December 2019), with the second chapter in 2020 dealing with the fallout.

What is the Crisis? | But for what exactly is Oliver going to die? The conflict of the upcoming Crisis comes ripped straight from the comics in the huge, 12-issue series published in 1985-86, widely regarded as one of the most important comic arcs of all time. The story was designed to get rid of the multiverse and make one continuity for readers, making the world of DC easier to understand and more exciting with more opportunities for characters to cross over with each other. And the effects were far-reaching for every single comic book series. The Crisis kicks off with The Monitor's evil counterpart, The Anti-Monitor, as he begins destroying Earths with antimatter so he could become the ruler of all realities. This means Garrett will most likely pull double-duty to play both The Monitor and the evil twin. However while The Monitor does return briefly to recruit heroes from all Earths to stop The Anti-Monitor, he's killed pretty quickly. The Anti-Monitor plays a much bigger role.

What will the Crisis do to the Arrow-verse? | Aside from claiming at least one major hero's life (expect many, many other casualties from the big event in addition to Oliver), the ultimate goal of the Crisis is to destroy the multiverse. That's right: while the heroes do ultimately defeat The Anti-Monitor, they don't succeed in stopping his plan fully. At the end of the arc, there is only one single shared universe left standing, a merger of five different Earths. While Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and new series Batwoman all take place on Earth-1, it's important to note that Supergirl takes place on Earth-38. As of now, Kara requires breach technology to cross dimensions for crossovers. But after the Crisis, whatever Earth is left over will have all of the remaining Arrow-verse heroes who survive, making crossovers that much easier to pull off and explain. But could Black Lightning also become a part of this new reality? It's currently not part of the Arrow-verse, but if The CW really wants to make an impact, having a surprise appearance of the other DC TV series in the crossover would be the best surprise. The possibilities for lasting impact are endless with this crossover if the writers fully lean in to the potential.

What teases have dropped so far? | So many clues that the Arrow-verse was heading in this direction were planted from the very beginning of the franchise. When The Flash first debuted, Barry had access to a future newspaper headline: "Flash Missing, Vanishes In Crisis," which has always meant the show was going to take on the Crisis arc. It was also referenced throughout the entire Elseworlds crossover as The Monitor noticeably kept using the word "crisis," warning that one was imminent, and that was why he was rewriting reality to test every Earth to see if there were any heroes good enough to face whatever was coming. But the end tag of Elseworlds confirmed that he was indeed trying to prepare Earth-1 (along with all the other alternate versions of Earth) for Crisis on Infinite Earths.

After that, the Arrow-verse had fun dropping in even more teases leading up to the biggest crossover yet. First The Monitor showed up in the Arrow season seven finale to collect on the deal he made with Oliver, bringing him along on his otherworldly journey as he tries to stop the Crisis. In the future, he brought Felicity through a portal to presumably reunite with her dead husband, implying that she was moving on to the afterlife. Then The Monitor showed up on Supergirl in the season four finale, bringing a revenge-motivated Martian with him and doing something to Lex Luthor's (Jon Cryer) dead body. Then he showed up again in the Legends of Tomorrow season four finale, but he didn't do anything besides observe the Legends in action and eat popcorn while shaking his head and smiling. This was the first time The Monitor came in contact with the Legends since they had sat out the Elseworlds crossover, and it will be interesting to see how they fit into Crisis.

The final tease (so far) came at the very end of The Flash season five finale, when the future newspaper headline first seen in the series premiere changed as a result of the timeline changing. The date of The Flash's disappearance moved up from 2024 to 2019, confirming that it's always been warning of the Crisis. In the comics, The Flash is one of two heroes to die during the Crisis. But there's no way The Flash is going to kill off Barry Allen. It's more likely that he'll actually disappear at some point in the first three episodes of the crossover (since it occurs in 2019). And while The Flash's disappearance was permanent in his daughter Nora's (Jessica Parker Kennedy) original timeline, that doesn't mean Barry won't ever return from the Crisis now that the timeline has changed. In fact, he could return during the second chapter of the crossover airing in 2020, after that newspaper headline is printed. Seeing as how The Flash has a full season six, the star probably won't be written off entirely. And Oliver did trade his life for Barry's, so it wouldn't make sense for both heroes to disappear permanently even though Barry is one of the casualties in the Crisis comic book arc. Expect the Arrow-verse to make some changes from the source material in that regard.

One last prediction ... | Since Oliver traded his life for both Barry and Kara's, it would stand to reason that another major hero is going to fall to make a balance. So what other Arrow-verse hero will likely die in the crossover alongside Oliver? Since Supergirl sacrifices her life to save Superman's in the comics, the inverse could come true onscreen. Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) is the obvious choice for the second major casualty, both because he wouldn't take down an entire show with him and because he would serve as an equal trade for Supergirl, laying down his life to save hers. And it would be all the more heartbreaking to lose him, as he received news from Lois Lane (Bitsie Tulloch) that she's pregnant with his child during Elseworlds. So if Superman were to die in the fight against the Anti-Monitor, he would do so knowing that his legacy (and love) would survive with Lois and his child, and the world would be in good hands with Kara. He left Earth-38 at the end of Elseworlds to live with Lois on Argo City with their unborn child, but that he'd return if the world needed him (and it will be all hands on deck for Crisis). Plus, he told Kara point-blank he felt he could leave because Kara was the hero the world needed. Sure sounds like the groundwork for Superman's death has been set.