#for anyone who wonders why i only read elseworlds stories

[fact-dogsarehappiness]

Wait so you can actually write a comic where Bruce Wayne not only apologizes to his kids but also acknowledges that what he did was completely wrong and then promises to try to do better in the future?

Bonkers

[ufonaut]

you may have already answered this kind of question so i apologize if you have, but i’m wondering what you think a majority of comic fans miss with understanding subtext and characters? like outside of what you’ve already spoken about (personal headcanons and feelings) is it just that a lot of fans don’t have the media literacy they think they do? or just newer fans that have only read the most popular series. i only ask bc sometimes i worry i don’t know if i’m reading between the lines correctly and if you’d share like.. ig your process for drawing conclusions ab characters? i feel like i may have answered my own question here LOL

ah, no, i've never spoken about this at length and i'm honestly flattered you reached out, thank you! i don't have a process per se, i think my interest in engaging with comics the way i do comes from doing film studies at uni and seeing the two mediums as having more common ground than with literature per se due to the visual doing the heavy lifting but i do sincerely believe that anyone can read the text as it's meant to be understood if they only apply themselves -- and the fact of the matter is that many people don't.

i'd say you got it in one, it's a case of both overestimating and underestimating their media literacy and i think a lot of the time particularly fandom-y blogs see things that simply aren't there and try to write meta that serves their purposes rather than shed some light on the text they're talking about. the way i see it, there's three fundamental questions to ask yourself before getting started on any comics analysis worth its salt

1) what's the objective reality of this?

2) is this a common trope/phrase? is it evocative of or a homage to a certain piece of media that has entered the basic pop culture lexicon?

3) how much of the author spilled into this?

and to elaborate on that:

1) before you get to the subtext, it's only natural to build up on a foundation of facts. i mean, the really basic stuff -- who, what, when, why.

for example, looking at my recent posts regarding hal jordan's timeline, take his stories in the flash (1959) backups running throughout #220 - 246. he's coming off a year-long road trip with ollie queen and he's been unemployed the entire time, he's not only broke but living in poverty, he's depressed. none of this is a great feat of analysis, these are all facts verbally stated by the character with the sole exception of the last one -- but how do we know that? several stories have hal's will faltering, several others see him having difficulties scrounging up enough money for food let alone a roof over his head. logic dictates that his circumstances affect his mental health.

sometimes it really is purely about recognising what's right in front of you and putting it in context, you can't talk about these backups without talking about what preceded them (the hard travelling heroes era) because they do not exist in a vacuum. unless you're talking about an elseworlds/one-shot/limited series/complete run from start to finish it's absolutely impossible to properly engage without context, that's also where the common misconception that comic book timelines are confusing comes from.

2) i don't expect people to just be naturally born with this knowledge but i think it's pretty easy to get a sense of what's a reference (even if it's not one you recognise) and what's not and making an effort to research that, even if it's just a quick google search. this is a common complaint i've seen in attempted meta of tom king's work on here so let me bring up some examples from his recent mature books

(the human target 2021 #3)

"booster is booster is booster" isn't merely repetition for the sake of repetition but very obviously a play on the common "a rose is a rose is a rose" phrase, which has been used in all media for decades now and yet was brought up in at least five different posts on here as an example of 'bad writing' (regarding the literal structure of it) rather than just owning up to their lack of knowledge.

and this also applies to shot-for-shot recreations such as mr terrific's scene with alanna strange's dad

and how it's an acknowledged reference/homage to sidney poitier in in the heat of the night (1967)

and all that says about the role mr terrific plays within strange adventures' narrative. again, this is knowledge better researched if not immediately recognised and you'll often find it mentioned in issue reviews if necessary.

3) as we all know, comics are a collaborative effort like nearly no other piece of art. the finished product is not only the work of the writer, artist, inker, colorist & letterer (all of which play vital roles in the process) but that of the editor as well and this is another instance where 'doesn't take place in a vacuum' applies. i'm all for death of the author but the direction a character is heading is definitely informed by the entire creative team's experiences and expectations, i think it's worth investigating what the people in question have had to say about it -- especially regarding an older comic -- after you've formed your own opinions.

there's cases where the writers make conscious decisions to disguise their opinions or where they're coming from and their success varies (take chuck dixon's work on connor hawke vs gerard jones' horrific depiction of arisia rrab) but there's also comics that are infinitely made better because the writer in question relates deeply to the characters they're writing (look at tom king's very personal depictions of mental health or keith giffen's insistence on giving an air of genuine reality to any working class character), that's even setting aside cases of gay characters being written by straight writers and so on. here, i'd sincerely recommend drawing a line between what's just another job for somebody and what's mattered to them intensely and if you want to take your engagement this far then it's definitely vital to check interviews, comic magazines, etc etc.

so yeah, here's a little look into my line of thinking! i hope it helps some and i'm sure you're doing just great if you're concerned about this to begin with :)

[superman86to99]

Superman #84 (December 1993)

Superman takes a short Paris vacation! Like, one day short. What's the worst that could happen?

Oh, man.

So, for the past few issues, we've been hearing about children being abducted in Metropolis. Now we see that they're being kept inside a giant toy house by some creepy bald man in Quasimodo clothes who seems to be obsessed with toys -- a "Man of Toys," if you will. Side note: no wonder the children haven't been found... all the articles about them are just gibberish! (See clip below.)

The kidnapper thinks that these kids' parents don't deserve them, and that they're much better off here, in an underground hideout with a man who threatens to starve them if they don't play with him. (And I do mean literally play, with action figures and stuff.) Meanwhile, as these children cry for help, Superman is having the time of his life. While helping move a stranded ship with some huge-ass chains, Superman spots a sunken galleon with a treasure chest inside and fantasizes about keeping the booty...

...before turning it over to the authorities anyway, the big boy scout. Then, he wakes up Lois at 6 AM and tells her they should go to Paris right now, which usually means your significant other is having a mental breakdown, but in this case they can actually do it. And so, after deciding that he deserves to use his powers for fun every once in a while, Superman and Lois drop everything and fly to France with super-speed for the rest of the day/issue.

Anyway: back to the child abduction! Cat Grant and her son Adam attend a Halloween party at Adam's school, but there's a disturbed weirdo in a hideous costume lurking among the crowd. Yes, I'm talking about Jimmy Olsen in his Turtle Boy suit.

Shortly after that, a guy in a dinosaur costume (see, all the creeps are dressed as reptiles) lures Adam out of the party with the promise of "superb video games." What child could resist that? Of course, that turns out to be the kidnapper and Adam ends up in his hideout along with the rest of the missing children and, worst of all, not a single "Lextendo" console.

The kidnapper gets angry at Adam when he refers to the toys at the hideout as "old-fashioned junk" (he was REALLY looking forward to those video games), and even angrier when Adam tries to free the other kids. Adam is brave and puts up a good fight, but...

And those were Adam Morgan's final words. "Uh-oh."

Next, we have a pretty harrowing scene of Detective Turpin letting Cat know Adam’s body was found, and Jimmy and Perry White taking her to the morgue to identify the body (most people probably wouldn't bring their former boss to something like that, but Perry sadly knows more than most about losing a kid). As for Lois and Clark, they were gone so long that the Daily Planet had time to print a headline about the murders. The issue ends when the lovebirds walk into the office smiling like two people who just spent the night fooling around in Paris... only to feel like jackasses when they find out what happened.

To be continued!

Character-Watch:

And that's it for little Adam Morgan who, unlike the also tragically diseased Jerry White, didn't even get any post-death appearances. Adam went from a little kid scared of Superman, to a huge brat, to a character who was approaching likeability as of last week. That's why I hate it when DC kills off young characters like Adam or Liam Harper: in long-form storytelling, children represent potential. Look at how much Wally West or Dick Grayson evolved over the years compared to their mentors! Sure, there's a huge probability that Adam would have ended up disappearing from comics for 25 years anyway, but who knows, maybe we'd now know him as Teen Gangbuster or something. GangbusTEEN.

This issue also represents a turning point for the kidnapper, who is never named or seen clearly in the story itself but I don't think I'm shocking anyone by spoiling the fact that he's Toyman (it's in the cover, for one thing). In his last two appearances before this storyline, Toyman helped Superman save some kids from Sleez and looked genuinely sad to learn about Superman's death, so this is a pretty dramatic change for the character. We'll find out why he went from big softy to child killer in Superman #85 (but don't get your hopes up).

Plotline-Watch:

The most disturbing part of the issue, all things considered, is still the part where Toyman climbs into a giant crib and hugs a huge stuffed bunny. Look at serial killer Tommy Pickles here:

Don Sparrow says:  “Even with the upgrade, Toyman is still just a man in a suit, a common complaint about Superman’s rogues gallery.” Funny you should say that, because I JUST shared an old Wizard interview in our Twitter in which Dan Jurgens talks about how Doomsday came out of his frustration with the fact that most Superman villains are dudes in suits (plus other interesting tidbits from the era, like how it was actually Roger Stern’s idea to bring back Hank Henshaw, so check out that link!).

Don again: “The entire Superman storyline of this issue feels like filler. Diving for buried treasure and soaring off to Paris -- it all feels like wasted time next to the Adam storyline.” I have a theory that the entire ship sequence is there as an excuse to put Superman in those big chains and make that Spawn joke (which I didn’t get until now, since I’ve always read this issue in Spanish).

Superman says that pulling that big ship was "a little easier than expected" -- that's either another hint that there's something going on with Superman's powers since he came back, or a subtle dig at the state of American ship manufacturing.

Another adorable "window tap" scene for the books, and this is the sexiest one so far. Is it me or has Jurgens started copying more than just Teri Hatcher's hairdo from Lois & Clark? (For anyone who thinks Lois has gotten implants, I refer you to this clip.)

While in Paris, Lois asks Clark if he's ever wondered what would happen if his rocket had landed in other countries. Don: “Clark’s conversation with Lois sounds like a bunch of concepts for Elseworlds stories. We eventually would see a Russian Superman, and a British Superman, but not yet the French Superman. (Hire us, DC!)” Yep, got my French Superman pitch ready, Jim Lee. Or just let us do Russian Superman again, since Red Son wasn’t even the first time you published that idea.

Don once more: “Another thing that makes no sense about the ‘new’ Toyman is his resentment of technological toys—when in previous appearances he himself had deadly high-tech toys to vex Superman over the years.” I especially resent his hatred of video game consoles. Incidentally, I wonder what types of games are available for Adam’s beloved Lextendo. Star Lex 64? Mega Man Lex? Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles & Lex?

No one is more upset at Lois and Clark for going AWOL than Whit. NO ONE. He's so furious that his usually grey mustache turned black.

Patreon-Watch:

As always, shout out to our patrons, Aaron, Murray Qualie, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Samuel Doran, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush and Raphael Fischer! Last month’s exclusive Patreon article was about the recently unearthed sequel to Superman 64 for the PlayStation, featuring Metallo, Parasite, and Lois looking even hotter than in this issue:

Hot damn. Find out more at https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99!

And believe it or not, Don Sparrow has even more to say about this issue. Read his section after the jump:

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow​):

I should start off my section with a big caveat:  I flat out hate this issue. There were several weird decisions made in the post-Death-and-Return era (most of them along the same lines of making the Superman titles more grim-and-gritty), and this story was one of the worst of them.  My theory is that, despite the praise and record-breaking sales of the Death and Return storyline, the Superman creative team felt pressure to have more extreme storylines, perhaps in response to the wildly successful Image books coming out at the time.  Between this story, and the upcoming “Spilled Blood” storyline, the Super books take a hard—but temporary--turn into more violent and upsetting storytelling—even though these stories are by the same writers as the previous few years. While death has always been a part of comics, and Superman comics was no exception, there is a jarring glibness and unfeeling toward the way violence is handled in these pages that is quite different from the stories that preceded it.  It’s made all the more jarring by the fact that well-established personalities suddenly veer wildly out of character, Toyman chief among them.  

We start with the cover, and while it is technically well-drawn (by the familiar team of Jurgens and Breeding) it’s also a very upsetting visual.  I think they should have gone with the pieta type pose with Adam and Superman, OR the scary badass bowie-knife Toyman (who apparently has a Cheshire cat smile now) but not both.  But the cover is a good hint at the tonal dissonance of the comic within.

We open with a splash of the now-extreme 90s looking Toyman, with his serial killer shaved head and spooky cloak, ignoring the pleas of hungry kids he has locked up in a tiny jail cell for days at a time (if that sentence doesn’t ring alarm bells for how wrong this is for a Superman story, I don’t know what will). For much of the issue Toyman’s eyes are obscured by glare on his lenses, further de-humanizing a character who was once one of Superman’s more empathetic bad guys.

We cut to Superman tugboating a huge tanker with giant chains and it’s a cool visual (one repeated in the Batman V Superman film).  It feels especially out of place to focus on, given how upsetting this issue is otherwise, but throughout the whole comic, Lois is drawn smoking hot, especially on the two page spread on pages 9-10.

The scenes depicting the actual murder, while still wildly out of place in a Superman comic, are well done, and give a real sense of darkness and menace, which I suppose is the intent.  Perhaps my least favourite visual is the Big Bird stuffie, silently bearing witness to what’s about to occur.

The edges of the panels on get more slashy and off-kilter (to me, looking very much like the layouts more typically seen in Image comics of the day) and I suppose I appreciate the restraint of how little Dan Jurgens shows of the death of a child, showing only a bloody slash on a black background.  This is still a pretty baroque image for a Superman comic, but certainly less violent than it could be, given what is happening.

Cat Grant’s silent horror is well staged, and powerful in its way.   Lastly, Clark Kent bending in sorrow and regret is a powerful image.

While this issue is handled marginally better, and more maturely than other comics on the shelf at this time, I still believe it is one of the biggest mistakes of the era.  Giving a long-established character an unceremonious death for shock value is gross on its own, but making it a child definitely crosses a line for me.  Making it worse is that, while the Toyman is a criminal and a killer, he has shown in past issues (a similar kidnapping storyline involving Sleez) that he genuinely cares for the well-being of children.  So for a long-time reader, this also felt like a betrayal of a long-established, fully developed character.   Adding to the ugliness of this is that Adam dies heroically, trying to free the children who have been caged, unfed, for days, but even in that regard, he fails.  The headline at the end of the issue confirms all the children are dead.  Adam’s death did not buy the other kids enough time to get away. It was all for nothing. Had Adam died, but the other children lived, maybe this issue wouldn’t leave quite as bad a taste. [Max: It’s weird because it’s all told in a way where it’s told in a way where it would make sense, narratively and within the story universe, that the other kids survived, but then it’s almost casually revealed that nope, they died too. A scene of one of the kids relaying Adam’s heroism to Cat in a future issue would have gone a long way.]

Superman doesn’t come off well in these pages, either.  It’s honestly the type of story they should just stay away from, because the more you think about all the calamity that is going on around the clock, the less defensible the whole Clark Kent persona becomes. Superman carving out time to romance his fiancée directly led to the preventable deaths of innocent children—how do you come back from that?

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

I’m always looking for hints that perhaps Jimmy or Perry know Superman’s secret identity deep down, and Jimmy’s anger at Lois and Clark on their return to the Daily Planet offices would seem to give that theory some credence, as he’s as angry at them as if he knew Clark really were Superman.  Either that, or he’s ticked that it fell to him, and none of them to escort Cat into the morgue. [Max: Has this issue finally converted you to the “Jimmy is terrible” side now, Don?]

I don’t think I’m the only one who disliked the new Toyman—SPOILERS BE HERE: years later, in Action Comics #865, Geoff Johns retconned this whole story, reverting Schott into the criminal who over-relates to kids, rather than the child-killer of this story.  Apparently the infantile Schott, who speaks to “Mother” a la Norman Bates, is a robot so lifelike it fools even Superman, and the “Mother” he’s constantly replying to was the real Winslow Schott trying to recall the malfunctioning robot. [Max: That’s one Geoff Johns retcon I really didn’t mind, even if it felt kind of derivative of his similar “all the Brainiacs are robots made by the real Brainiac” reveal.]

[purpleyin]

2020 Fic Writer’s Year In Review

So 2020 in review because I like doing stats, there’s something comforting about working them out for me. Even if 2020 was not all that good a writing year.

I actually started writing this post in February but I stalled at the whole favourite lines part because I like to link to the fics and so it sat in my drafts for aaaaagggges and I’m finally getting to it again in May!

For anyone who got tagged in this post and is wondering why, that’d be because there’s a section way way down in the post for ‘Writers You Should Read’ where I am reccing you. :)

Word count written: 90,283/104,000

Word count for posted stories: 63,662/156,000     

Number of fics: 34  - I included fics/fic chapters and ficlets I do with moodboards if they were about more than 100 words

(I also made 5 fanmixes + 1 fanvid)

Fandoms written for (for posted works): The Flash, BBC Sherlock, Legends of Tomorrow, Stargate Atlantis, HP Series, Uncharted

(for the vid - Mass Effect: Andromeda + Game of Thrones for 1 fanmix)

Shortest Story: If I only count fics that have dialogue that’d be the snippet of Killergold Jurassic Park AU I did for Femslash February, at about 300 words.    

Longest Story: “A Matter of Time” my angsty/whump Hartmon timeloop fic I did for the Hartmonfest exchange, that’s about 8.5k words.

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? 

So I did decently by my writing goal, 90k out of 104k, even though that wasn’t much compared to the previous year. I thought I’d done less, because I didn’t feel very productive, but I guess half my problem was writing things that didn’t get finished. I was hoping to finish more WIPs in general from prior years too and so get more posted than I written but I didn’t really manage that, oh well. I have 35 new WIPs awaiting finished from 2020. No clue if that’s better or worse than last year, may need to start keeping track of them somehow.  

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write most? The Flash was my most written for fandom to no surprise. Most written pairing was Savisnow but Hartmon almost beat it out in 2020, very close with both at around 17k words each. Genrewise it was largely angst and whump as usual.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?

For pairings - I would have to say either McKay/Sheppard/Weir or Coldvibe.

McKay/Sheppard/Weir I didn’t expect because it’s such an old fandom and I was only into it in passing. Somehow I had a resurgence of squee for the fandom and a moodboard plot bunny that demanded to be more so ended up a ficlet. It was more not!fic than proper fic but I unexpectedly enjoyed making it.

Coldvibe was another I didn’t expect to write anything for. Moodboards, yes, and I did a fair few but actually writing a snippet with dialogue in it to go with my Elseworlds AU I wouldn’t have predicted at the start of the year I don’t think.

Genre - I definitely had a higher than usual fluff % though, it’s becoming easier to write with practice I suppose. I never expect fluff! I certainly also didn’t expect to write 2 quarantine/lockdown fics...

Fandom - unexpected was Game of Thrones. Because what I made was for Braime, which I love but I’ve otherwise only lurked in that fandom.  I did a fanmix and a moodboard with short blurb and that was more than I thought I’d ever do.

Did you take any writing risks this year?

I branched out into several pairings I’d not written full fics for before (Snowest, Westhallen) and I started posting my Savisnow multichapter even though it’s WIP slow posting and hardly going to be popular because it’s niche.

But probably the riskiest fics felt like ones that I wrote where I was worried what if I got wrong somehow (like my Iris with mirror powers oneshot or Hartmon ASL day fic) or that were very heavy emotionally like my Hartmon quarantine fic.

Do you have any fanfic or general writing goals for the new year?

Finish more already started fics! Literally that is the main goal this year. Start less stuff, finish more old stuff. I need to be more disciplined. I may not always feel like writing a certain thing but with so many WIPs there should be something I want to make progress on surely no matter my mood.

I also still have 4 bingocards to do - Bad Things Happen, DCTVGen, Hartmon (overdue but eh, if I post stuff it’s still good to do) and WIPbingo now.

From the past year of writing, what was your...

Best story of this year: I think my Westhallen ‘it’s the little things’.

Most popular story of this year (by kudos): This is hard to say when the top fic is “Why Should I Trust You” that is multichaptered and cross year so I can’t tell how many kudos it got last year specifically...it has 166 total. Otherwise, for new fics in 2020 it was ‘with one’s own hand’ a Hartmon fic with 44 kudos.

Personal favorite: It’s so niche but my Savisnow Valentine’s fic is my fave.

My favourite fic to write: The 2nd chapter of One Way Or Another. It was also tough to write but the not quite Frost!Caitlin back and forth with Savitar was strangely satisfying to write out. Also I cackle at the end of chapter angst.

Most fun to write: Definitely my Coldwestallen fluff/teasing heatwave ficlet.

Story with the single sexiest moment: Alas I wrote none this year on my main account and only 1 on my secondary PWP account so there’s no true competition there.

Most “holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story: Honestly can’t think of one, wasn’t really a darkfic kinda year. The few Savibarry things I created (a fanmix and 2 moodboards including a short ficlet) are probably the most likely to fall under that category for the pairing alone.

Most challenging to write: The Hartmon timeloop fic, because the plot needed to be good enough and getting pacing right was hard too.

Funniest fic: I don’t do funny much but I’d say the heatwave ficlet again.

Fluffiest fic: My Westallen coffee shop AU probably? Or the Westhallen fic.

Saddest fic: This one is hard to judge. I suspect One Way Or Another is overall saddest, because Savitar, but the Iris has powers one is fairly sad too given her inevitable trauma from being in the Mirrorverse. My Uncharted fic ‘Slip of the tongue’ is also post-breakup so quite morose/regretful.

Fic I’m proudest of writing: Probably the Hartmon quarantine fic, ‘Between Hope And Fear’ because it was a hard subject to deal with for me emotionally at the time. It was cathartic to write but then it looks like from the response that it resonated with several people so I was glad to have been able to write it.

Least popular fic: Going by kudos or hits, my Uncharted fic with only 4/35 but it is a tiny/kinda dead fandom. My Iris fic also was next least popular with only 9 kudos & 52 hits - I’ve only written for her a handful of times as I get a little nervous about if I can write her well enough and I never know if some Iris fans might avoid me due to ship wars.

Biggest disappointment: I wasn’t disappointed in anything I posted but I was least confident about my Snowest fic, ‘Love isn’t a science’.

General writing reflections: I should try and do more variety. Experiment more. Let myself write more shortform stuff again. I get a lot of grand ideas but I need to accept not everything can be long fic. It’d be nice to have some stuff somewhere between longfic and moodboard blurbs as those seems my current two extremes 90% of the time. I should probably worry less about fact checking canon stuff and handwave things more.

Writers You Should Read: My answer wasn’t initially gonna be much different than last year and I’d generally say check out my bookmarks on AO3.

But then I thought more and realised there’s definitely some other writers I found in 2020 and a few others I want to mention.

@voldiebuns has lots of great short fics I enjoyed a lot when I hadn’t many spoons to read fic.

@violetteatime writes great Hartmon.

@astrid-goes-for-a-spin I really enjoyed their Iris and Westallen fics.

@dance-is-life27 has some lovely Snowestallen.

@finalfantasyx writes very thoughtful Snowbarry that is also Iris-friendly.

Check out @tygermine if you want humourous/fluffy Dramione and she also has a lot of Merlin fics.

@jessequicksters is a great writer and got me reading some Flash pairings I’d not considered before.

@secondratevillain has a lot of fab Rogues fics.

@joanthangroff for great DCTV gen in particular. 

@letmetellyouaboutmyfeels who has such great Timeless fics, especially for Garcyatt, but also has started writing great Witcher fics too.

Favorite character to write: I think this year that’d be Hartley, but Savitar is still up there for the same odd reasons as before.

Favorite opening lines:

I don’t think I have any favourites for this.

Favorite closing lines:

A break that created something else, each shard a possibility, a new path to see herself another way.

- from After Image (Iris, The Flash)

Because words are her thing and all Rodney really needs to understand is he doesn’t have to be perfect, he can just be, the same as John is with her. That’s all they really need.

- from my McKay/Shep/Weir College professors AU ficlet (SGA)

It’s her turn to blush then, and that brings out a smile from Barry that makes all his previous smiles seem dull in comparison.

- from my Westallen Coffeshop AU (Barry/Iris, The Flash)

Other favorite lines:

'I can do that' and 'We ought to be able to manage it' and so many variations of those have been uttered by him over the years. All permutations on the theme of him not exactly promising to borrow/beg/steal an object for the client themselves per se. 'I could do that for you', with the words 'I won't' left off.

{...]he blames Elena for her moralizing him – changing his perception from shades of grey to a stronger contrast.

- from Slip of the Tongue (Nate, Uncharted)

there's nowhere to go. Except there's that tug inside her, like a whisper of gravity, that says, there's here.

- from After Image (Iris, The Flash)

Hunter, who turned out to be less bring-home-to-your-mom material and more of a wants-to-take-you-home-in-the-trunk-of-his-car kinda guy.

- from my Snowbarry Little Shop of Horrors AU (Barry/Caitlin, The Flash)

But it makes Cisco swallow hard because that isn’t the Piper outfit he’s most recently seen Hartley in. This is the outfit he made for Hartley, erased from existence like every other part of their friendship.

- from my Hartmon Alice in Wonderland Fusion (Cisco/Hartley, The Flash)

[nothingofnotereally]

Talia Mythbuster #1: Denny O’Neil Edition

This is recycled Twitter content.  To see me theorize and meta in real time, catch me at ennuiofaribee@twitter!

ALSO, I’m not tagging this with Catwoman or BatCat because I’m not trying to start a fight, but feel free to link it to whoever when relevant.  

Talia Myth:  Talia only stuck as a love interest because Denny O'Neil took over and forced people to write her. Mike Barr served his agenda with the "of the Demon" series.  Also Denny wouldn't let BatCat date because he hates Selina.

OH BOY.  I understand where this comes from, but no.  First things first: A lot of Talia's most Bruce/Talia-favorable appearances had absolutely nothing at all to do with Denny.

For example, I would say Wolfman's "The Lazarus Affair" arc is the most overtly romantic appearance she has outside of the "of the Demon" GNs (arguably even including those), but Denny appears nowhere on the credits.  He wasn't even the editor.

In Batman Annual #8, we have Mike Barr, but again no Denny - by this time he had left the book some time previous.  

Barr still presented Talia as someone Bruce had feelings for.  Enough so that when she left him, Robin knew he'd be hurt by it. And he clearly is since he “needs a moment.”

This isn't the only example, even Gerry Conway and famously BatCat friendly Doug Moench used her a few times.  Not the most romantic stories to be sure, but she was there, and presented fairly. (Moench also wrote an Elseworlds where Talia and Bruce were married years later, but I left that out of the Twitter post because blah blah Denny was on Batoffice by then.  Anyway.)

And then comes the big one... 

Son of the Demon.  I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH that Denny had nothing to do with this book.  I'm linking an interview with Mike Barr where he explains the whole long story, but I've screencapped some relevant bits below as well.

Mike Barr @ Comics Alliance

Barr originally intended the child to come back into play, and yes it WAS originally in continuity.  But as far as Barr following Denny O'Neil's agenda, nope.  Denny is actually the one who REMOVED Son of the Demon from continuity. I can't find sources on why anymore, but as Barr says above, Denny didn't want them to have married or Batman to have a son.  

Also, as someone old enough to remember  Zero Hour and be reading newsgroups (RP usenet) at the time, I'll lay down some tea:

After Zero Hour, DC's head editors were permitted to retcon one major continuity element of their properties.  This is one of the reasons I've said how often DC retcons depends on what characters you follow, like Wonder Woman got an ENTIRELY new origin, like.  Entirely. 

Denny's ONE editorial fiat was used removing Son of the Demon from continuity and, if I recall correctly, his reasoning was twofold:  He didn't think progressingtheir relationship served the Bruce/Talia dynamic and he didn't think it made sense for Bruce to never notice he had a child, because he's the world's greatest detective and he would have figured it out eventually.  As a sidenote, Warner was also pissed about it after Batman became a bigger name post-Miller and Batman '89, whereas when it was approved Batman was still a midlister in danger of losing his second title.  

ANYWAY, Denny also went out of his way to establish that Bruce and Talia still can't be together the year after in Detective Annual #1, where he tells Talia he would have to give up who he is to be with her.  Which brings me to the next major point....

Denny didn't hate Selina.  He was one of the first writers to use her after the Comics Code's 14ish year ban of her use.  He even used her in his Wonder Woman run.  Also it was under his watch that she got her first post-crisis solo stories in Action Comics Weekly, and her first post-Crisis miniseries, Her Sister's Keeper, not to mention her first big solo ongoing, which featured her classic purple catsuit.  

He didn't hate Selina.  He never tried to sabotage her. 

Maybe he didn't care for BatCat (that’s a literal maybe, I have no idea how he felt about BatCat), but he kept Talia from being with Bruce, too. 

What I am saying is, people are mistaking the lack of BatCat in his tenure with his targeting BatCat, but actually, Denny just didn't want Bruce to have a sex life. 

Greg Rucka mentions this in another interview, but here's the relevant bit:

Greg Rucka@Comics Alliance

So, in sum: Denny isn't the only one who used Talia as a love interest for Bruce.  He didn't hate or sabotage Selina.  He maybe?? didn't ship BatCat, but it didn't make a huge difference since he ultimately didn't let anyone give Bruce a substantial romance anyway.

I could frankly talk even more about more silly Denny/Talia/BatCat myths, but my computer lag is, as always, a limiting factor.  So, have a fab day and hope you enjoyed Talia Mythbusters Part 1, lmao.

By the way if anyone has specific Talia myths you'd like addressed or researched, feel free to let me know.  I've been lazy about this. I did Denny/BatCat stuff first because I knew I could do this more or less from memory+ knew where where the receipts were offhand.

I do have a list but you know, input is great and also if more than one person cares to have one thing looked at, I'll know where to focus my attention. 

[light-miracles]

Theories and Possibilities for Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Let me tell you that this comic wasn't easy to read, and can only be enjoyed if you read it by understanding the context in which it was written (DC was a disaster to maintain its continuity and order and wanted to start again. Any resemblance to the Arrowverse is pure coincidence). But with Marv Wolfman helping to adapt his own work there are some key points that I think could be present in the next crossover. I'm sure that some of these things will happen, by pure logic, and that others won't. Let's start speculating...

1) The Good Luthor

In the comic, Alex Luthor Jr is one of the heroes fighting the Anti Monitor, to save as many lives as possible. His role is important. We know that Cryer will return as Lex for the crossover, since he was saved by the Monitor. Logically, Lex is the one who would play the role of Alex Luthor Jr in the Arrowverse. But what if it's really Lena? Lex is not a selfless hero like Alex Luthor Jr. It's Lena who (at least so far) has always tried to do the right thing. It would be more logical for her to be the Good Luthor of this story and have Alex Luthor's plot.

But until now Lena has never participated in crossovers. Well, all Supergirl characters don't do a lot in the crossovers. So, being honest, I don't think this is going to happen.

But it would be much more logical for her and not her brother to work with the heroes to save the Multiverse.

2) Nora Allen

I totally believe that with this Crisis, Barry is going to look for some way to recover Nora. In a show like Flash, you don't simply give the main couple a child and then delete them from existence (does anyone remember Sara Diggle's fiasco?). We have Barry's message for Nora before disappearing. That will happen in the Crisis, it's confirmed. Therefore, if Barry is leaving a message for Nora, it means he found a way to get her back. For that to be possible, Iris should get pregnant just before the Crisis. I think it would be logical.

3) Harbinger

And this is about Arrow: I think the role of Harbinger will be played by Lyla or Oliver.

Harbinger is Monitor's assistant in the comics. (SPOILERS) It's she who receives all his power when he dies. Lyla Michaels is originally Harbinger, but being a secondary character in the Arrowverse, I think it would be very difficult to turn her into that almost almighty being, although not impossible.

But Oliver? Fits. That would be what Oliver promised in exchange for the lives of his friends in Elseworlds, becoming this weapon, 'Harbinger'. That would be his great role, the great farewell of the character.

4) Supergirl and Batwoman

This is not a theory, but a comic scene that I think should be included. In the comic, Kara and her friend Batgirl have a debate about hope on a rooftop. Kara explains why hope is so important in their lives, and tries to remind her friend that it's the only thing they can really hold on to.

We know that Kate is not Babs but the scene would work the same. It's important to understand Kara's personality in a context where she's usually sidelined, and it would also be very beneficial for Kate. Let's not forget that she is a new character. Those ones need scenes like that.

5) Legends and time travel

We're lucky, the Crisis includes a small plot about time travel, so Sara and the boys have a chair at this banquet. In the comic, several characters travel through time to protect artifacts that can damage the Anti Monitor. I can't think of how they can adapt that, but I'm sure they will be the ones in charge of helping build a weapon to stop the Anti Monitor. If Gary takes some vacations from the Waverider for a couple of episodes, of course.

6) The Legion of Superheroes

The Legion participated in the original story, the logical thing would be that they had some kind of brief cameo during the first episodes. With Winn returning to Supergirl, I see it very possible.

7) Ma'alefa'ak

And this is already pure speculation, but the more I think about it, the more I think it could be possible. Okay, in the comic there is a character named Dr Light/Kimiyo, who was a bad person but during the Crisis she has a story of redemption when she sees so many heroes fighting together to save them all. This character is personally chosen by the Monitor. Like Ma'alefa'ak, Martian Manhunter's brother in the last episode of Supergirl. Why would he do that? Perhaps Ma'alefa'ak will have Dr Light's plot and get a redemption arc fighting in the Crisis.

8) Old Superman, Batman (and possibly Wonder Woman)

In the comic they are there only to sacrifice themselves for the others, fighting the Anti Monitor. I honestly don't expect something too different.

9) Kara and Barry's deaths

OK. Now listen this is complicated. Maybe it's thanks to Avengers Endgame that I can't get this idea out of my head but I think Kara and Barry are going to die (or at least disappear) in the third episode, The Flash's one. And that Arrow's episode plot is going to focus on getting Kara and Barry back. I'm guessing this because in the Flash episode, the last one before the one-month break, Barry supposedly has to disappear. That would be the end of the 'first' part, at least that's what I think. Just like Infinity War.

10) New Earth?

I don't know. I've wanted all of them on the same Earth for years, but as always, the problem is about Supergirl. Kara's show works with a different logic than the rest of the Arrowverse. Kara did fight normal metas in the first season, like Siobhan and Leslie. But she doesn't do it anymore. Now her plots are exclusively focused on aliens, and metas are something of Earth 1. Mixing these two aspects in the same world works in the comics, but I don't think it'd works in a television shared universe.

So, no, I don't think the Multiverse becomes a New Earth. But I wish with all my strength to be wrong.

[douxreviews]

Cloak and Dagger - ‘B-Sides’ Review

"To Tyrone. My best friend. My port in the storm. My hero."

Oh, Cloak and Dagger, I apologize for ever criticizing your love of the theatrical framing device. It paid off with interest this week.

'B-Sides' picks up a visual metaphor from a few episodes back by continuing to represent the personal experiences of our characters as sides of a record. By placing the record on a turntable, you 'experience' the relevant moments of that character's life as recorded there.

This is just a wonderful conceit, and I'm glad that it's back again this week. Clearly we're intended to wonder whose gloved hands are playing the records, but I was so entranced by the elegance of the visual device that I wasn't really that concerned about that particular question. On some level I suspect I was expecting it would turn out to be Tandy herself, ruminating over all the 'could have been' possibilities of her life.

Because, really, that's what we've been conditioned to expect from this sort of format. We spend an episode looking at one or several 'what if' situations, before returning to the status quo as it was beforehand and continuing on with whatever the season long plot is next week. It's a nice way of exploring a character, it can be useful as part of a character's story arc as it lends itself to self-revelation, and most importantly it's super popular with the cast, as it allows them to play different variations on their established characters and do things that that character would never otherwise be allowed to do. Anyone who thinks that 'Superstar' wasn't Danny Strong's favorite episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to film is kidding themselves.

Now, I've gone on record as not being a big fan of 'what if' storylines. Usually they're nothing but a huge pause button that keeps the story from progressing, and it's hard to get invested in them when you know that nothing that happens in the alternate universe can possibly have any consequences. I struggle even to get through 'The Wish,' and that gave us evil, lesbian Willow. What saves this episode from feeling like that was the way that they managed to marry in the reveal of Andre as the real villain while raising a thousand other questions about what's been happening, then somehow taking me in with the exact same last second rug pull that wasn't even particularly fresh when they did it on Angel fifteen years ago.

What I'm really saying, I suppose, is that from an objective perspective a plot summary of this episode would read, 'Tandy takes an ambulance ride to a motel.'  In reality a lot more happened than that. What really happened this week is that we found out that Andre was also caught up in same Roxxon explosion that gave Ty and Tandy their powers. While Tandy got 'hope' and Ty got 'fear,' Andre got 'despair.' When looked at in that light, what we're seeing is exactly the same sort of power usage that we've seen Tandy and Ty use to 'go into' the hope/fear of whoever they're using their power on at that moment. The one thing added is that Andre isn't just going into his victims' despair, he's actively increasing it in his victims, because he needs to feed on the despair of others in order to stop the pain of his migraines.

I should note, I'm not a migraine sufferer myself, but I have enough friends who are that I have no trouble believing that someone would readily take that deal if it made the migraines stop.

Two things worth noting at this point. Excellent job of the show in giving us a completely abhorrent, and yet understandable and sympathetic villain. Andre has clearly made peace with what he's doing, and the fact that he helps nine out of ten women that come to him for help, only eating that tenth one, seems to keep the scales nicely balanced as far as he's concerned. Also, even more excellent job by the show in remembering that Tandy was guilty of this exact same thing during her lowest points last year, and not letting her off the hook for it. I'd been a little concerned that they'd given her a free pass on that one.

So we have three despair visions for Tandy this week, each symbolized by an LP played by Andre in the dark dimension. 'Perfect Life,' 'Fractured Family,' and 'All Alone' are the listed titles of the LPs in question. I highly recommend pausing the screen on the albums to read the track lists written on them, because they're a nice piece of prop detail work and tell interesting little stories in and of themselves.

Each of the three 'elseworlds,' for lack of a better term, attempt to break Tandy down into giving into despair, first through the idea of losing her idea of perfect happiness, then when that doesn't work through forcing her to confront inevitable catastrophe, and then finally through attacking her sense of isolation and loneliness. When none of these work, Andre/Despair realizes what's been fairly obvious to the outside observer from the get go; i.e. that Tandy is never going to be taken down by attacks on her sense of self because her sense of self just doesn't rely in any way on feeling positive about herself. That's just not who she is. Once Andre gets that, he makes the obvious play of forcing her to live through the loss of Tyrone, simultaneously tricking the viewer into thinking that that's what's really happening through the tried and true 'Aha, I've escaped from your twisted dreamscape and defeated you in the real world, oh, no, never mind this is still inside the dreamscape and I've lost now' trick.

Once Andre tries this tactic Tandy gives in almost instantly, as anyone who's been watching could have told him she would. And with that her body arrives at the Viking Motel, which is apparently the final destination for the kidnapped girls. Do all the girls have to have their hope violently removed before they arrive at the Viking? We don't know. But apparently it was necessary in Tandy's case. What's going to happen to her inside? We don't know, but now that she's given into despair it can't be anything positive.  Do all of Andre's victims have to be women?  No, that's probably just implicit sexism on either the part of Andre or the show.  Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say it's Andre.

I'm a big fan of answers that just leave you with more questions. Bring on the next episode, please.

Bits and Pieces:

-- In Tandy's perfect world, she's a ballet dancer with the Met, Ty's a cop, Connors is redeemed, Billy is alive, and even Duane is living his best life. It's strongly implied that Billy and Duane are a couple now, which was a sweet touch. If all of the 'perfect world' stuff was taken from what Tandy would want, then Tandy is a much bigger romantic than we previously knew.

-- What's the relationship between Andre's record store of despair and Ty's dark dimension? Because the record store we see here was clearly in Ty's dark dimension a couple episodes ago. Are they linked somehow? Is Andre... ahem... inside Ty?

-- The use of 'Sweet by and by' as the linking song in each alternate reality was used to nice effect when they used playing it as the reveal that the scene of Ty being shot wasn't real.

-- It's always nice to see Liam again, even schlubby everyman alternate universe Liam.

-- There's a really well done moment when Tandy is in the stolen car with Ty and begins hearing the ambulance sirens bleeding through into the fantasy and she starts chanting 'it isn't real' over and over again. It's a nicely judged moment, because of course she's talking about the siren noise which is actually real while trying to stay focused in the stolen car, which isn't. It's a small detail but I like a show that rewards closer attention to the little things.

-- I can't say how happy I was that in Tandy's perfect world, Ty was still dating Evita. Perfection, to her, did not involve acquiring Ty as a romantic partner. She was perfectly happy with them being dear friends. That was refreshing.

-- The effect of the record changing every time it was flipped over was just neat.

-- I'm happier than I can say that the resurgence of vinyl as a medium means that the kids of today can recognize that static popping sound of an LP that's run to the end. It's just such a useful sound cue.

-- In the perfect world illusion, all the framed pictures in the stairwell are of a veve I didn't recognize. I thought at first it was Andre's and that he must be a Loa or an avatar of some sort, but apparently he isn't. I'm sure that they'll tell us at some point.

-- There is a recurring Marvel villain called D'Spayre, who's sort of a demon/anthropological personification of elemental forces sort of thing.  I couldn't tell you if he's ever encountered Cloak and Dagger in the comics, but Andre doesn't seem to be related to him other than the coincidence of the name. I could, as always, be wrong.

-- My one real criticism of this episode is the problem you almost always get in alternate reality stories. In order to get across what's different in the universe in as short a time as possible, the dialogue becomes ridiculously expository. 'Well, Tandy, as you know the Roxxon explosion didn't happen when we thought it was going to and therefore your father has left town to go to Silicon Valley, leaving me to open a small transient hotel and get this cybernetic leg.'  I get why they have to do it, but it takes me right out of the drama.

Quotes:

Mr. Bowen: "Okay, fine, can we hook him up with some tickets to your ballerina-ing? Ballerama? Dance Battle?"

Ty: "Evita spilled some champagne on me. Might have had a little too much." Tandy: "I knew I liked her."

Ty: "One day, long ago, I saved your life. But every day since you’ve been saving mine."

Mina: "Yeah, I’m not explaining myself to structural engineering Barbie."

Liam: "That’s OK. Birds are people too."

Tandy: "Drive!" Ty: "Uh.. no, crazy white girl."

Andre: "Not misery, Despair. There’s a subtle but distinct difference."

Tandy: "Then I was wrong. I have one person." Andre: "I came to that same conclusion."

I really loved this episode, and I can't wait to see where this is going. Three and a half out of four crappy alternate realities.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

[musesofconstantchange]

We Have To Talk About Batman

So, I just read The Batman Who Laughs #3 and Detective Comics #998, and I can’t hold it in anymore. We need to talk about how Batman is the worst character in comics right now. 

For those unaware, the previous holder of this title was Deadpool, but previous luminaries include Cyclops, Wolverine, Hal Jordan, and many others. Rather than talk about all of them, let’s focus on Deadpool and why he held it, and you’ll likely grasp why the others did as well. 

First, Deadpool at his best is a humorous, witty character who swaps between moments of humor with striking, honest takes on serious topics. He is both comic relief and the character that points out the moral incongruities in the protagonist’s actions. As a protagonist, he is well suited to commentary on many things, because of his nature as an outsider sort of character. At his worst, he’s the signal to the reader that nothing that follows his appearance matters, because his existence is akin to throwing the stakes out the window. At his worst, he’s the character that derails anything resembling tonal consistency, and at his worst, he’s the character to whom all others are sacrificed in order to keep him from coming off as a psychotic madman that ruins everything. At his worst, he’s the character that all others must prostrate themselves before, no matter what he’s done, because to accept that this character is flawed is to call into question the writer’s ability to actually write a nuanced character, and we can’t have that. 

You can probably tell already how all of the other mentioned characters have fallen into this trap whenever they become extremely popular, as writers with more interest in being attached to a hot property than writing good stories use them. So it was when Wolverine was the hottest character in comics, so it was when Hal Jordan was the next hot shit, so it now is with Batman. 

Of course, the problem with Batman is that Batman is a character whose main flaws have been around so long that they are now parody; everyone jokes about the ‘i’m the goddamn batman’ line, and laughs at the ‘who wins in a fight, x or batman with prep time’ joke, but these hide the fact that the character of Batman himself has become the biggest mary sue in comics today. His entire character has been so flanderized, so utterly lost inside the infinite layers of parody and lack of self awareness, that all joy has been lost from the character. 

Let us be honest here: the core idea of Batman is not the problem. There is a reason that there are so many Batman cartoons, and it is in no small part because Batman as a character is an almost universal one. A child suffers a great tragedy and uses that as the moment where he begins his heroic journey towards making things better. This is neither dumb nor uninteresting. 

The problem is that writers of batman have, for a very long time, been very uncomfortable with the idea of who Batman is. Batman at his best is a detective, a man of science and reason and restraint, a man who resists his darker urges in comparison to the obsessives that make up his rogue’s gallery. He is a mortal man, a flawed man, but he is always a man, in that he is human and not a god. It is why he is a member of the “trinity” and the Justice League, because he is the mortal element. He is the perspective of the common man compared to the near godlike beings ( Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Martian Manhunter ) and cosmic focused heroes ( Green Lantern, Hawkgirl ) that he is surrounded by. He is the one that can say ‘look, you all mean well, but remember how you look to the normal guy.’ 

But this Batman is not popular with writers. Indeed, ever since The Dark Knight Returns, the version of Batman that has become the most common is the paranoid, near psychopathic, almost godlike messiah figure who is always right, who is never wrong for taking immoral actions, whose character all others are sacrificed to in order to ensure we all know how great he is. This Batman isn’t a mere man who uses his inherited wealth and sense of right and wrong to try and make the world a better place. This Batman is someone who is the best at everything, who constantly treats friends, allies, and family members as disposable or hindrances, who sees nothing wrong with spending his time planning on how best to kill all his friends and family, and who must constantly be shown to be smarter and better than all around him. 

This Batman is a super rich mega genius who has been trained by all the world’s best people, who can never be physically defeated by anyone or mentally outwitted by them. This is Batman, invincible ninja playboy billionaire genius. 

It has always been rather egregious on some level, but as time has gone by, successive writers have only deepened the problem, incrementally moving further and further towards the complete mary sue he is today. The fact that Batman needs a giant robot suit, the fact that Batman could put together such a thing somehow despite it requiring genius level knowledge in robotics and electrical and mechanical engineering, speaks to the levels of broken the character is. When movies are made where the concept of Batman vs. Superman is created to justify the existence and need for a giant robot suit so that Batman, a mortal man, can fight godlike beings, you are fundamentally failing to grasp the character and what that character is supposed to be. 

Example, from the recent and aforementioned Detective Comics #998: 

Ah yes, because you know what Batman needed? A giant robot suit that was put together by the Justice League with all their powers because he wasn’t awesome enough. Also, that ‘weakness’ that’s described? That’s not a weakness, which we the reader find out about it when he literally pushes it to the extreme and he’s completely fine from doing so. 

But I can understand how this might come off as just me being mad that Batman has his own Iron Man suit. It’s not. The suit itself is not the issue. It’s what the suit represents that is. Because the whole reason that this exists in this is because Batman can’t stop going to people who trained him, which is basically half the known DC universe. It’s not just that he studied under Wildcat, best fighter alive, and Zatara, best escape artist alive, and Jason Blood, best fear creator alive, and Dr. Stone, one of the greatest inventors in the DC universe. The list goes on. Batman has a staggering amount of former tutors, who apparently imparted upon him near infinite knowledge of all things. 

And it’s not just this near omniscient knowledge of everything either. He’s also physically better than everyone. He’s a master martial artist of a dozen styles who also knows every weapon style known to man. Oh, and apparently he’s also one of the best marksman on earth. From this week’s The Batman Who Laughs #3: 

Because that’s what Batman needed, more skills! 

And make no mistake, all of this makes Batman extremely boring, which is not something Batman should be. A lot of this can be chalked up to writers literally having no idea how to write a challenge for him anymore. At first, the plan was simply to make all of Batman’s villains overwhelmingly overpowered as well. This is why the Joker is somehow also a super ninja genius of everything who can conjure impossible chemicals and defeat the entire legion of doom on his own because he’s just so powerful and smart and crazy! It’s why most of Batman’s villains don’t even really fight Batman any more, it’s usually Batman fighting himself. As we saw in Kings of Fear, the entire series is nothing but Batman in his own head, the Scarecrow didn’t actually do anything. 

Speaking of Batman fighting himself, let’s talk about Batman: Metal. 

Look, I love me some multi-verse. I love Elseworlds. I think one of the greatest tragedies in comics was the decline of the multiverse concept in comics. But Batman: Metal goes from being about the return of the multiverse to being the latest in a long line of resignations that the only person who can compete with Batman is... Batman himself. 

All the villains are various versions of Batman who, you guessed it, killed all the other members of the Justice League. Now, if you were a crafty, or moderately smart writer, you might realize that having a universe where all your nightmares are real means that this is a great way to show how wrong your character is! After all, it’s made of their beliefs in what things are, not what they actually are, which is why Batman’s idea of him becoming Green Lantern involves him using a hard light ring to make darkness and the like. 

What this should do, is provide the writer with some ability to show how Batman isn’t a one-man show. That when Batman’s idea of what makes those other heroes strong runs up against the real thing, his ideas lose. But no, Batman wins, because Batman always wins, because heaven forbid Batman be wrong about other people. Apparently, Hal Jordan being the greatest Green Lantern means nothing compared to Batmans complete and utter bastardization of the concept of the ring, just as Wonder Woman being a near immortal godlike warrior who’s trained for centuries means nothing compared to Batman in what he thinks is the helmet of Ares. And it’s the same as Batman also clearly being better than the greatest Flash that ever lived because apparently Batman also has complete knowledge of the speed force now. 

But almost all of what I’ve talked about could be reasoned away or excused if the moral center of Batman’s character wasn’t utterly corrupt. Consider this mentality for why Batman has contingencies and plans for every possible outcome, and why he plans for the possibility wherein he’ll need to kill all his supposed friends. The world is a dangerous place, and those people have powers, and you never know what might happen that might cause them to go over the edge. We don’t know what might cause Superman to go rogue and kill everyone. Or what might cause Wonder Woman to destroy the world of man. Or what might cause Aquaman to flood the world in the name of Atlantis! All it could take is one bad day! 

Is that possibly true? Sure. But that’s not the mentality of Batman, that’s the mentality of the Joker. Joker is the one who believes that everyone is just one bad day from turning into a psychotic monster, who believes civility and decency are facades that people use to hide the fact that deep inside we’re all animals and monsters who will eat each other given half a chance. He’s the one who believes that people are all naturally bad, that people aren’t really decent, that anyone can be made into a monster and will give up their morality at the first opportunity. That’s the entire concept of his character and why he opposes Batman. It’s also why Batman opposes him. 

Because Batman at his core is not meant to be an agent of vengeance. He’s not the Spectre. He’s not the Punisher. Batman is supposed to be someone who believes that people are ultimately good, that people are not all one step away from committing atrocities and war crimes, that people are, by virtue of their humanity, good people at heart. Not everyone is good, but people aren’t all monsters inside, and the reason Batman needs to exist is because someone has to stand up for the fact that there are still good people in the world. 

If Batman doesn’t believe that people are good, if Batman believes that everyone is one step away from committing mass murder, then Batman is no different then the Joker. When Batman does things like make spy satellites to gather information on other hero’s weaknesses and bugs the rooms of his supposed family members, he’s not just not being Batman, he’s behaving exactly counter to the very values that Batman should be representing. 

If Batman cannot trust his allies on the Justice League to be good people, then how is he any different from Amanda Waller? If Batman cannot trust his ‘family’ to the point where he feels the need to bug their homes and spy on them, why exactly did he train them? If Batman cannot believe that there is any real good in the world, then why exactly is he Batman? 

Hopefully I’ve demonstrated that the problem with Batman as a character is more than skin deep. The issue of him being an overpowered superhuman being are problematic. The issue of him being a near psychopathic figure whose mental state reads like an episode of Making a Murderer is problematic. The issue of him being completely unmoored from any sort of heroic morality is problematic. 

Taken together, the character represents the worst of mary sue writing. He is a character who routinely commits morally and ethically objectionable actions and suffers no fallout for them; he is a character that all others are constantly made to seem inferior towards; he is a character whose very nature and concept must constantly be revised and changed because the writers cannot bear to let the character whose defining trait is his humanity actually be human. 

He is a character whose jokes have become the reality; where the exaggerations are now the baseline. Batman now is little more than a patchwork of skills and gadgets, of psychosis and grimdark man pain. It would be comedic, perhaps, if Frank Millers All Star Batman and Robin, from which the iconic ‘i’m the goddamn batman’ arises, was some kind of outlier. Yet for all the jokes and derision that comic gets, and rightly so, very little distinguishes it from the mainstream depiction of Batman in comics more generally. The flanderization of Batman is complete, and this is why Batman is now the worst character in comics. 

[alliepretends]

After yesterday’s tiny tantrum I have decided to go for a truly joyful post today. Here are my top 10 DC characters (currently) and a little on why I love them.

1) Diana Prince - She is the icon. I knew who Wonder Woman was before I knew what DC was. I love that she champions peace and diplomacy and that she stands for love above all else. She is among the world’s greatest superheroes for a reason.

2) Dick Grayson - I love Dick’s unabashed skill. I love that he is widely regarded as a great leader and that his acrobatics set him apart from the rest of the Bat-family. I’m also a sucker for characters that seem purely altruistic and heroic but have a sort of hidden capacity for great cruelty and for characters that seem cruel and self-serving but have a sort of hidden capacity for great love. In my opinion, Dick’s idealism about superheroes and his self-sacrificing nature combined with his temper and irrational loyalty put him firmly in the first category.

3) Dinah Lance - Like Dick part of my love from her comes from her skill set. I love the symbolism of a woman whose greatest weapon is her voice. I also like that unlike many other meta superheroes she takes her fighting skills seriously beyond her superpowers. For her to be both a legendary martial artist and have a superpower is amazing. I also love where she stands in the pantheon of DC heroes. The best Justice League origin stories have her as a founding member.  Her status as a well-respected member of the Justice League and a regular member of the Birds of Prey means that she helps bridge the gap between two generations of heroes.

4) Cassandra Cain - I, of course, love Cass’s journey. She overcomes not only her abusive child but the killer that abusive childhood tried to brainwash her into being. Her determination and commitment to her ideals is frankly awe-inspiring. It is never a secret that she has worked hard to get to where she is now. She embodies the ideals of Batman more than any of the other Wayne children and she deserves to take over the mantle of the bat. I would also be remiss if I didn’t say I love that she’s among the best fighters in the DC Universe.

This post probably exceeds the limits of what is polite not to put under a read more so here it is:

5) Jessica Cruz - I love how open she is. When she is excited about something she is adorably enthusiastic about it (she made a construct that was a unicorn with armor!). Unlike many heroes, she doesn’t hide her weaknesses or brush them under the rug. She talks openly about her anxiety and shares both her progress and her setbacks. She is completely unpretentious and cares deeply about those around her.

6) Zatanna Zatara - I adore the fact that not only does she not have a secret identity, but her superhero identity is actually the same as her stage identity. To me this one choice accomplishes 4 different things: it pays tribute to her father, it makes a bold statement (come and get me), it acknowledges that the role of a superhero is as performative as that of a stage magician, and it demands equal respect of her power across all platforms (whether that power is real magic or misdirection). I also love the way her magic works. The fact that her magic isn’t just about innate talent or knowledge, but concentration, quick thinking, and creativity is really compelling to me.

7) Donna Troy - This one is a bit of an unfair one, because the main reason I fell in love with her in the first place and the reason she’s so high on my list (it’s an actual list I did a character sort of my top 50 characters) is because of her relationships with other characters in my top 10. Her friendship with Dick might be my favorite relationship in comics and I adore her friendship(/shipability) with Kory. I also love her role as sister/heir apparent to Diana. But, I think the fact that these relationships aren’t just enough to make me love her but actually drag her into the top 10 speaks to just how good of a partner she is. Her ability to be empathetic and accepting while rarely letting anyone take advantage of her is inspiring and is what makes her such an incredible leader in her own right.

8) J’onn J’onzz - I am in love with his kindness and patience. The fact that he is often among the most levelheaded people in any discussion is incredible. I adore that he is respected as one of the greats by Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman but is perfectly content to be on the Justice League when its most prominent members are Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. I love that despite feeling the loss of his world in a way that neither Clark nor Kara really do he still manages to find laughter and joy in little things and protect his adopted home with an intense ferocity.

9) Koriand’r - I love that there is nothing inauthentic about Kory. She does not fight because she is escaping her dark past (although she has one) she fights because she is a warrior defending what she loves. She never pretends that her time as a slave was anything but gruesome, degrading, and unimaginably painful, but it also does not taint the joy with which she lives her life. She is brilliant and powerful but also willing to not only care for and defend but be on teams led by those younger and less experienced than her so that she may offer her support to those still learning. I know Elseworlds haven’t agreed with me, but I think of all the characters in my top 10 she will be the best parent and is one of the leaders truly shaping the next generation of heroes.

 10) Stephanie Brown - The thing I love most about Steph is her grit. From the moment she entered the field of superheroing she faced derision, sexism, and out-right cruelty from Batman and Robin. This despite the fact that she played by their rules, had noble intentions, and was eager to learn. She persevered through their criticisms to become a valued member of the Bat-family. In addition to seeing through her commitment to stopping her father and saving people, despite powerful opposition, Stephanie remains one of the funniest and most cheerful crimefighters around. 

This may be too long for anyone but me to ever actually read, but I had a ton of fun doing it so I might make another one for my next 10 favorite characters. If not though here are the top 5 that just missed the list: Lois Lane, John Stewart, Amanda Waller, John Constantine, and Mera.

[toughguywithbossygirlfriend]

Romance history in the comics ? WonderBat vs BatCat ?

Not so long ago, a BatCat fan cross tagged one of her post about Rebirth Batman #40, surely as a result of the WonderBat development in both Issues #39 and #40 ...

I made a comment about BatCat being from an historical stand point more like a “War/Sex/Hate” kind of relationship rather than a real “Love Story” and of course it unleashed “War/Hate” ...

Over the time I’ve read numerous comments about how much BatCat “love” you can find in the history of Batman and Catwoman , how old their “Love story” is, and thus I was kind of confused with what I could remember from my own youth or recent history ... but I had really a hard time to see any signs of such an old and strong love story. 

So I decided to check the comics for real legit history, rather than just reading another post from other people, who read themselves from other posts, that resume other posts, written out of informations from other posts ...

But DC Comics has a wast History ... and I don’t really have access to all the comics ever published ... so what do you do ? and where do you start ?

I couldn’t and I didn’t go extensively into oldtimers as far as the 40′s, the 50′s, the 60′s or the 70′s ... but usually people agree that prior to the 80′s Catwoman was just one of many villains and any romance was impossible because of that. 

In an Issue from April 1968 of “the Brave and the Bold”, Wonder Woman falls in love for real with Batman after faking it first. A year later Steve Trevor Dies in her arms in a WW Issue of 1969. Later in another Brave and the Bold Issue 1978 Batman puts himself on purpose in danger of death to push Wonder Woman to surpass herself and break the chains that kept her prisoner earlier... it seems she cared enough... Meanwhile Catwoman, no matter the outfit, just wanted to get him into a coffin...

Still I was wrong and there is no point in denying that there are stories were he had a “love story” with Selina Kyle like the one below in the Batman (1940) Serie, but she was always a repentant criminal :

(Bruce and Selina - #308, #317, # 326 from 1981 to 1982)

Unlike the Catwoman in “Rebirth Batman”, the Selina in the Bronze era decided to turn her back on her criminal activities in #308 and that enabled the starting of a relationship with Bruce Wayne in # 317. Bruce knew about her Catwoman identity but he didn’t tell her that he was Batman. Even though she sincerely stopped her criminal activities, he didn’t trust his Girlfriend and she broke up the relationship because of that in #326. After that she had to put again the Catwoman mask and learned later that he was the Batman, she even became his “sidekick” in #392 a few Issues before the end of Bronze Age Batman.

Warning : If You “keep reading”, note that I cover mainly the Modern Age of DC Comics (around 1987 until now). I try to focus on the Batman and Catwoman relationship but parallel it with some important WonderBat moments to get a better overview. This may end up “pro-WonderBat” but it is not “anti-Catwoman”. And you should not judge Selina too quickly or too hard, even if she looks quite messed up. She did go through quite a bad twisted history as well as Bruce, but she didn’t have a caring butler, she wasn’t bathed in limitless wealth, securely sheltered in a great mansion, and for a girl/woman, the corrupted and evil streets of Gotham are a lot worse than for a boy/man ... 

Before the modern age  ... this was a time were between the different series Batman, Detective Comics, the Brave and the Bold,  Bruce had an average rate of one Girlfriend (or Love interests) every 10 Issues ... Julie Madison, Selina Kyle, Linda Page, Vicki Vale, Kathy Kane (Batwoman, no joke !), Patricia Powell, Marcia Monroe, Poison Ivy, Silver St-cloud, Lina Muller, Talia Al Guhl, Nocturna(Natalia Mitternacht), Julia Remarques, ... even Diana Prince and Barbara Gordon fall for him... Some fell in love with Bruce, some with Batman and some for the combination ...

(A few kisses ... but you can find much much more of course)

I always wondered were his Playboy persona did come from ... now I know !... the Bronze Age era. Even James Bond will find it hard to beat the duo Batman/Bruce Wayne ...

Even if there are a lot of older History and more BatCat stuff then WondeBat, you can resume it for Selina Kyle with : “No criminal activities”/”Love story works” vs “Criminal activities”/“no Love story”.

However “Rebirth Batman” is not part of the Bronze Age but of the Modern Age, thus I wanted to check out the last 30 years of WonderBat and BatCat relationships, platonic or not. Compared to the Bronze era Batman the Girlfriend renewal rate of the Modern Age of DC comics has dramatically dropped, surely because mentalities changed and today that kind of behavior would be considered disrespectful to women ... building up a strong love affair with the Princess of the Amazons would have been hard with a guy who changes Girlfriends like shirts ... Bruce Wayne evolved strongly from real Playboy, to ... Single Dad and Family man faking a playboy persona... more suitable to the job but still keeping his charm intact.

Checking out every comic more or less related to these three (Batman, Wonder Woman and Catwoman), would have already taken far too much time, even if I didn’t digg into stuff older than then “Batman Year One” (February to May 1987)

I didn’t really feel like checking out every alternate world or elseworld because I am pretty sure the “Batman who laughts” from “Dark nights: Metal” would have a lot to tell about WonderBat in these worlds ... so lets keep it mainstream.

I had a relative good Idea, even if not exhaustive, about WonderBat, but I needed more Infos on BatCat. I figured that there was less to read about Catwoman then Batman, and anyway if there was gonna be some romance stuff it would be easier to pick it up on the more emotional Catwoman then with the unreadable Dark Knight.

That’s why I decided to focus mainly on the Catwoman series and started with a mini-serie from 1989 and going on from there ... trying to cover these last 30+ years.

(Catwoman Mini-Serie - February to May 1989)

With this mini-serie I was glad to rediscovered something covering quite well, the things that I remembered from my own comic youth...

I would dare to say “the Title speaks for itself”, No ?!

So she kills a bad guy, while the knight in batsuit saves the girl she couldn’t protect ... then she wants to kill a second one... Batman steps in the middle and she just doesn’t want to listen...  

“It’s to be a War between us” ... Hey, don’t look at me ... I didn’t say anything ... Batman said it ... Just then, she rubs her breasts on him ... and of course they kiss ... Sorry people, don’t throw the stone at Batman he didn’t start the teasing ... she did ! ... She has a beautiful body ... she wants it right there... He is single, may not have had his fix for some time now and I am pretty sure his blood is already boiling ... Dammit, its a guy ..what did you expect ?? Tea time ?? ... of course he gives in ... quit being naive.

Bang !!! That didn’t last long ... as usual,.. Oh, and just for the record he didn’t start the fight either ... but nothing easier to get a guy lower his defense then teasing him with the perspective of Sex ... Selina uses her sexuality as a tool all the time to create distraction, to regain the initiative, (and definitively not only with Batman) ... just like Batman uses fear. Over the years to come it gets obvious that Selina has a problem with males, and she surely has more reason to hate them, than the Amazons, but the constant Support and Righteousness of Batman slowly attracts her to him.

“Lover” ... Is that why every one seems to think this has anything to do with love ??? ... sure I feel the Love, Bats too, i guess ...

So If you think “sex” is “love” or even “implied love” .. I’d hate to break it to anyone but you can “pay for sex” since the beginning of humanity, both sexes used sexual intercourse to gain favors, and in modern times, “One night stands” or “booty calls” are surely things you’ve already heard about, ... and none of this has anything to do with real Love. Even though Sex is usually a part of a Loving relationship. OK maybe you could put “Friendship with benefits” into the “loving” category ... your choice ...

Lets take a time jump to the next serie a few years later...

It is a Serie of 94 Issues ... I confess I am not going through the whole Serie Just look at a few Issues at the beginning starting in August 1993 and a few Issues at the end in July 2001... If there is a positive evolution in their relationship it is to expect that it gets to its peak at the end ...

(Catwoman Serie 1993 -Issue #1 from 1993)

This is a young blond girl named Arizona, and adopted by Catwoman, talking about Selina (the dark haired woman in blue). Selina starts as a “sweet girl” who kicks law enforcement’s asses, works for Bane, and kills bad guys again ... Worst enemy of Batman?, Greatest enemy ?, most deadly enemy ?, you choose ...  BatCat Love ? not in the picture ...

(Catwoman - 1993 -Issue #94 from July 2001)

So, at the end of the serie, 8 years later, with surely quite some rooftop “war between sexes” in between... OK, Yeah it ends with a kiss again,... that she initiated again, ... but if you take a look at his face would you consider that he returns the kiss ? ... Obviously she always considers that there is something between them and he reminds her that they “had this conversation before” ... but i take it I’m supposed to consider “you know that can never happen” to be a clear sign of love... right ?

(JLA 1997 - #46 from Oct 2000 - The tower of Babel)

A little earlier Batman got expulsed from the Justice league and Wonder Woman was kind of really angry at him after years of strong friendship. She surely felt hurt more than anyone. So it wasn’t really “WonderBat” that prevented him from running away having a good time in Sao Paulo (see below)... Diana regrets it because she likes his skills, his warrior spirit, his intelligence, his dedication, his compassion, nearly everything about him but she’s totally into truth, so Bats secrecy and secret identity was a hindrance so far. The Amazon doesn't give up her unconditional trust to a man that easily ... and she feels hurt ...

(Catwoman - 1993 -Issue #94 from July 2001)

It is obvious that Selina doesn’t know Bruce Wayne, but she wants to know him ... so far, IF she’s “in love” with someone it would be with “the Batman”, but is it “true love” for the man below that she doesn’t know or “groupie love” for the symbol ? she’s quite adamant in this last Issue about what made her put on the mask herself : seeing Batman of “Year one” ... Bruce/Batman cares for her but much like in Bronze Age : Criminal activities = No love story

2001 is also the time where Batman reveals to Diana and the JLA that he is Bruce Wayne ... Now Diana can see the real him ... and it is even better than she expected because as a filthily rich he still chooses to put his life on the line to protect others ... you can add generosity, modesty, and others qualities to the guy .. and there is a broken boy inside of him that compels her motherly instincts, or compassion if you prefer ... and a good father that doesn't go unnoticed by the woman in her ... I guess he just added a lot to his “sex appeal”.

For Bats, things started to get a lot better with the Amazon from that point ... If Doomsday Clock rewinds time prior to that period it may erase WonderBat as well.

While Selina still has, lets say ... some heavy Issues with males and relationships ...

(Nightwing 1996 - #52 from 2001)

She dreams to marry Batman, then she kills him in the same dream’s wedding night ... so much for the love story ... then she wakes up in her bed ...

... looks out for some diamonds, trips over Nightwing  and tries to seduce him ... the son of Batman ... yeah, smart move ... maybe she loves him too, he would be her “son in law” after all if she ever got to marry Batman ... then she tries mischievously to push Nightwing to tell Batman hoping the latter gets Jealous ... But by the reaction of Nightwing you can tell Bruce isn’t on the same page as Selina. Why would she do that ? out of “true Love” ? This story makes her look like a slut ... but I think it is not that ... her time in the dark streets of Gotham has ruined her vision of love and sex ... we’ll get a better (darker) picture in the coming Post-Flashpoint Catwoman serie  ... and with the “Gentle Man” in Batman Rebirth #39 and #40 she’s gonna discover the difference between Love and Sex or even Marriage.

A little Jump to the next Catwoman Serie

2002, Catwoman returns (from Sao Paulo ;) ) in a new serie that goes on until 2010 and from the first Issue I would say their relationship is more peaceful, friendly...

(Catwoman - 2002 -Issue #01 from 2001)

It at least looks like a friendship... But you could say that at least her feelings for Batman may be beyond that ... maybe ... 

Still the same rules apply her territory is “In between right and wrong” and ... its a no go for the Crusader of Justice !...

Ironically, the character definition of DC Rebirth for Catwoman and Batman reveals the same rift that is resumed in the above pics... Somehow Tom King seems to ignore that... why ?

But what about Bruce and Diana during that same period ?

That happened during the “Obsidian Age” ...

They kiss !! ... Ok, I can hear you shout “That’s no proof that they Love each other, because Selina kisses him all the time !! ” .. OK, that’s correct, but do they Die together hand in hand ? (obviously Bruce grabbed Diana’s hand and not the reverse)

Not enough ? OK, I’ll take the Challenge ... What about : “Love conquers all ? ... even Powerful Old Magic” is that better ?

Diana is about to be Sacrificed and all her Teammates, including Bruce, have been set asleep by a very powerful sorcerer using powerful Old Magic ... a magical sleep NO MAN should be able to awaken from ... but nonetheless the imminent Danger to Diana causes one, and only one, to awaken and save her ... Bruce ... and Diana knows how old magic works ...

So it wasn’t only Batman’s “will power” that enabled him to beat the Magic ?... could it be that the only other thing that can beat Old and Powerful Magic is the Power of Love ? Pretty sure that if Friendship was enough Clark would have woken up as well ... but he didn’t.

Clearly Bruce roots hard for the Amazon ... and not for the Cat ... and a few Issues after that, in JLA#90, it is obvious that Diana has surrendered her heart to Bruce as well.

(Bruce and Diana - JLA 1997 -  #90 from Jan 2004)

But neither Diana nor Bruce are willing to take a risk with their way too precious friendship. They choose not to act on their, now unquestionable, feelings for each other ...

(Catwoman serie 2002 - #82 in 2008)

At the end of this Catwoman serie: Of course Batman runs after Catwoman ... he is gentle, he tries to help, but says one wrong word ... and she gets crazy, he goes from Ally to Enemy. But he is Batman and she gets cornered ... again as usual when Option “A” and “B” won’t work she uses “C”.

But again she uses the kiss as a tool .. this time to diffuse the situation and she explains in the end that if she could she would stop all that ... with Helena she wouldn’t need the Batman/Catwoman “rush” thing ... isn’t Helena about her real love here ? ... She always has a Girl/Woman (Arizona, Helena, Holly, ...) that means much more to her than “the Batman” ... At least now she knows his real name “Bruce”.

Deep down she knows, that what she shares with Batman isn’t Love its a substitute to fill her empty heart (at the end of the Catwoman 1993 Serie she tells him pretty much the same). Selina is much more messed up than Bruce Wayne. Bruce had Alfred, his Robins, Diana and his Friends from the JL. Selina was alone ... and that is the reason why he tries to help her like he already said it in the first Issue of that Serie : “I believe that deep down, you’re a good person”... 

(Blakest Night : Wonder Woman - #2 from March 2010)

Unlike Selina who would have given up Bruce “Batman” Wayne for Helena if she wasn’t that screwed up ... Diana loves Bruce even more than before, or as a matter of fact more than her mother Hippolyta or closest amazon sisters (Cassie and Donna), ... I think with that level of “Love” between two partners, we can easily agree to qualify them as “Soulmates” ... and I have no doubt that the Bruce didn’t move on either ... trying to help criminals like Selina and give them a second chance is what he does every time it is possible (recently : clayface, killer frost, lobo, ...) ... doesn’t mean he is in love with them ... 

To make it short : Over the past 20 years (1989 - 2011) all three characters evolutions make sense and it doesn't point out to “True Love” between Selina and Bruce unlike with Diana and Bruce. Bruce and Selina just share regular “One night stands” to comfort each other while Bruce and Diana torture themselves by refraining their Love out of fear of screwing up their friendship if they give into their feelings ...

Sorry, but so far obviously no true BatCat Love Story !!! but WonderBat “true deep Love” is canon ... just no sex, no dating, no usual relationship stuff ...

Comes “Flashpoint” during 2011... the Cosmic MOAB

Starting with that event the continuity gets "kind of” thrown out of the Window for WonderBat romance ... but not entirely. 

In the new Catwoman Serie starting Nov 2011 Catwoman did forget Batmans real identity and Wondy suddenly roots for Supes ... Eww ! ... not to mention Steve Trevor returns from the dead again, I think he could compete with Catwoman about his number of lives but I didn’t count ...

In this serie you get from the start a pretty good look at the ordeal Selina must have lived while she grow up... Like I said, Compared to Selina, Bruce was a “Lucky” child with a stable childhood ...

(Catwoman - 2011 - Issue #01 from Nov 2011)

No wonder your relationship Compass spins around like crazy if you were raised in such an environment. Sex is a job, Violence the way to settle differences, Women are Sextoys or beaten to death if not shot by the local dirtbags, and Men are worthless and heartless monsters... Gotham’s darkest side as playground for a young Girl ... She nonetheless keeps a Good heart ... the Dark Knight cannot hold back his need to help her in anyway possible ... She is a really good soul, heavily messed up, but good ... 

Selina doesn’t really care about the Guy under the mask, he protects her in exchange for Sex, ... at least that is what she thinks this is about...

In the last Issue of Catwoman 2011 - Issue 52 from Jul 2016 we learn that in that reality she had a real love years ago.  He was named David, not Bruce,  and he turned out a Bad Guy after faking her his death ... She doesn’t trust any man ... except maybe Batman.

(Forever Evil - July 2014)

SuperWonder era ... Superman and Wonder Woman are together for over a year now but Batman is still in love with Diana like prior to Flashpoint and thus can use Diana’s lasso ... surely the real reason why “There can’t be” nothing else ... even if she was a “Good Girl”. Honestly you feel really bad for the girl...

(Rebirth Justice League - #14 from April 2017)

Diana still mourns SuperWonder ...

Then comes DC Rebirth Superman #20 “Reborn” erasing SuperWonder from continuity setting Diana’s heart free from that ... 

(Rebirth Wonder Woman - #25 from August 2017)

Diana Sleeps with Trevor ...

(Rebirth Batman - #32)

Selina answers “Yes” to Bruce’s proposal ... but she stays a thief... and that was a no go for the last 78 years !??...

One of Batman’s Bronze Age Lovers, Nocturna, had an interesting theory about Batman’s Lovers :

This alone explains why Diana is his greatest problem if he wants to keep his heart safe from “Love”... She has her own way of being very “Dark and Dangerous” but every thing in her drives her to avoid doing the king of “Dark and Dangerous” things that could push him away from her in the way Nocturna or Selina do ...

(Rebirth Batman #39 and #40) 

“WonderBat Love” in “the Realm”

Obviously whatever the Power that is messing up with the Heroes history (Doomsday Clock storyline) is looking for, it seems at least to want to avoid WonderBat at all costs ... first SuperWonder then WonderTrev and BatCat, and now in Justice League #38: Bruce Wayne/Jessica Cruz ?!?...

[aion-rsa]

How Dark Nights: Death Metal Reboots the DC Universe

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The end of Dark Nights: Death Metal #7 is the last stop of more than a decade of Scott Snyder driving the DC metaverse’s bus. The conclusion to the Dark Nights saga, which started in 2017 with Dark Nights: Metal and ran through an entire Justice League series before concluding here, closes off storylines Snyder and his creative partner Greg Capullo seeded as far back as their first issue of Batman when the New 52 launched.

And with Infinite Frontier and Future State, DC’s next publishing initiatives, on deck, it’s worth taking a look at what Death Metal did so we can try and understand how the pieces fit together. Because if there’s one thing to take away from Death Metal, it’s that everything fits together. Even if you really gotta stomp on the pieces to get them to stick. 

THE ANTI-CRISIS IS HERE!

The final couple of issues of Death Metal throw a little bit of a curveball at readers. The entire series has felt like it was heading for a confrontation between Wonder Woman and The Batman Who Laughs, the Jokerized Bruce from the Dark Multiverse who (everybody take a DEEEP breath now) led an army of dark Batmen on behalf of Barbatos, the evil Bat god, in Metal; escaped captivity with Lex Luthor’s help in Justice League; betrayed Lex and usurped his role as evil overgoddess Perpetua’s right hand in Hell Arisen; and had his brain dropped in the body of a Bruce Wayne who had been turned into Dr. Manhattan after being killed by Diana earlier in Death Metal (with a chainsaw made from her invisible jet…just roll with it), giving him the nearly limitless power he needed to betray Perpetua earlier in this series. And from this point forward, we’re referring to him exclusively as BWL. Now let’s all go get a glass of water.

Ok, back? Cool.

So the rematch in the last couple of issues of Death Metal is what the rest of the series has felt like it was building towards. And we definitely get a BRAWL: Diana, charged up with Anti-Crisis energy (we’ll get there), is a giant embodiment of her golden lasso, and several times in the issue, she punches BWL so hard he traverses the history of the DC Universe. 

But it turns out BWL isn’t just fighting to dominate the entire multiverse. The Hands are returning. 

The Hands and the Green Lantern Connection

You know how DC time travelers can’t go back and watch the beginning of creation? Whenever they try, they just see a giant hand. This is pretty well established, going back to John Broome and Gil Kane’s old Green Lantern story about Krona, the Guardian scientist who first attempted to see the dawn of time. 

Turns out, the giant hand is part of a race of them: enormously powerful cosmic entities that bear a passing thematic resemblance to Marvel’s Beyonders, only sized up in power a few times. That hand we see when Krona tries to violate the laws of the multiverse, it belongs to Perpetua, and she’s one of them. Now they are coming to judge this local multiverse, and Perpetua and BWL both think it’s going to go poorly. So poorly, in fact, that BWL is asking Diana to join her Anti-crisis energy with his, as it’s their only hope of preventing The Hands from sweeping everything away and starting over.

Crisis Energy and Anti-Crisis Energy

Oh that. 

Perpetua and BWL power themselves up first (in Justice League and Hell Arisen) by harnessing the unseen dark forces of the multiverse – the invisible spectrum that manifests as John Stewart’s Ultraviolet Lantern powers, or the Speed Force’s opposite number, the Still Force, for example. They eventually graduate to eating universes to expand their power. These are examples of what Death Metal categorizes as Crisis Energy. 

Diana is charged with its opposite: Anti-Crisis Energy. This energy is produced by the connective tissue of the history of the DCU, by the totality of the DC Universe’s history. That’s why “everything counts” in Death Metal #6 was a big deal: it was a massive power up for Diana. It’s also an interesting meta critique of DC’s history of reboots.

Crisis Energy is described *by Diana* as being selfish and short sighted, focused on short term gain at the expense of respecting the sweep of history. Anti-Crisis energy is constructive, drawing strength from the depth and breadth of 80 years of DC continuity. 

We have to be careful assigning authorial intent where none may exist. But it is certainly a valid read of Death Metal to see criticism of DC’s accelerating continuity reboot cycle built in. It doesn’t take an enormous leap of logic to transpose Crisis Energy and all of Diana’s critiques over to Crisis Events and some of the fan criticism – short term sales boosts at the expense of the richness of an 80 year publishing history. 

Who Was Right? Wonder Woman or the Batman Who Laughs?

Diana, of course. She refuses to give into BWL’s cajoling, punches him through continuity a few times, and eventually meets The Hands, who come to her wearing the form of…her.

More specifically, they show up as Golden Age Wonder Woman. 

The Hand she speaks with explains to her that they were going to sweep away Diana’s multiverse because of its propensity for gross selfishness, but Diana’s personal heart and generosity touched them, so they’re giving the DCU another shot. Only this time, they’re putting everything back in place: the full history of the DCU, along with a blossoming multiverse. And it’s heavily implied that the barriers between worlds in this multiverse are going to be…less walls, and more suggestions. The price the Hand extracts for this boon is Diana’s existence: she ascends, no longer living as a physical being on Earth Prime. Instead, she joins the Hands protecting the new multiverse from a hinted at but as yet unstated threat.

It’s worth noting here that this evolution of the DC multiverse somewhat mirrors Snyder’s evolution as a writer at DC. His early Batman work, on the “Black Mirror” arc of Detective Comics, and early in his New 52 Batman run is very carefully plotted and paced. They’re written more like traditional detective/horror stories. Similarly, the DC multiverse has been slowly returning to continuity since Infinite Crisis and 52, only very slowly, with rigid rules and boundaries about what constitutes the new multiverse. Remember the Orrery of Worlds? 

The difference, in both Snyder’s style and the cosmogony of DC’s multiverse, are the rules don’t matter anymore. Death Metal, both in how the story is told and where it leaves the DC multiverse, has a certain “FUCK IT, EVERYBODY HAVE FUN AND WE’LL CLEAN UP LATER” vibe to it and if we’re being entirely honest, that’s kind of exciting. 

What Does this Mean for the Future of the DC Universe?

I’ll admit, it hits a little different landing after a year of wild rumors about the future of DC’s publishing line. The journey of Death Metal saw a bunch of new bosses coming in and rumors and threats that they were going to rip the DC Universe down to the studs, and whatever came next wasn’t anyone’s business. 

The end of Death Metal is a jubilant explosion of everything bright and beautiful about the DC Universe – our heroes have made it, and not only did they survive, but they did so specifically because everything in their publishing history saved them. Everything counts now, everything happened, everything mattered, and it’s that counting/happening/mattering that saved the day. And then Black Canary, Superman, Wally West, and Batman play a big metal concert for all the celebrating heroes. With Jarro on cowbell. 

Future State is the next step, in-universe and out of it. Death Metal closes with a group of heroes and villains – Martian Manhunter, Mr. Terrific, Hawkgirl, Lex, Talia, Vandal Savage, and maybe Wally West (it’s not explicitly clear that he’s part of the group and not just visiting) – gathering together to talk about the cosmogony of the new omniverse. Hypertime is healing, the multiverse is growing so infinite that it’s now the omniverse, pasts and futures are opening into what Wally calls an Infinite Frontier (NEXT PUBLISHING PHASE MIC CHECK!). But Earth Prime is no longer the center of the multiverse the way it once was, as you can see from your handy dandy Multiversity map. It’s replacement is actually two worlds: one yet unstated, and one the group of DCU bigwigs is calling…the Elseworld. 

After reading the first batch of Future State books, one could be forgiven for assuming many of those stories take place there. Each book has a blurb about the saved multiverse, and the wealth of new possibilities growing out of the ashes of Death Metal. These books are dripping with multiversal references. But I think that’s beside the point – some of the Future State stories will end up being Elseworlds tales; some, possible futures; and some will slowly integrate to regular continuity. I think the variety is the actual point here; variety of settings, variety of stakes, and a variety of stories and storytellers. 

One would think that emphasizing variety might also lead to variances in quality, but the hit rate for the Future State books is remarkably high. These books are genuinely exciting to read. Several of them look nothing like what DC has been doing before, almost to the point where we can hold a funeral for DC House Art Style. 

The characters are certainly vastly different from what came before, and a couple of them are going to be absolutely huge – watch Yara Flor, the new Wonder Woman. If Joelle Jones’ first issue of Future State: Wonder Woman is any indicator, she’s going to be extremely popular. 

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It has been a long, and sometimes very odd journey to get here, but between the power chords of hope from the end of Death Metal and the completely new jams being played in Future State, it’s hard not to be cautiously optimistic about the future of the DC Universe.

The post How Dark Nights: Death Metal Reboots the DC Universe appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/38iD7SX

[smokeybrand]

Disappointment

I love comics. I do. I’ve loved them since I was a small boy. I remember fondly, journeys to my local comic shop before it closed. I remember buying first editions of Aliens versus Predator, Alien: Earth War, The Killing Joke and those three issues of Amazing Spider-Man where Carnage debuted. That panel where Pete realizes carnage left him a message in his own blood? Chilling. I remember the dour feeling I got when I first witnessed Miller’s bleak, almost nihilistic take on Batman with his masterpiece , The Dark Knight returns. I remember the jubilation as I scanned the pages upon pages of graphic violence in McFarlane’s Spawn for the first time. The Violator fast became one of my all-time favorites Comic villains. I watched the comic bubble grow and grow until it burst and the fall of an entire industry toward the late 90s, early 00’s. I remember the cringe worthy, poorly written, maxi-events born distinctly from that ridiculous “extreme everything” epoch of the mid 90s. I was excited when the industry rebounded on the back of epic storytelling and art that was head and shoulders above what I had as a youth, in the late 00s, early 10s. Even now, I pick up any one of the Bat books DC is shilling and I am wildly impressed. Capullo’s run, in particular, has been a creative and narrative refreshment. I’m going to miss him when he’s gone. I love comics as much as I love film, cinema, anime, manga, and f*cking pancakes. My geek card is legit and punched, particularly for Marvel Comics.

I love a good Marvel book. Don’t get me wrong, I can dig a DC outing, I rather enjoyed Judas Contract and Death in the Family in particular, but Marvel always felt real to me. DC comics was escapism. They were Gods pretending to be human in my eyes, the ideal way to live. That made sense to me as I grew older because they were created in a time where escapism was needed. Most of the groundwork for DC was laid in the 30s. WWII was beginning to rear it’s ugly head and there was a necessity for the American populace to have a place to divert their attention to fantastic tails in order to distract from the horrific realities of the world.  Marvel was born in the sixties. They’re a product of one of the most socially tumultuous times in out history. Marvel heroes are people thrust into godhood. They have to learn how to be heroes because they are inherently flawed. There are no Superman allegories here, no perfect specimens to light the way for humanity. Nah, these cast are assholes just like the rest of us, trying to stay above water. Only they can shoot f*cking lasers from their eyes sometimes. While DC relegated their more socially experimental or controversial stories to the oblivion of Vertigo or Elseworlds, Marvel embraced them. Reed Richards became an emotionally distant asshole. Tony Stark became a functioning alcoholic. The allegorical comparison of Mutants being black people struggling for human rights during the civil unrest of the 60s was not lost on anyone with a brain. I loved that Marvel let their heroes be human. I loved that they made mistakes and that those mistakes had real consequences. I loved that I could look at a comic and see myself, in both demeanor and ethnicity. Spider-Man is my all time favorite comic character. I wrote about this before but I WAS Pete as a kid and I think that’s why he’s so endearing. He is the best of that Marvel lot and epitomizes the genius Stan, John, and Jack had when they crafted the most endearing literary universe in the last century.

The fact that i love Marvel so much is why I am hurting with the direction they have decided to take with all of this SJW nonsense. If you know Marvel’s history, if you’ve read their books, then you know they were already one of the most progressive companies out there. I mean, they’re genesis was one steeped in social awakening! Hell, I’m not even mad Marvel is shoehorning all of this PC propaganda in their books or killing off characters I love (**cough**Wolverine**cough**), or subsisting on year-long maxi events or allowing Slott to ruin Spider-Man! Actually, I am livid about that Slott nonsense but I’ll get to that. I’m not mad Thor is a woman. She is a great character and a breath of fresh air in a narrative that was growing a bit stale for me. Jane Foster being Thor gave way to The Unworthy Thor story line, which is probably the best written Thor arc I have ever read. I’m not mad Mockingbird is a feminist. How can she not be? I rather enjoyed Spider-Island and that little tease at the end with MJ and Pete? That made my heart all aflutter. Speaking of, my favorite book at the moment is Renew Your Vows. Goddamn do I miss Pete and MJ and that book just reminds me of everything that could have been. F*cking Slott, man… I ADORE the direction they’ve taken Talon (X-23 and the current Wolverine for those of you who don’t know Laura’s actual X-Men code name) and even like a little of that whole Cyclops fiasco fallout. A little bit, not all of it. There are a few things SJW Marvel has done well, their increasing diversity is a big one, but it feels like those good things pale in comparison to the issue I think that is crippling Marvel; The writing is sh*t now.

SJW Marvel feels like they’ve traded actual, inspired, storytelling for “Woke” gimmicks and a pandered slathering of social commentary. There are too many soap boxed now and not enough passion in crafting a compelling narrative. Dan Slott (I told you I’d get to this asshat) is a perfect example of this bullsh*t. Bro has taken Spider-Man and basically turned him into Tony Stark. He’s erased, literally erased by having Pete and MJ cut a deal with the goddamn devil, their marriage. Slott, in his run on Amazing, has regressed Spider-man back to those harrowing and swinging days of being a College Freshman but with a multi-billion dollar tech company. For a second there, I even think Peter was an international spy or some sh*t. It’s wild nonsense that is just north of embellished fan fiction! What happened to the great tales we got like Kraven’s Last Hunt or Torment? Why do I have to sit through The Superior Spider-Man?? F*ck, then there’s THAT fuckery. Doctor Octopus is literally a Spider-man clone now. He is, and I am not sh*tting you right now, living in a perfect clone of Peter Parker, powers and all. But he leads Hydra or some sh*t. We’ll circle back around to that in a second, let me tell you, but first, this whole Fantastic Four bullsh*t. I liked Secret Wars II. I thought it was interesting that Doom finally got his wish and became a f*cking god. I thought his characterization in that whole event was brilliant. What I didn’t like? Marvel using that even to essentially erase the Fantastic Four. I liked Sue. She was a great character and had grown considerably over the years. All of that, gone. More to the point, I loved Valeria and her interactions with Doom. Those few books where she actually plays Robin and conscious to Doom’s villainy are spectacular. Marvel essentially nixing that relationship just to scorn Fox feels a lot like Slott nixing MJ because he thinks Peter should be a hoe.

Both circumstances are f*cking ridiculous and do nothing but leave the characters and company less. And it’s not just these instances. Riri Williams has a ton of potential but sucks and everyone hates her because she’s written as a smart-mouthed b*tch. America Chaves is another missed opportunity! And, oh my god, what did they do to my Carol Danvers?? I LOVE Miss Marvel. Her stint in Might Avengers and Heroic Age solidified that she could be the premiere female Marvel hero. In my eyes, Carol is their Wonder Woman and, for a time, she was on her way. Now? After all of this SJW branding and agendas have made her power absorbing Hitler. They’ve destroyed her character, assassinated nay real progress in an effort to portray her as a feminist icon. She was already one of those!

Carol Danvers doesn’t have to be the new version of 1610 Captain America! And then there’s THAT debacle. Secret Empire was a goddamn cash grab and the biggest farce I have read out of Marvel since Onslaught. Cap is a Nazi? Really? Get the f*ck out of here with that nonsense. And the ending? Just a bit too fan service-y for me. There was literal deus ex machina. Seriously, ClassicCap came out of the cosmic cube to punch out NaziCap. He allegory is just so heavy handed, it’s borderline insulting to my intelligence as the reader. I cannot stress how ridiculous this entire situation was, this entire stupid goddamn “event”. Also, the f*ck was up with Dead No More? Didn’t we learn our lesson about clones with Ben Reily and that whole clusterf*ck? Why are we even doing this nonsense again??

It’s not just the writing though, either. The art for most of these books is atrocious. Anything Olivier Coipel or Esad Ribic touch with a pencil is god’s work and Kris Anka is one of my favorites but the redesigns of some of those classic outfits are terrible. I mean, Spider-Man’s tech suit is ass. Riri’s armor looks like a knock off Rescue mod, and Foster’s Thor comes across as a hodge-podge of nonsense. That classic Ms. Marvel Leotard is my favorite of her outfits but I get the upgrade to her current garb. Running around in stilettos with your ass out doesn’t really bode well for gaining confidence you can protect the general public from giant, interdimensional, crab monsters or rouge government assassi-bots. What i don’t like is how masculine Carol’s drawn now. Chick isn’t She-Hulk, yo. Why you got her so yoked? Carol Danvers was a vision of beauty, legit model caliber. She’s always been fit, yeah, but there was still a softness to her. Just a touch, I’d say. Now, chick is a rock of f*cking angst granite. Not only is she poorly written but her overall design is sh*t! It’s like, goddamn Marvel! You want to push Ms. Marvel to the front, give me something to work with How am I supposed to root for an ugly, b*tchy, incompetent who constantly makes decisions that get people killed? How is THIS “Captain Marvel” a leader?? Bro, speaking of “leaders”, Sam Wilson Cap is ridiculous. That sh*t feels like blatant tokenism, particularly when there have already been several black captain Americas in Marvel history. There was this whole Tuskegee allegory about it. One of the grand kids was the Young Avengers, for chrissake!

I don’t know, man. I think Marvel need to take a step back and figure why things were so good back in the day. Why the Ultimate universe was so successful and then why it wasn’t. I think they need to get some fresh blood in those executive chairs, cats with actual vision and a very poignant, very innovative story to tell because what I’m getting now feels a lot like that Extreme nonsense I got right before everything fell apart. The art might be better but the narratives are not. What I got with Secret Wars II feels a lot like what I got with the Clone Saga or Identity Crisis and them sh*ts were terrible. Legacy has a ton of potential but if it’s just a way to bring actual Jean Grey back from the dead, you can keep that sh*t. Give me back Wolverine. Let Laura and her father have some adventures. It feels like a crime Gabby hasn’t met her grandpa. Give me back Pete and MJ. You’ve already taken his daughter, first love, and uncle. At least let the guy have his wife. Give me back Doom and Valeria. The potential those two have together is profound and vastly untapped. Look, I get it. I’m pining for a bygone era.

Times are changing and this SJW sh*t is becoming the status quo. If you want to exist in this society, you have to embrace that sh*t to an extent. All I’m saying is don’t be so heavy handed with it. Have some tact. Use a deft touch. It‘s not difficult to be inclusive without being obnoxious about it or ruining entire character histories for a year or two of upped sales. Marvel is actually hemorrhaging money at the moment because of this ridiculous turn in narrative. Marvel Studios is essentially holding them up. Those motherf*ckers are printing money for Disney. Actually, Marvel Comics only has to look as far as their cinema counterpart to get the blueprint. Spider-Man: Homecoming is how you traverse this new age of social wokeness. Those cats wrote an outstanding story, full of diversity and social commentary, and grounded it in a world that felt real. And they did it with excellent characterization and a true reverence for the source material. Homecoming felt more like Spider-Man than any of the other Spider-Man films and it kept true to the current social current effortlessly.

That’s how you write Spider-Man. That’s how you write, period. That’s how Marvel Comics needs to write if they want to salvage their company. Hell, Logan is another great example. So are both of the Guardian films. Pretty sure Ragnarok is another but that remains to be seen. It’s wild to me that films, created for the sole purpose of getting scratch, cobbled together by a committee of producers and executives, can create something that has more depth, scope, vision, and soul than the motherf*ckers entrusted with the goddamn source material, themselves. That says so much about the people in charge of my beloved Marvel comics and what it says depresses the f*ck out of me.

[frasier-crane-style]

So now we come to Kingdom Come, a glorified Elseworlds with the moral that amoral, bloodthirsty superheroes were supremely inferior to the classic, good-hearted, compassionate superheroes... a lesson DC Comics would totally respect from 1996 onward.

I see no real point in covering the event so much as its lesser known sequel, The Kingdom, in which Clark and Diana’s baby (yeah) is kidnapped by a disenfranchised Superman worshiper (yup) who has been given nigh-omnipotent power by all the Big Goods of the DC Universe (uh-huh) which he uses to go back in time one day at a time, killing every Superman in the timeline. Why killing Superman at, say, six o’clock on a Sunday would mean that you couldn’t call upon him at five o’clock on that Sunday, I don’t know.

Oh, and yeah, Ganthet, the leader of the Green Lanterns... Zeus, Wonder Woman’s patron god... Highfather, leader of New Genesis... the Wizard Shazam, who empowers Captain Marvel... and the Phantom Stranger have all agreed that, you know what, forget Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane and Perry White and every other mortal in the DC Universe with a speck of competence or moral fiber, let’s give Doomsday-level power to some random idiot who worshiped Superman for his entire adult life and is now dangerously unhinged. Not only that, but once he starts sadistically killing Supermen (actually the Supermen of various parallel timelines, making it even worse), the moral exemplars of the DCU all go along with it on the off-chance that it will shake out good for their side.

Now I’m sure you could point to some of them having done hinky stuff, Zeus especially--he’s Zeus--but this isn’t morally ambiguous, it’s straight-up repellent. They’re outright trying to cause a disaster even earlier than in the Kingdom Come timeline where it worked out pretty well, and they’re using a freakin’ serial killer to do it. So... all the Gandalfs and Aslans of the DC Universe, who the heroes respect and draw power from, are more craven and callous than Joe Q. Public, let alone any actual heroes. That’s pretty shockingly cynical and mean-spirited, especially coming off one of DC’s annual “let’s be optimistic again, y’all!” events.

Anyway, this is all in service of this Hypertime thing, which some DC writers love to yank it over, but no one else can stand. “It’s, like... what if Superman: Red Sun and Man of Steel both happened, but in like different universes?” No, yeah, we get that. We just don’t get why you’re so smug about it.

(This is a really long way to go to say “I don’t wanna write about these legacy hero assholes, just bring back the Silver Age heroes! C’mon!”)

I suppose the ultimate rejoinder to “wouldn’t it be great if stuff could be canon and not canon at the same time?” would be the Nu52 launch clusterfuck, where no one could agree how the timeline worked, who was alive, who was dead, or anything really besides “don’t touch my fucking Green Lantern continuity, you motherfuckers.” I don’t think anyone wants to read a story where Jonathan Kent dies, then he shows up alive the next month because, like, that was part of an alternate timestream that ran concurrent with a river in time that then diverged and now a new tributary where Jonathan Kent became a fireman is running through the time riverbed or something...?

Like, I’m pretty sure everyone had enjoyed Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, even knowing it wasn’t literally the future of the character. The old Earth-1, Earth-2 stuff works fine, it’s just making it shit-complicated so you can justify a comic where Batman is a pirate that turns people off.

[hellyeahsupermanandwonderwoman]

New 52 and Rebirth... part 2

Thanks for the reply to my thought rant. Really appreciate letting me have the platform for that.

I wasn’t aware that sales for rebirth weren’t as great as the comic fans in my area made it out to be (they are older more long time fans than I am). 

I’ve been a DC comics fan since the early 90’s and I started with superman. From the get go I thought him and Diana would be great as DC comics power couple, even though they weren’t together officially back then they just seemed to be couple anyways. Don’t get me wrong, I have no hate for Lois, in fact I think she’s a great character in her own write, I just don’t think her being paired with superman was not he way to go…. for the long run in any case.

But I digress… what I wanted to say was I notice is your reply you quoted the rebirth wonder woman saying her being with superman as “easy”. Which is a response I normal get from older fans… well clois fans to be specific. So to me it was pretty much just a clois fan using this rebirth Diana as a mouth piece.

Rebirth will end at some point. I don’t want older fans to lose their heroes and I still love DC comics, so I do hope DC will be able to find away to balance things for all of us.

Fans should not have to lose anything if DC managed its lines better or at the very least allow stories to stand and end organically. I get DC cannot keep publishing a title if sales are not good but Superman/Wonder Woman sales were good enough to keep the title. But you know, there is certain clique of fans out there who don’t care about anything and anyone other than what they want. DC can give them 10 books with the versions of their choice but if we get 1 with ours…they would attack it and us and try to get it wiped out. We are all fans and we never ever said for DC never to have books with clois in it. In fact even during the new 52 DC catered to them. With Smallville, Superman Family Adventures, Earth 2, Injustice ( before everything went to hell) , American Alien, Convergence, Lois and Clark, The Coming of the Supermen, Superman Unchained, etc etc. Those books never bothered me one bit. But when we got our Superman/Wonder Woman title it bugged the life out of them. So I assume if we get a title or series even out of continuity they will continue to try to attack it and us. Some fans simply don’t want balance.  As to whether DC Comics want it…well that is up in the air right now.  We can hope but I think people need to be prepared that there are certain writers out there who will constantly try to undermine SMWW. 

“Easy.”

 You read comics since the 90ties and you know the Diana from back then would never even say that of a friend much less a lover. Diana cared and admired Clark not for strength and flight but his compassion, nobility etc. I mean, who would say that is what makes Clark who he is? Saying she dated him because was easy was Greg Rucka insulting the whole Superman/Wonder Woman dynamic and fandom. Rebirth Wonder Woman could not even honor the dead Superman by way of an explanation to Steve Trevor why she was with him…ie a simple “He was a good man.” would have sufficed.  The current Wonder Woman team claim they prefer Superman and Wonder Woman as besties��I’d say, really? Well you sure have not shown a Wonder Woman that shows any sign of true caring or any grief in losing Clark.   A person has a lot of love for a best friend and can recite a list of why they love them. You telling me “easy” is the best adjective Diana could muster? Oh please. Rebirth Wonder Woman is shallow and threw her dead lover under the bus. New 52 Clark and Diana were put through hell. Nothing was “easy.” To even say that is disingenuous and a lie. If being with him was so easy why is he dead?

 Look, she is not new 52 Diana and she was never with new 52 Superman. They are not the same. Nothing in this Rebirth narrative could make me even care for whatever superficial dynamic they are trying to force. I honestly don’t care what they try to do with Rebirth Superman and Wonder Woman in current canon. Right now the only bright spot for us is animation. So I will get my fix with the DTV movies and JL Action, and fan fic and hope someone writes the odd Elseworld that will explore our couple. 

[smokeybrandreviews]

Disappointment

I love comics. I do. I’ve loved them since I was a small boy. I remember fondly, journeys to my local comic shop before it closed. I remember buying first editions of Aliens versus Predator, Alien: Earth War, The Killing Joke and those three issues of Amazing Spider-Man where Carnage debuted. That panel where Pete realizes Carnage left him a message in his own blood? Chilling. I remember the dour feeling I got when I first witnessed Miller’s bleak, almost nihilistic , take on Batman with his masterpiece, The Dark Knight returns. I remember the jubilation as I scanned the pages upon pages of graphic violence in McFarlane’s Spawn for the first time. The Violator fast became one of my all-time favorites Comic villains. I watched the comic bubble grow and grow until it burst and the fall of an entire industry toward the late 90s, early 00’s. I remember the cringe worthy, poorly written, maxi-events born distinctly from that ridiculous “extreme everything” epoch of the mid 90s. I was excited when the industry rebounded on the back of epic storytelling and art that was head and shoulders above what I had as a youth, in the late 00s, early 10s. Even now, I pick up any one of the Bat books DC is shilling and I am wildly impressed. Capullo’s run, in particular, has been a creative and narrative refreshment. I’m going to miss him when he’s gone. I love comics as much as I love film, anime, manga, and f*cking pancakes. My geek card is legit and punched, particularly for Marvel Comics.

I love a good Marvel book. Don’t get me wrong, I can dig a DC outing, I rather enjoyed Judas Contract and Death in the Family in particular, but Marvel always felt real to me. DC comics was escapism. They were Gods pretending to be human in my eyes, the ideal way to live. That made sense to me as I grew older because they were created in a time where escapism was needed. Most of the groundwork for DC was laid in the 30s. WWII was beginning to rear it’s ugly head and there was a necessity for the American populace to have a place to divert their attention to fantastic tales in order to distract from the horrific realities of the world.  Marvel was born in the sixties. They’re a product of one of the most socially tumultuous times in out history. Marvel heroes are people thrust into godhood. They have to learn how to be heroes because they are inherently flawed, they are inherently human. There are no Superman allegories here, no perfect specimens to light the way for humanity. Nah, their cast was a cast of assholes just like the rest of us, just trying to stay above water. Only they can shoot f*cking lasers from their eyes sometimes. While DC relegated their more socially experimental or controversial stories to the oblivion of Vertigo or Elseworlds, Marvel embraced them. Reed Richards became an emotionally distant asshole. Tony Stark became a functioning alcoholic. The allegorical comparison of Mutants being black people struggling for human rights during the civil unrest of the 60s was not lost on anyone with a brain. I loved that Marvel let their heroes be human, first. I loved that they made mistakes and that those mistakes had real consequences. I loved that I could look at a comic and see myself, in both demeanor and ethnicity. Spider-Man is my all time favorite comic character. I wrote about this before but I WAS Pete as a kid and I think that’s why he’s so endearing. He is the best of that Marvel lot and epitomizes the genius Stan, John, and Jack had when they crafted the most endearing literary universe in the last century.

The fact that i love Marvel so much is why I am hurting with the direction they have decided to take with all of this SJW nonsense. If you know Marvel’s history, if you’ve read their books, then you know they were already one of the most progressive companies out there. I mean, they’re genesis was one steeped in social awakening! Hell, I’m not even mad Marvel is shoehorning all of this PC propaganda in their books or killing off characters I love (**cough**Wolverine**cough**), or subsisting on year-long maxi events or allowing Slott to ruin Spider-Man! Actually, I am livid about that Slott nonsense but I’ll get to that. I’m not mad Thor is a woman. She is a great character and a breath of fresh air in a narrative that was growing a bit stale for me. Jane Foster being Thor gave way to The Unworthy Thor story line, which is probably the best written Thor arc I have ever read. I’m not mad Mockingbird is a feminist. How can she not be? I rather enjoyed Spider-Island and that little tease at the end with MJ and Pete? That made my heart flutter. Speaking of, my favorite book at the moment is Renew Your Vows. Goddamn do I miss Pete and MJ and that book just reminds me of everything that could have been. F*cking Slott, man… I ADORE the direction they’ve taken Talon (X-23 and the current Wolverine for those of you who don’t know Laura’s actual X-Men code name) and i even like a little of that whole Cyclops fiasco fallout. A little bit, not all of it. There are a few things SJW Marvel has done well, their increasing diversity is a big one, but it feels like those good things pale in comparison to the issue, I think, that is crippling Marvel; The writing is mostly sh*t now.

SJW Marvel feels like they’ve traded actual, inspired, storytelling for “Woke” gimmicks and a pandered slathering of social commentary. There are too many soap boxes now and not enough passion in crafting a compelling narrative. Dan Slott (I told you I’d get to this asshat) is a perfect example of this bullsh*t. Bro has taken Spider-Man and basically turned him into Tony Stark. He’s erased, literally erased by having Pete and MJ cut a deal with the goddamn devil, their marriage and all of the history they’ve had together. In the process, he’s ruined Mary Jane as a character and that sucks. Well, Joe Queseda did but Slott has perpetuated this bullsh*t and treated SPider-Man as little more than a goddamn fan fiction. His run on Amazing has regressed Spider-man back to those harrowing and swinging days of being a College Freshman but with a multi-billion dollar tech company. For a second there, I even think Peter was an international spy or some sh*t. It’s wild nonsense that is just north of power fantasy and it’s stupid! What happened to the great tales we got like Kraven’s Last Hunt or Torment? Why do I have to sit through The Superior Spider-Man?? F*ck, then there’s THAT fuckery. Doctor Octopus is literally a Spider-man clone now? He is, and I am not sh*tting you right now, living in a perfect clone of Peter Parker, powers and all. But he leads Hydra or some sh*t. We’ll circle back around to that in a second, let me tell you, but first, this whole Fantastic Four bullsh*t. I liked Secret Wars II. I thought it was interesting that Doom finally got his wish and became a f*cking god. I thought his characterization in that whole event was brilliant. What I didn’t like? Marvel using that event to essentially erase the Fantastic Four. I liked Sue. She was a great character and had grown considerably over the years. All of that, gone. More to the point, I loved Valeria and her interactions with Doom. Those few books where she actually plays Robin and conscious to Doom’s villainy are spectacular. Marvel essentially nixing that relationship just to scorn Fox feels a lot like Slott nixing MJ because he thinks Peter should be a hoe. It’s all stupid and disheartening. But the fact that these “creators”, cats that have been entrusted with character beloved by generations of people, are simply doing sh*t they want on a whim because, and i’ve seen said creators post sh*t like his on the Facebooks, fans don’t know what they want. They have to tell us what we want. F*ck you, bro.

Both circumstances are f*cking ridiculous and do nothing but leave the characters and company less. And it’s not just these instances. Riri Williams has a ton of potential but sucks and everyone hates her because she’s written as a smart-mouthed b*tch. America Chaves is another missed opportunity! A latina lesbian who ha the power to Super Boy-Prime punch her way around the galaxy? Sign me up! Wait, never mind, because the people writing your book are lousy. And, oh my god, what did they do to my Carol Danvers?? I LOVE Ms. Marvel. Her stint in Might Avengers and Heroic Age solidified that she could be the premiere female Marvel hero. In my eyes, Carol is their Wonder Woman and, for a time, she was on her way. Now? After all of these SJW brandings and agendas have made her power absorbing Hitler, basically, not so much. They’ve destroyed her character, assassinating any real progress she’s made as a person, in an effort to portray her as a feminist icon. She was already one of those! She was becoming more than that. She was transcending that whole Rule 63 action of her origins. She was becoming real. Now, she’s a f*cking cartoon, worse off than when she flew around in the stomach bearing bikini, pretending to be Mar-Vell’s side kick or lover or whatever.

Carol Danvers doesn’t have to be the new version of Captain Hydra And then there’s THAT debacle. Secret Empire was a goddamn cash grab and the biggest farce I have read out of Marvel since Onslaught. At least Onslaught had a dope antagonist. A villain that was connected to the lore and true it’s roots. Cap is a Nazi? Really? Get the f*ck out of here with that nonsense. And the ending? Just a bit too fan service-y for me. There was a living deus ex machina. Seriously, ClassicCap was pulled out of nowhere, by the power of a sentient cosmic cube, to punch out HydraCap. The allegory is just so heavy handed, it’s borderline insulting to my intelligence as the reader. I cannot stress how ridiculous this entire situation was, this entire stupid goddamn “event”. Also, the f*ck was up with Dead No More? Didn’t we learn our lesson about clones with Ben Reily and that whole clusterf*ck of a Clone Saga? Why are we even doing this nonsense again?? SO not only are your new arcs stupid, but you are rehashing old, failed, ones as well? Really Marvel?

It’s not just the writing though, either. The art for most of these books is atrocious. Anything Olivier Coipel or Esad Ribic touch with a pencil is god’s work and Kris Anka is one of my favorites but the redesigns of some of those classic outfits are terrible. I mean, Spider-Man’s tech suit is ass. Riri’s armor looks like a knock off Rescue mod, and Foster’s Thor comes across as a hodge-podge of nonsense. That classic Ms. Marvel Leotard is my favorite of her outfits but I get the upgrade to her current garb. Running around in stilettos with your ass out doesn’t really bode well for gaining confidence that you can protect the general public from giant, interdimensional, crab monsters or rouge government assassi-bots. What i don’t like is how masculine Carol’s drawn now. Chick isn’t She-Hulk, yo. Why you got her so yoked? Carol Danvers was a vision of beauty, legit model caliber. She’s always been fit, yeah, but there was still a softness to her. Just a touch, I’d say. Now, chick is a rock of f*cking angst granite. Not only is she poorly written but her overall design is sh*t! It’s like, goddamn Marvel! You want to push Ms. Marvel to the front, give me something to work with. How am I supposed to root for an ugly, b*tchy, incompetent who constantly makes decisions that get people killed? How is THIS “Captain Marvel” a leader?? Bro, speaking of “leaders”, Sam Wilson Cap is ridiculous. That sh*t feels like blatant tokenism, particularly when there have already been several black captain Americas in Marvel history. There was this whole Tuskegee allusion about it. One of the grand kids was in the Young Avengers, for chrissake!

I don’t know, man. I think Marvel needs to take a step back and figure why things were so good back in the day. Why the Ultimate universe was so successful and then why it wasn’t. I think they need to get some fresh blood in those executive chairs, cats with actual vision and a very poignant, very innovative, story to tell because what I’m getting now feels a lot like that Extreme nonsense I got right before everything fell apart. The art might be better but the narratives are not. What I got with Secret Wars II feels a lot like what I got with the Clone Saga or Identity Crisis or Future Imperfect and them sh*ts were terrible. Legacy has a ton of potential but if it’s just a way to bring actual Jean Grey back from the dead, you can keep that sh*t. Give me back Wolverine. Let Laura and her father have some adventures. It feels like a crime Gabby hasn’t met her grandpa. Give me back Pete and MJ. You’ve already taken his daughter, first love, and uncle. At least let the guy have his wife. Give me back Doom and Valeria. The potential those two have together is profound and vastly untapped. Look, I get it. I’m pining for a bygone era but what an era it was!

Times are changing and this SJW sh*t is becoming the status quo. If you want to exist in this society, you have to embrace that sh*t to an extent. All I’m saying is don’t be so heavy handed with it. Have some tact. Use a deft touch. It‘s not difficult to be inclusive without being obnoxious about it or ruining entire character histories for a year or two of upped sales. Marvel Comics is actually hemorrhaging money at the moment because of this ridiculous turn in narrative. Marvel Studios is essentially holding them up. Those motherf*ckers are printing money for Disney. Actually, Marvel Comics only has to look as far as their cinema counterpart to get the blueprint. Spider-Man: Homecoming is how you traverse this new age of social wokeness. Those cats wrote an outstanding story, full of diversity and social commentary, and grounded it in a world that felt real. And they did it with excellent characterization as well as a true reverence for the source material. Homecoming felt more like Spider-Man than any of the other Spider-Man films and it kept true to the modern social current effortlessly.

That’s how you write Spider-Man. That’s how you write, period. That’s how Marvel Comics needs to write if they want to salvage their company. Hell, Logan is another great example. So are both of the Guardian films. Pretty sure Ragnorok is another and Black Panther was all about that sh*t. It’s wild to me that films, created for the sole purpose of getting scratch, cobbled together by a committee of producers and executives, can create something that has more depth, scope, vision, and soul than the motherf*ckers entrusted with the legacy of goddamn source material, themselves. That says so much about the people in charge of my beloved Marvel comics and what it says depresses the f*ck out of me.

[aion-rsa]

Elseworlds, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and What it Means for DC TV and Movies

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Elseworlds revealed that the Arrowverse will take on Crisis on Infinite Earths. This has far-reaching implications for the DC TV Universe.

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Feature

TV

Mike Cecchini

The Flash

Dec 12, 2018

Crisis on Infinite Earths

Elseworlds

DC Entertainment

supergirl

This article contains Elseworlds spoilers.

The concept of the Multiverse has been central to DC Comics for well over fifty years. At the center of that multiverse there has always been the Flash, and Warner Bros. wasted no time introducing the seeds of the Multiverse and Crisis on Infinite Earths influenced concepts in the first episode of The Flash TV series back in 2014. This was no accident, and as we learned from the conclusion of the 2018 Arrowverse crossover, Elseworlds, it was only the beginning.

The first appearance of Barry Allen in Showcase #4 (1956) is rightly credited for kickstarting the Silver Age of comics and rescuing superheroes from demise. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Unless you were Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman, your prospects as a superhero in the publishing landscape of the early ‘50s were pretty grim, as readers had moved on to horror and romance titles. Adventurers like the original Flash and Green Lantern had long since faded into obscurity. But this revived Flash was the first blast of a superhero revival that soon led to space age versions of other masked adventurers like Green Lantern and the Atom. All boasted sleek, capeless costumes, science-based powers and scientifically minded alter egos.

further reading - Elseworlds: Every DC Comics Easter Egg in the Arrowverse Crossover

But practically coded into the character’s DNA from the outset was an almost metafictional take on the concept of comic book reality itself. Continuity wasn’t much of a concern at this stage of the game, and there’s no mention of Superman or Batman in Showcase #4. For all intents and purposes, Barry Allen may as well be the world’s first superhero. Why choose the name “the Flash?” Because it was the name of Barry’s favorite comic book character, who just so happened to be Jay Garrick, the Mercury-helmeted Flash who first appeared in Flash Comics #1 in 1939.

A simple enough explanation, but one that would be complicated somewhat with “The Flash of Two Worlds” story in 1961's Flash #123. With this, we have the first appearance of DC’s Multiverse in all but name, a kind of metafictional string theory, where alternate realities are separated by vibrations keeping dimensions apart. Of course, it’s easy for a guy who can vibrate his molecules to transfer between dimensions, and it’s fitting that Barry would learn that the comics that inspired him to take up superheroics were actually a window into another reality.

Earth-2 was shown to be the home of all of the golden age versions of characters (notably the Justice Society of America) who had been revamped (there was no such word as reboot in 1961). From there, they just ran with the concept. Earth-3 was the home of evil versions of DC heroes, where Alexander Luthor is the only superhero. Earth-S is where they put the Shazam family of characters, having kept them in limbo after acquiring them from rival publisher Fawcett after a lawsuit. Earth-X (recently made famous by an Arrowverse TV crossover of its own) is where the Freedom Fighters fought a World War II that never ended. You get the idea, and if you've been keeping up with The Flash, Supergirl, and related shows, none of this is news.

Eventually this multiple reality approach to storytelling proved unwieldy, and DC Comics decided it would be wiser to eliminate all of these parallel worlds in favor of a linear continuity more in keeping with what their main competition was putting out. The concept of parallel earths would be taken to its logical, and infinite, conclusion.

Crisis on Infinite Earths was a comic book event designed to simplify DC's continuity. This was done at the cost of Barry Allen’s life, which brings us to the newspaper from the future that has haunted The Flash since its very first episode. The "red skies" mentioned in that futuristic headline are a hallmark of DC's Crisis events (as we've seen over and over again, but especially on Elseworlds), and Barry Allen did indeed vanish as he disabled the villainous Anti-Monitor's anti-matter cannon (don't ask...it's too much to get into right now). It was a fitting (and shocking) ending for one of DC's marquee heroes. In 1985, you simply didn't kill a character with that kind of profile.

But Crisis on Infinite Earths didn't just off Barry Allen, it killed Kara Danvers, too. Supergirl had just headlined her own movie, but DC wanted to scale back Superman's Kryptonian supporting cast, and further prove they meant business, so Kara also fell in battle with the Anti-Monitor. Again, while fans have long become numb to the idea of heroes being killed and resurrected in comics, I have to stress that this wasn't a thing you did in 1985, let alone with characters who actually headlined their own books.

It took about 20 years, but DC eventually decided they were better off with a Multiverse and the infinite storytelling possibilities that it offered, and they brought it back, albeit relatively in the background compared to what it had once been. In recent years, thanks to ambitious stories like Grant Morrison's Multiversity, they've utilized it to greater effect, clearly no longer seeing it as a symptom of decades of convoluted storytelling, but rather as what it is: the very thing which helps set them apart from their chief competition at Marvel. The fact that Warner Bros. is now willing to put Crisis on Infinite Earths, long considered to be an impenetrable piece of superhero storytelling that only those steeped in decades of DC Comics lore could ever comprehend as the centerpiece of multiple TV shows says a lot about how far we've come in the last few years.

further reading - Who is the Monitor? The Villain of Crisis on Infinite Earths and Elseworlds Explained

Then again, DC and friends have been not-so-quietly sowing the seeds for their multimedia Multiverse for some time. Infinite Crisis, a video game named after another one of DC’s continuity-altering mega events, was the first serious attempt to place the concept of potentially infinite variations on beloved superheroes in the public eye outside of comic books. It was no accident that in 2014 DC Comics released a literal map of the Multiverse to promote Grant Morrison’s Multiversity, a series that previously would have been considered impenetrable to anyone but DC Comics scholars. That was the first indicator that DC considered stories that took place away from the printed page were part of their official continuity, by designating spots on the Multiverse map for animated series like Young Justice and Justice League Unlimited. 

The Flash TV series dove headfirst into the DC Multiverse when it introduced its own Earth-2 (and original Flash, Jay Garrick) during its second season. And now, of course, the Arrowverse is well into exploring a Multiverse all its own. There are a couple of ways that you can look at the DC live action Multiverse at the moment. There's the "canon" Arrowverse Multiverse, in which it is understood that Supergirl exists on a different Earth (Earth-38) from The Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow (which, if the TV Crisis on Infinite Earths fixes nothing else, it should be this), and then there's the "implied" Multiverse, where we know that Gotham, Black Lightning, and Krypton, all produced by Warner Bros. TV, do not exist in the same reality as those other three superhero shows, but have never been explicitly addressed or had Earths formally designated to them. And so far, all of this has only accounted for modern DC TV shows.

But that all changed with Elseworlds. The appearance of John Wesley Shipp, not as Jay Garrick, but as the original TV Barry Allen, rocking the classic costume he wore during that CBS TV show's brief run from 1990-1991 was a real statement of intent. If this Flash's Earth-90 can exist, then surely there is an Earth-52 where George Reeves' Adventures of Superman took place, Earth-66, where Adam West's Batman took on bizarre foes, or an Earth-76, where Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman had adventures. And there certainly must be an Earth designated for the Smallville continuity, what was (until recently) the most expansive exploration of a version of the DC Universe in live action ever attempted. This doesn't mean that the TV version of Crisis on Infinite Earths is going to heavily feature characters from every single DC show on the air (while the core Arrowverse shows film in Vancouver, Black Lightning is in Atlanta, and Krypton is in Belfast...these production schedules are tricky enough). But it wouldn't take much for a character to be observed through a dimensional window or monitor screen (and something tells me Smallville characters will make an appearance).

But what about the DCEU? Well, I can safely say that there is exactly zero chance that anything that happens on TV will have any effect on what happens in any upcoming DC movies, and they'll certainly never go out of their way to acknowledge the TV Multiverse, even in passing. Conversely, it's unclear if WBTV could even use footage from those movies to "unite the Multiverse" via monitor screen or whatever if they wanted to. But they don't need to. For DC fans, the implication is quite clear. There are infinite worlds in the DC multimedia multiverse, and thus fans know that there's an Earth-78 where the Christopher Reeve Superman movies took place, and an Earth-89 where Tim Burton's Batman movies exist. We’ll never get to see those crossovers actually happen, mind you, but real fans will know the truth, and we can take some satisfaction in that knowledge.  

* A version of this article ran in 2014. It has been updated with new information. * 

Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.

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