#superboy x brainiac

[riverdeansart]

they hate each other's guts (they're in love)

[somewherefornow]

BRAINIAC FIVE/QUERL DOX & SUPERBOY/KAL-EL + TALKING ABOUT SUPERGIRL/KARA ZOR-EL in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (1980)

[romancemedia]

Cartoon Romances + Behind Embrace

[donnatroyprincessofthemyscira]

Art Edit Credit to Roberto Coltro

[kryptonbabe]

Best of Blue Ribbon Digest 36, 1983

Some Kryptonites not on the handbook:

Platinum Kryptonite ➝‬ Gives Kryptonian super-powers to humans permanently (Batman Secret Files #1, 2018)

Black Kryptonite ➝‬ Strange and unpredictable effects on Kryptonians (Smallville series, S4E1 Crusade, 2004)

Pink Kryptonite ➝‬ Sexual / gender bender (Supergirl Vol. 4 #79, 2003)

Purple Kryptonite ➝‬ Began as a coloring error / Hypnotic effect, it can control the minds of anyone that is near it (Adventure Comics #171, 1951)

Kryptonite-X (Kryptisium) ➝‬ Not lethal, it restored Superman's powers, but caused him to absorb solar energy too rapidly making he lose control of his powers (The Adventures of Superman #511, 1994)

Slow Kryptonite ➝‬ It affects humans the same way Green Kryptonite affects Kryptonians (Batman Secret Files #1, 2018)

Magno-Kryptonite ➝‬ Tracks objects from Krypton including Kryptonite (Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #92, 1966)

Anti-Kryptonite / Fool's Kryptonite ➝‬ Pre-crisis: Looks like Green Kryptonite, but It's harmful to humans and is harmless to Kryptonians / In Post-crisis: it is the power source for one version of Ultraman, Superman's evil counterpart from an antimatter universe (Action Comics #252, 1959)

X-Kryptonite ➝‬ Granted Streaky the Supercat his superpowers (Action Comics #261, 1960)

Red-Green Kryptonite ➝‬ A synthetic Kryptonite created by Brainiac to mutate Superman, it made him grow a third eye on the back of his head (Action Comics #275, 1961)

Krypton Steel ➝‬ A harmless form of Kryptonite that only Superman could break (Super Friends, S3E30 Rest in Peace, 1978)

Opal Kryptonite ➝‬ Synthesized on Earth 2 this variant can apparently drive Kryptonians temporarily insane (Earth 2 #0, 2012)

Krimson Kryptonite ➝‬ Artificial construct of Mr. Mxyzptlk that eliminated Superman's powers temporarily (Superman Vol. 2 #49, 1990)

Orange Kryptonite ➝‬ Provides super-abilities to any animal that comes into contact with it for one day (Krypto the Superdog #4, 2007)

Periwinkle Kryptonite ➝‬ It turns the victim's skin and clothing periwinkle and causes them to completely lose their inhibitions (Superman Family Adventures #9, 2013)

Amber Kryptonite ➝‬ It removes Superman's powers and grant them to someone else (Dark Nights: Death Metal The Multiverse Who Laughs #1, 2021)

Synthetic Kryptonite ➝ Various effects / In Superman III (1980)‬  it caused Superman's morality to change turning him into an evil and destructive being (Multiple origins)

Bizarro Kryptonites:

Bizarro White Kryptonite ➝‬ It heals Bizarro, curing his instability (Superboy, S2E7 The Battle With Bizarro, 1989)

Bizarro Red Kryptonite ➝‬ Affects humans the same way Red Kryptonite affects Kryptonians (Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #80, 1964)

False Kryptonites:

Yellow Kryptonite ➝‬ Began as a hoax by Lex Luthor / Unknown effects (Action Comics #277, 1961)

Silver Kryptonite ➝‬ Began as a hoax by Jimmy Olsen / It causes hallucinations on Kryptonians and possess mystical properties (Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #70 1963)

Kryptonite Plus / Ultra-Kryptonite ➝‬ fake Kryptonite planted by aliens on the moon (Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #126, 1970)

Fake Kryptonite ➝‬ Superboy's friends are selling these crystals labeled as "fake Kryptonite" to raise money for charity (Superboy, S2E17 Brimstone, 1990)

Purple Spotted Kryptonite ➝‬ Exclusive to the Krypto the Superdog cartoon, it made Krypto chase his own tail (Krypto the Superdog, S1E34 Streaky's Supercat Tale, 2005)

Blood Kryptonite ➝‬ Fake Kryptonite magically manipulated by Felix Faust to drain energy from people (52 #13, 2006)

[memento-mori-twilight]

Looking at the villians they had for My Adventures with Superman,

They honestly picked the best choices they could for a Season 1 rogues gallery.

Think about it (way too much detail below):

They didn't want to dip too far into multiverse and multidimensional villians, outside of Mxyztplk to introduce the concept, so they couldn't pull out Ultraman or Superboy/man Prime (who needs a Crisis Event to even exist properly if they want to do him nicely and that's a whole other can of worms).

They couldn't introduce Kryptonite soon enough for Metallo or Conduit to be relevant, and Metallo also kinda needs Lexcorp to exist beforehand (unless they wanna go with the military origin version who doesn't need Lex).

Conduit also requires an intense murderous rivalry with Clark from Smallville, which how they have made Clark Kent in this iteration, wouldn't make sense. What would he be pissed over, Clark beating him at a chess tournament?!?

Bizarro also comes from Lex's machinations having been a failed clone he created.

Aliens are *not* a common thing known, so intergalactic villains like Darkseid, Lobo, Mongol, and Zod aren't ones to form as threats until Clark knows what Krypton even is, or at least has a vague kind of idea.

We also don't have STAR Labs (yet) and barely have an evil form of Cadmus Labs (sincw they kinds blend in with Task Force X)

Honestly on that front, they did great reworking to have Parasite and Intergang in here as threats, since their origins/threat levels are often tied to Darkseid. Pairing them with Silver Banshee and Ivo were smart in that regards.

And yeah, I can hear the complaints already about Banshee not being a Metahuman and Livewire not being a Shock Jock, but metahumans being a thing not originating from a hush hush experiment from the military (as Episode 9 suggests is happening with Leslie) wouldn't work with how they formed Jimmy's story arc.

On top of that, Silver Banshee was born of magic shenanigans, and introducing that weakness before his more famous one of glowy rock with no known helpful magical allies would have been a major misstep, because that would essentially leave Clark no way to counter and win. She could still mess around with magic angle later in, though, after getting a taste of the power via the tech. (And maybe her sparking a romance with Jimmy, eh?)

As for Livewire not being a Shock Jock, that requires the fact of Superman being previously established as a hero in Metropolis for a time for there to be news about him (and a prominent radio station in Metropolis for Leslie to get zappy-zapped by radio tower after getting fired), which wouldn't work since the show's story makes it clear that Lois and Jimmy are the first ones to encounter him. {Also going the influencer angle wouldn't make sense for her getting electric powers because how would she get zapped while uploading vids on YouTube? Wifi or 5G doesn't work like that.}

Therefore, blending them in with Waller's proto-Suicide Squad of criminals and Sam Lane's distrustful actions against Nemesis Omega all wrapped in a military/government jingoistic bow was a smart move to not make some major potholes for the purpose of story direction. And making them have powers from repurposed Kryptonian tech also equals the unspoken question of "how is Superman constantly getting his ass beat?"

The only other real "Superman" villians they would have room left to mess with would be Toyman, the Atomic Skull, Ultra-humanite, Titano, Chemo, Bloodsport, the Prankster, Volcana (who is barely a villian and is more a victim of circumstance), Mr. Zed, and Manchester Black (depending how they implement them). And we very well may see many of them in Season 2, along with some of the ones from above, now that Kryptonite and the Multiverse exists now and Brainiac and other Krypton survivors have been teased.

They did their best with what they had left to work with, if they wanted to give us the beautiful characterizations and story beats we got in the first place.

Anyway, that's my piece on the villians, why they chose the ones they did, and why they were tech based instead of their other origins, and what ones they could mess with in Season 2 maybe.

Thanks if you read this whole thing, you're a real one for hearing me out.

[fancoloredglasses]

[RERUN] Crisis on Infinite Earths, Issue 10: “Death at the Dawn of Time” (Monitos, the Hand of Oblivion)

[All images are owned by DC Comics, please don’t sue me]

PREVIOUSLY ON…

A being known as the Anti-Monitor has destroyed all but 5 of the universes in existence) with a single survivor on Earth-6 (Lady Quark) along for the ride). Those 5 (1 (Silver Age), 2 (Golden Age), 4 (acquired from Charleton), S (acquired from Fawcett after being sued into oblivion), and X (acquired from Quality)) are being held in limbo (and are merging into a single reality) away from the Anti-Monitor thanks to a being known as Lyla, assisted by a being known as Pariah and the sole survivor of Earth-3 (Alexander Luthor, who is made of matter and anti-matter).

Unfortunately, the process was unstable, meaning that time has merged (meaning mammoths and futuristic aliens are among modern skyscrapers) in the areas where the Earths are merged (which are called “Warp Zones”)

The Anti-Monitor has been quiet since his third attempt at destroying the multiverse failed (thanks to the sacrifices of Supergirl and Earth-1’s Flash)

Meanwhile, Brainiac and Earth-1’s Lex Luthor have drafted the villains of all 5 Earths and have taken over Earths 4, S, and X. The combined heroes of the 5 Earths have staged an assault to free the Earths while Brainiac and Luthor sit back on Brainiac’s ship and prepare to pick up the pieces while the heroes and villains kill each other.

However, Psimon didn’t join the battle, but stayed back and listened. Having heard the Master Plan, he thought it was a good one, only he should be the one in charge, so he destroyed Brainiac and prepares to do the same to Luthor!

Now, on with our story! If you would like to read this issue, it (along with the rest of the series) has been collected in graphic novel form and is available (or can be ordered) at your favorite comic shop, bookstore, or online retailer…or on Read Comic Online.

As Psimon uses his psychic powers to fry Luthor’s insides…

He is shot in his brain bubble (I’m surprised no one thought of this before) from behind by Brainiac, (wait, what?!) killing him instantly (psee ya later, Psimon!) It turns out Brainiac’s consciousness is linked to the ship and knew Psimon was there (and he didn’t do anything about it before then?) and constructed a new body for him after his first was destroyed (if he dealt with Psimon before then he wouldn’t have had to waste the resources) Luthor slaps himself on the back (quick recovery after nearly being Scannered [NSFW WARNING]) and gets on with the plan.

Speaking of the plan…

Casualties mount as the Doom Patrol’s Negative Woman destroys Chemo

…and the Teen Titans’ Kole turns Black Adam to crystal (who world have been shattered by the Doom Patrol’s Robotman if Kole’s teammate Dove hadn’t stepped in)

Earth-1′s Atom frees Billy Batson so he can speak his magic word to become Captain Marvel and begin to wipe the floor with those who held him captive (and why didn’t they kill him exactly?) And so on…

Until…

An energy surge unlike any other seen appears on every scanner across five Earths…

Then…

I had no idea the Spectre could do that!

Anyway, the Spectre tells the population of 5 Earths (kinda hard to ignore a giant white and green head over the entire skyline) that the Anti-Monitor has retreated to the dawn of time, where he intends on being the hand that Krona (remember him? All the way back in issue 7) saw, thus destroying all the other universes (how is this Plan D? I would think this would be Plan A) The Heroes decide to travel to the Dawn of Time to try to stop the Anti-Monitor, while the villains (despite protests) head to ancient Oa to stop Krona.

The assembled heroes and villains gather to make their respective time-jumps.

As they prepare, we see a touching good-bye between Kal-L and his wife, Earth-2′s Lois Lane.

Also joining late to the party is a third Superman (well, Superboy), who explains he’s the last survivor of Earth-Prime (which the footnotes explain was part of a one-shot comic. Gee, nice to see that we‘re creating even more characters for this series. I mean, with five universes’ worth of heroes and villains, isn’t it bloated enough?) Things are finally ready, and off they go.

…after an inspirational speech by the Freedom Fighters’ Uncle Sam.

On Oa, the villains work toward stopping Krona. Now, the reasonable thing to do would be to speak to Oa’s governing body and/or Krona to stop the experiment. However, these being villains, they attempt to raze Oa.

This goes as well as you’d expect.

However, Mirror Master (of Earth-1), Icicle (of Earth-2), and Maaldor (of Earth-1) reach Krona’s lab.

Unfortunately, they were too busy arguing who would destroy the lab that they missed that Krona showed up until they died by his hand.

Meanwhile, the heroes arrive at the Dawn of Time, prepared to enter the anti-matter universe, only to discover the Anti-Monitor waiting for them.

The more powerful heroes immediately attack…

…only to have their power absorbed by the Anti-Monitor (why didn’t he do that when Supergirl attacked three issues ago?) He intends to use that power to become the hand that Krona sees…

…only the Specter pushes back, aided by the mystical heroes.

Krona turns on the viewscreen in his lab to view the Dawn of Time…

and reality…

S H A T T E R S !

To be continued…?

[autisticsupervillain]

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Stats Equalized!

This Week's Fighters...

Iron Man vs Superman!

Conditions:

MCU Iron Man vs Injustice Superman. Tony in the Mark 85. Superman does not have the Yellow Lantern Ring or Kryptech suit.

Scenario:

Insurgency Batman tries to summon heroes from an alternate universe to stop Superman's regime, accidentally bringing in the Avengers instead of alternate versions of his own friends. The Avengers agree to help stop Superman anyways, engaging his regime in the battle for Metropolis. As the groups clash, Tony takes the chance to head off Superman himself at his base at the Fortress of Solitude.

Analysis: Superman

Superman. The Man of Tomorrow turned the Tyrant of Today. The Clark Kent of the Injustice universe led a life very similar in the broad strokes to the Superman of our world. Until, one day, everything changed when The Joker instigated a terrorist attack on Metropolis. Superman was tricked into killing his pregnant wife Lois, setting off a bomb that leveled his home city. Millions died and Superman was changed forever.

Forcing a no-war and no crime policy, Superman instigated a dictatorship over the Earth, turning similarly traumatized heroes to his cause and ruling with an iron fist. Batman would start an underground insurgency against the Man of Steel, as Clark took to eliminating crime by any means necessary. Even if it meant killing heroes.

Superman is easily the most powerful hero-turned-villain on Earth. To such an extent that the Insurgency requires Kryptonite Nanotech pills to increase their durability several thousand times over just to stand a chance. He has all the baseline powers a Superman iteration would need. He can fly across the world in seconds, see and lobotomize you from space with heat and x-ray vision, hear you all the time all around the world, and freeze entire waves of the ocean with his frost breath before chucking them like they're made of paper. He's even fast enough to get past Brainiac's shields, which can regenerate within 10 picoseconds (0.00000000001 seconds) and take hits from General Zod, who can drill people through the Earth.

What's worse, is his brain can more than back up his brawn. His supercomputer brain can effectively fly Brainiac's ship, he lures Mogo the Living Planet to Earth to keep from bringing his full power to bare (knowing he won't risk innocent lives), and he fatally injures Superboy and uses his critical state to manipulate the Titans into letting him trap them in the Phantom Zone.

Also, like all fascists, he can effectively use Twitter:

Superman reigned virtually unopposed for five years, killing any who stood against his wrath. He's battled the Gods of Olympus, the alien planet destroyer Brainiac, and even He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. He inspired so much fear he was permitted to wield a Yellow Lantern ring for a time. Ultimately, however, Batman would summon heroic counterparts of his fallen friends to turn the tide and Superman would be overthrown by his mainline self. While he may be the most powerful being on his Earth, that doesn't necessarily apply to parallel worlds.

It doesn't help that he still has the classic Superman weaknesses. On top of his vulnerability to kryptonite and red sun radiation, the Clark is a lot less.... stable then most. His grief over his wife has turned into a single minded obsession, causing him to plan to conquer another Earth just to have her back, and he's developed a massive ego, driving him into a rage the more a situation spirals from his control and prompting him to violently lash out against criticism.

Despite his short reign, Superman is still, far and away, the biggest threat to Earth's people on the planet. The Tyrant of Steel and a chilling reminder of just how far even the best of heroes can fall.

Analysis: Iron Man

Iron Man. The movie that kickstarted a cinematic universe that continues to this day, with over half of them centering around the man in a can himself. Tony Stark, much like his comic book counterpart, was once a ruthless war profiteer and shameless party boy, living it up at the expense of whoever gets killed by his weapons. Until the day he saw the horrors of war for himself, blown up by his own bomb and taken hostage by terrorists. As such, Tony built himself an arc reactor heart to keep himself alive and used it to power his very first suit of armor, returning to the world as Iron Man and putting his blood soaked past behind him.

What Tony didn't realize was that he'd just stepped into a much bigger universe, one full of gods and monsters for him to fight. Threats that humanity couldn't handle, but he could. He'd join a group of remarkable people, the Avengers, to fight the battles mankind could not.

Along the way, he'd invent an entire legion of Iron Man armors. But none compare to the magnificent Mark 85, an upgraded version of the previous Bleeding Edge. This nanotech marvel retains all of the advantages of Stark's previous suits, providing flight, palm mounted repulser blasts, missles, on board tactical AI in the form of FRIDAY and the works. Tony can breathe underwater, survive the vacuum of space, hack into opposing technology, and analyze your fighting style to counter it with onboard AI.

Thanks to the Mark 85's uogrades, the suit is now mobile, capable of forming around Tony and regenerating itself via its supply of nanomachines. Tony can form weapons and shields with this armor, shoot lasers, and absorb energy from Thor to empower himself. Coolant blasts can freeze people solid, Suture Spray can rapidly heal critical wounds, and Magnetic Clamps can restrain foes to nearby surfaces.

With suits like these, Tony was able to fight alongside and against Earth's mightiest heroes and deadliest threats, like the thousand year old thunder god Thor, the God of Mischief Loki, the Incredible Hulk, and Thanos, the Mad Titan. Though, for all his intelligence and skill, he has his shortcomings.

For example, when his attempt to create a suit of armor around the world created its biggest threat to it: Ultron. Or when his attempt to buddy buddy with the US led to the outbreak of a Civil War between suoerheroes. Tony's attempts at making a better world can sometimes create more problems than it solves. Combined with his occasional self destructive bits of alcoholism and the PTSD he gained from the Battle of New York and you have an Avenger with a lot of squishy weaknesses under his armor.

But, for all of his flaws, Tony Stark was still the man who saved the world, giving his life to undo the snap that wiped out half the universe. Deep down, this man of iron had a heart of gold.

Throwdown Breakdown:

A interesting note to make about this fight. When using these versions of Iron Man and Superman specifically, neither really has any experience against an opponent much like the other. Tony has flat out never met Hyperion in the MCU, whereas in Injustice, Lex Luthor was never a supervillain and never fought Superman. The time when they did actually fight, Clark curbstomped immediately became Shazam short circuted Lex's armor. So both are fighting blind here.

Both should be fairly on par in terms of experience, having frequently fought the otherwordly monsters and thousand year old gods common to their universes, but Tony has an advantage in closer quarters due to FRIDAY analyzing Clark's fighting style and automatically adjusting the suit to counter it. Abilities, however, are a bit more complicated....

Tony's suit should be heat resistant enough to make a shield to block Clark's heat vision, but ice breathe isn't so easy to counter. Supes can freeze people who can fly through the cold of space unaffected, something none of Tony's armors have resisted. Not only could Clark use the ice to shatter Tony's suit, he could also use it to keep him from repairing it, leaving Tony a vulnerable squishy human underneath. While Tony also has freeze tech, the most he's ever done with it is freeza a hole in a spaceship and that wasn't even in combat.

Though, for what it's worth, ice breath generally requires Clark to get somewhat close, which Tony could potentially counter by keeping his distance. The problem on that front being that MCU Tony is often very quick to fly in close and throw hands and while FRIDAY can provide tactical analysis, her ability to analyze an alien being like Superman is suspect. FRIDAY certainly never chimed in with tactical data on Thanos during the fight and against beings like Thor, Tony had to puzzle out their abilities himself. FRIDAY isn't so advanced that he can magically know things because of it. Whereas Clark can use his x-ray vision and see that Tony is a regular human under that suit.

Superman meanwhile is very quick to abuse his powers in ruthless ways. Like how against Shazam, he froze Billy's mouth shut and lasered his brains out. Iron Man absolutely has the kit to win here if he knows what he's getting into and if both had prior knowledge of each other, I could see this going much differently.

Here's how this fight would roughly play out. Superman fires heat vision. Tony blocks with his shield, then dodges around to charge in for the melee. Both characters trade blows with each other, throwing each other around, trading repulser blasts with eye lasers. As Tony's AI adapts to Clark's fighting style and he starts landing stabs, Clark breaks out the freeze breath. Seeing Iron Man's armor regenerate after shattering it, he freezes it mid process to trap Tony.

Then he does this:

It looks like Tony's going to need an Avenger.

This Throwdown's Winner...

Superman!

[esonetwork]

The Earth Station DCU Episode 385 – The Hungry Snake

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/the-earth-station-dcu-episode-385-the-hungry-snake/

The Earth Station DCU Episode 385 – The Hungry Snake

This Week on Earth Station DCU! Drew Leiter and Cletus Jacobs review The Case of the Hungry Snake. Task Force X hunts down Dreamer as she defends Parthas in Suicide Squad: Dream Team #3. Supergirl and Superboy escape their prison aboard Brainiac’s ship, while Superman and Lobo get closer to finding Brainiac. Hal Jordan and the Resistance Lanterns go before the United Planets council with evidence that Lord Premiere Thaaros is blowing up power batteries and threatening systems to join in Green Lantern #11. The Origin of the Darkstar of Fenn is revealed in Green Lantern: War Journal #9. Nightwing has his suspicions about Raven, while Amanda Waller releases a new weapon against the team in Titans #11. Diana survives imprisonment with her imaginary version of Steve and a female rat as her companions in Wonder Woman #9. All this plus, DC News, Shout Outs, and much, much more!

————————

Table of Contents

0:00:00 Show Open

0:01:02 DC News

0:08:46 Suicide Squad: Dream Team #3

0:14:25 Action Comics #1065

0:18:58 Green Lantern #11

0:22:04 Green Lantern: War Journal #9

0:26:32 Titans #11

0:32:56 Wonder Woman #9

0:43:03 Dead Boy Detectives S1 Ep8 – The Case of the Hungry Snake

0:58:24 Show Close

Links

Suicide Squad: Dream Team #3

Action Comics #1065

Green Lantern #11

Green Lantern: War Journal #9

Titans #11

Wonder Woman #9

Action Comics #267 (Cletus’s Read More Comics Pick)

Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #63 (Cletus’s Read More Comics Pick)

Earth Station DCU Website

The ESO Network

If you would like to leave feedback, comment on the show, or would like us to give you a shout out, please call the ESDCU feedback line at (317) 455-8411 or feel free to email us @ earthstationdcu@gmail.com

[anxiousnerdwritings]

What are some of the DC or marvel characters do you wanna write more about?

These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head but there are plenty of others I would love to eventually get to.

DC Characters

Midnighter/Lucas Trent

Apollo/Andrew Pulaski

Blue Beetle/Ted Kord

Booster Gold/Michael Carter

Inertia/Thaddeus Thawne

Black Canary/Dinah Lance

Talia al Ghul

Ra’s al Ghul

Punchline/Alexis Kaye

Wally West

Bart Allen

Starfire/Kory Anders

Blackfire

Superboy-Prime

Lady Shiva

Cheshire

Power Girl/Karen Starr

Darkseid

Brainiac

Two-Face/Harvey Dent

Captain Cold/Leonard Snart

Sinestro

Bane

Green Lantern/Guy Gardner

Green Lantern/Kyle Rayner

Green Lantern/Jessica Cruz

Green Lantern/Simon Baz

Shazam/Billy Bateson

Marvel Characters

Sentry/Robert Reynolds

Ghost Rider/Johnny Blaze

Ghost Rider/Robbie Reyes

Knull

Emma Frost

Cyclops/Scott Summers

Black Cat/Felicia Hardy

Elektra Natchios

Black Bolt

Medusa/Medusalith Amaquelin

Franklin Richards

Legion/David Haller

Any of the Symbiotes

Starfox/Eros

Silver Surfer/Norrin Radd

Matthew Malloy

Daredevil/Mathew Murdock

Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde

Rogue/Anna-Marie

Gambit/Remy LeBeau

Silk/Cindy Moon

X-23/Laura Kinney

Havok/Alex Summers

Polaris/Lorna Dane

Vulcan/Gabriel Summers

Angel/Warren Worthington III

Iceman/Bobby Drake

Dazzler/Alison Blaire

Colossus/Piotr Rasputin

Magic/Illyana Rasputina

Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner

Madelyne Pryor

Mister Sinister/Nathaniel Essex

X-Man/Nate Grey

Daken/Akihiro

Psylocke/Betsy Braddock

[superman86to99]

Adventures of Superman #511 (April 1994)

Superman returns to Metropolis after the events of "Bizarro's World" and finds that... there's no Metropolis. It's completely gone. Did someone pull a Coast City on it? Is Brainiac back to his Pre-Crisis city-stealing ways? Superman flies down to take a closer look at the nothignness, only for the buildings to suddenly re-appear right in front of him, making him clumsily crash into one. And right in front of some hot ‘90s babes, too. How embarrassing.

Turns out Metropolis wasn't gone: Superman's powers are so out of control (as seen in recent months) that he didn't realize his X-Ray vision was making him see through the entire city. Superman tries to rescue the people falling off that building with the old "air cushion" trick, but he ends up creating a mini-tornado and injures more people. When Maggie Sawyer and the Special Crimes Unit show up to find out who's been going around destroying buildings and injuring pedestrians, Superman volunteers to be arrested for everyone’s safety, but Maggie is like "eh, let's just pretend this didn't happen... this time."

She does encourage Superman to go get his condition checked out by a specialist ASAP (which, come to think of it, he should have done weeks ago). Superman goes to Professor Hamilton, who determines that his internal solar battery has gone out of whack and is making him absorb too much energy after being exposed to some sort of kryptonite-like substance. And when was the last time Superman encountered kryptonite? At the end of "Reign of the Supermen," when a big blast of it passed through the Eradicator first and instantly gave Superman his powers back. "A bit of foreshadowing," as the Professor says.

According to Hamilton, Superman's powers will keep increasing until his body can't contain them anymore and, I guess, explode. The Professor does suggest a possible solution: taking Superman's excess energy and giving it to those sick Underworld clones who have been dying off all over Metropolis (as part of that OTHER long-ass storyline we've been seeing recently). Superman likes the idea but decides that a massive government agency would be better equipped to make it happen than some ex-con in a run down building (sorry, Hambone), so he flies over to Project Cadmus to tell them about it.

Like two minutes after Superman arrives at Cadmus, the place is attacked by some Underworlders who believe Cadmus created the illness that's killing them. Superman and the Guardian team up to stop the clones, but it isn't a terribly long fight, since the Underworlders are dropping off like flies. Very big flies.

Meanwhile, we find out that LexCorp is currently being attacked by OTHER clones and Lex Luthor Jr. is trapped inside. Lex sends a televised message blaming Cadmus for the attack and promising to "deal" with them "once and for all." In other words: WAR. TO BE CONTINUED!

Plotline-Watch:

Of course, those clones attacking LexCorp weren't sent by Cadmus, they were sent by the mad scientist living UNDER Cadmus, Dabney Donovan. Earlier in the issue, Dabney snooped into a heated Zoom call between Lex Jr. and Cadmus' Director Westfield where the latter refused to join forces to cure the Clone Plague, because he thinks Lex would just steal their tech. Lex indignantly accuses Westfield of putting lives at stake (meaning HIS life specifically, since he secretly lives in a clone body). Dabney worries that Lex might attack Cadmus and thus endanger his own operation, so he... attacks Lex and makes it look like it was Cadmus? They don't call him "mad" for nothing.

Westfield's comment about Kryptonian DNA is obviously a reference to Cadmus' troubles attempting to clone Superman after his death, which resulted in them giving up and creating Superboy. Incidentally, Superman asks Guardian how Superboy is doing, given the whole “clones dying” thing (the Newsboy Legion kids are in pretty bad shape), and Guardian just says he's "been through a lot lately." In other words: buy his solo series if you want to know if he's dying too, kids!

Back to Lex, he instructs Dr. Happersen (still wearing bandages over his head after Bizarro burned him) to contact the Underworlders, presumably with nefarious purposes. In the same scene, we learn that Lex has a virus in LexCorp computers that alerts him to any mention of his name. And guess who happens to be using a LexCorp computer to write an article about how Lex murdered his personal trainer?

We've been following Lois Lane's investigation into the Sasha Green murder for a while, but I'm a little confused about the "father" part above. Does that mean Lois knows Lex Jr. is Lex Sr.? When did she find out? Did she put two and two together after learning clones are getting sick and seeing Lex all frail last issue?

Don Sparrow points out: "As far as I know, this issue's billboard is the first appearance of Whitty Banter, the David Letterman of the DCU. It's a confusing look, though, as he seems to be a blonde, musclebound Billy Batson lookalike, with John Lennon glasses, so apart from having a talk show, he doesn’t greatly resemble any real world hosts. (A quick look into it indicates Banter’s first in-person appearance is a few years later, in Superman #117. He also appears in Man of Steel #67, where the Letterman connection is made more explicit, though Banter’s face doesn’t appear in either issue.)” As we pointed out on Twitter, there was also a reference to Whitty in the letters page for Adventures #511, in answer to a letter praising his real life counterpart, colorist Glenn Whitmore.

Patreon-Watch:

This post was sneak peek’d at patreon.com/superman86to99 earlier this month! Shout out to patrons Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, and Bol; we are the Dabney Donovans leeching off of your Cadmus. We’ve been slacking on the exclusive Patreon material lately (other than the sneak peeks) but we hope to have more to show you in the next year, including more Elseworlds reviews and out-of-continuity stuff.

But right now: more Don Sparrow, under the jump!

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow​):

We start with the cover, and it’s a very good one, with a grim Superman and Guardian ready for battle.  Perhaps a little generic, and lacking in background, but it’s just a great drawing of the protectors of Metropolis, even if it doesn’t give much of a hint to the actual story.  Inside the book we are greeted almost immediately by the real reason people check in on this blog each and every week: wall to wall ass.  Superman crashes through a skyscraper Zack Snyder style while a diverse group of sunbathers look on.  This is fairly racy for a code book from 1994, so it’s worth a mention.

I love Barry Kitson’s art (even if the Jim Lee-style hatching is a bit overpowering at this time) so it’s a challenge to narrow down outstanding panels, because it’s all pretty great.  But the drawing of Maggie Sawyer in full tactical gear is a highlight, as her boots, body suit, and armour all appear to have a different surface texture.  Great stuff.  There is lots of laboratory scenes in this issue, from Professor Hamilton’s studio apartment to Project Cadmus, and all the technical equipment and wires look appropriately high-tech.

As the only action scene (Superman and Guardian battle a dying and apparently nameless Underworlder) unfolds, the image of Guardian shielding himself from an energy blast is well drawn and well coloured.

That scene is as close to we get to excitement in this story, which was definitely one of the less eventful issues I can remember.  It moves the ongoing “B” stories (Superman is overpowered, Lois is investigating Sasha Green, the clones are all dying) without having much of an “A” story.  Still there’s always forward motion in this era, setting up for the next big thing.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

The idea that Lex is monitoring Lois Lane, and is in turn being monitored  by Dabney Donovan is a trippy one, especially if we add in the layer that we, as readers are monitoring them all.  One small detail I’d like to highlight here is that Dabney Donovan refers to himself while he  monologues, which is quite helpful to new readers, who might be  thinking, “who is this guy, and why isn’t he fighting a blue hedgehog?”

Speaking of DCU analogues, apparently one of their daytime dramas is called Secret Hospital which sounds a lot more exclusive than our General Hospital.

I do love that for all his many sins, Lex II is about to be brought down by journalism, rather than superheroic fisticuffs.

The attacking Underworlder (if he got named, I missed it) seems like a riff on the Incredible Hulk, referring to the Cadmus agents he’s fighting as “puny soldiers”.

Slightly amusing to me that the Underworlder attacker refers to Newsboys and Superboy as “dogs on a leash”, when Cadmus once had their own strike team flat out called the Bloodhounds (who are currently chilling with Doctor Stratos in the “never seen again” lounge). [Max: Actually, someone let us know recently that Doctor Stratos DID appear again in a Roger Stern Superman novel in the 2000s, to my shock... What if the Bloodhounds also have a novel we never learned of? Or an entire YA book series? It’s possible.]

[camerawhoisalsocam]

I just finished the crossover. Spoilers. This is a half baked rant filled review from both a RWBY critic and a life long DC fan.

This animation was wonky even for rwby, there wasnt any fights choreography that stuck out to me and I just finished watching this like an hour ago. Like it was so boring my mind was just not intaking anything that could stand out. Even V5 and V9 had some good fights, and both of those volumes got huge budgets cuts because of some other project being released at the time (genlock and this crossover)

The dialogue was just such a mess. And the voice acting oy vey this was rough. Rwby usually has great VA work from the main's at RT, the funimation crew, and a boat load of others. This just felt so off, like the cast was just asleep. Did the voice director just give up like a minute in?

This story was such a mess too! I know combining 2 seperate universes is always tough I wont lie, but converting DC characters with too many varying powers, Supermans multiple powers, wonder womans godly gear, Batmans Bat-everything, Flash' speed force, Cyborgs various tech, Jess' rings many capabilities, and Vixen's animal powered necklace, its all too much to convert to 4 set abilities. Semblance, Dust, Faunus additions, and Rwbys "its also a gun" weaponry isn't enough to fit what I listed off above. Just send the rwby characters to the DC universe.

And side note, just use the teen titans. No power scaling argument needed, their strong but not stronger than the league and are still stronger than the RWBY verse. Imagine Ren and any Robin understanding one another about being orphans, or any Robin and Weiss getting some development about their rich dads. Blake and Damian can get along over their troubled past, or even Starfire and Blake since their the minorities (Tamaranian and faunus) of their teams, or Raven and Blake being goth baddies! Superboy and Yang, anger issues, Yang and Cyborg, learning to live with disabilities. Imagine the chaos of Nora and Wally west and Beastboy. Hell you could even substitute the Jessica plot with Raven struggling with her powers. Theres so much more potential here!

And jesus they did not handle the rwby characters any better. They were all so full of themselves and acting high and mighty comared to the experienced hero's. I'd argue that its cuz the league isnt all there and cant remember everything. But RWBYJNR dont remember anything either! Their all in the same boat so why are rwby treating like the league hasnt fought worse threats, as mentioned Brainiac(an alien with 12th level intellect) and Vandall Savage (an immortal from the caveman times) and while im at it why is a guy thats running a breaking and very obvious simulation a such a big deal anyway?

Shipping, oh damn right im going here. I dont wanna see it, No Superman x Ruby, no Batman x Weiss, no Wonder Woman x Blake x Yang, no Jessica x Jaune, no Cyborg x Nora x Ren. NO! NONONONO we arent doing this. Did we not learn how problematic Starco was? Did RT not learn from Ryan Haywood that grown adults and teenagers shouldn't go together? Seriously im starting to think RT has a problem, I know thats an understatement but at this point im calling it a prediction.

Alright time to speed run these individual character issues

•Batman's arc on staying on Remnant was dumb. Gotham is his soul purpose, and he doesn't need powers. He has never needed them, he's always been able to overcome and keep up with these gods with his wit, skill, and tech.

•Yeah Weiss was just Batman's sidekick. She felt so disconnected from the plot I thought I was looking at V4-5 Blake. Plus why was she so persistent on keeping Batman in Remnant? Was her daddy kink that bad, is she just into older men who are trapped as teenagers? Gross.

•Superman and Ruby's arcs were weak. Ruby leader arc was just so lame, like her significant leader moment was just "sneak jessica and jaune away for a sneak attack" jesus that was lame. And Superman didn't have an arc really, his semblance unlocking, leadership, and blame for getting trapped was all super undercooked.

•The Wonderwoman, Yang, and Blake dynamic was so forgettable. Like I genuinely couldn't remember that arc, was it like a warrior thing right? And were they like... flirting? Really? NEXT!

•Oh god go back to the other one! Not the Ren x Nora x Cyborg love corner, couldnt they have done something else with these guys? This is just sad. Shame on you RT

•Oh yay, Jaune mourns over Pyrrha again. This is after V6 right, so did we have to focus on Pyrrha being desd again? Like come on let her rest, even DBZ doesn't bring up Krillin death as much. I do admit, Jaune helping Jess out was nice, their interactions were sweet.

•I did like Jess' anxiety arc, I think it was handled very tastefully and was a great way to write her character. She's too fucking adorable, her VA was one of the good one's. This actually gave her some great spotlight that we dont see much of besides DC superhero girls

•And I actually liked Vixen, design was fine and the voice was good, even if her power was heavily underutilized. But she was cool

•Barry what did they do to you? Oh Barry no! Why did they flash and make him so... nothing!? He looks like Bart and Wally mixed together. And he's the twist villian? Why didn't the technology based supervillian yake over the technology based hero!? Barry was so boring, I knew he was gonna be a side character but bro why make him the boring twist villian?

•Killg%re. Oh fuck if im not using the percentage thing im not censoring it this crossover makes me too angry to follow the rules. So boring. He calls himself so brilliant and smarter than Brainiac and Vandall savage yet his simulation was so easy to pick apart cuz the grimm, their freinds and family, their timezones, and even their own memories are so muddled anybody can pick apart this is a dream! His plan was so bad, stick the league in another dimension? Good so far. In a simulation, okay it can work. Turn them into teens so their hormones kick in? No, moronic, i hate it, I hate this! And look, out of every villian, why Killgore? The idea of a crossover is to grab your big guns and use their names to gather up your audience. If you wanted a lesser known villian who can alter reality go with BatMite, Mister Mxyzptlk, reverse flash, the Legion of Doom, or jesus anybody? Not somebody so forgettable that even KGBeast is more recognized than him.

Well atleast it's over... wait, part one?

NnnnoooOOOOOO-

[somewherefornow]

BRAINIAC FIVE/QUERL DOX + BLUSHING in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (1984)

[romancemedia]

Happy Valentine’s Day - DC Couples

[donnatroyprincessofthemyscira]

Art Edit Credit to Roberto Coltro

[gothikaxenon]

How I would recast the Total Drama characters as DC Comic characters

Gwen - Raven

Trent - Jericho

Geoff - Aquaman

Bridgette - Mera

Lindsay - Starfire

Heather - Blackfire

Leshawna - Bumblebee

Courtney - Star Sapphire

Duncan - Red X

Izzy - Poison Ivy

Cody - Beastboy

Noah - Brainiac 5

Ezekiel - Larfleeze

Dawn - Enchantress

Dakota - Supergirl

Mike/Mal - Two-Face

Anne Maria - Isis

Scarlett - Lena Luthor

Amy - Killer Frost

Shawn - Deadman

Sugar - Giganta

Sky - Wonder Girl

Jen - Zatanna

Tom - Lightray

Brody - Lagoon Boy

Crimson - Nightshade

Valentina “MacArthur” - Big Barda

Carrie - Miss Martian

Devin - Superboy

Dwayne Jr. - Kid Flash

Lauren “Scary Girl” - Harley Quinn

Mary Kate “MK” - Livewire

Julia - Golden Glider

Hezekias “Zee” - Plastic Man

Damien - Mister Terrific

Axel - Ravager