#and thus the DCU is born!

[sleepy-writes-stuff]

DP X DC PROMPT #26

(I'm feeling angsty today.)

(#) = Notes at the end of post

(*) = Just me building off of other ideas.

✦

Going Supernova

The GIW have discovered his identity, and they don't waste time on using this knowledge to their advantage. They spent the last six months creating a weapon that not only hurts ghosts but absolutely obliterates them down to their very cores. After testing it for so long on minor ghosts and then discovering the local ghostly menace's secret, they have the bright idea to make an example out of Danny.

They ambush him as he's fighting the invading ghost of the day. Their first shot misses and hits the ghost they're fighting. As soon as the shot lands, the ghost freezes in place with a look of dread and horror.

They look up at Danny with tears in their eyes and has only a few precious seconds to say, "Run," before their skin cracks and they shatter, the miniscule shards evaporating into nothingness.

Danny is petrified and grief-stricken over what he just witnessed that he doesn't have the time to even twitch before the GIW lock their sights back onto him and shoot him in the back.

Agony consumes him. His chest burns, and his ribs rattle with the effort it takes for him to breathe through the pain. The civilians who were still on the scene gasped in horror as they watched their local hero's chest start to crack and glow from within.

What the GIW didn't know was that Danny had just recently elevated to Ancient status due to helping Clockwork with the timestream. That and with his status as a halfa, what they did will end in nothing but disaster. (1)

Danny spots his parents, sister, and friends in the crowd. His parents watched in awe and excitement while his Jazz, Sam, and Tucker looked at him with horror-stricken disbelief. Knowing what's to come and not having enough time to explain, he gives them a wobbly smile.

"I'm so sorry."

He whips around and rockets straight up into the sky. He breaks through the atmosphere in a matter of seconds and continues to fly at breakneck speed away from the little green-blue planet he calls home. He has to get away. He can't destabilize so close to them. He has to go even further.

His form is steadily breaking off into pieces as his human and ghost half fight and fail to keep him together. He can feel his human half dying and his ghost half barely holding on by a thread. He can't stop, though. If he stops here, the Earth will be destroyed from the backlash.

He had no worry for himself. After all, stars die all the time. That doesn't mean that's the end for them. They just take on a new form or even help breathe new planets and galaxies into life.

'A star's death is not the end!' He comforts himself.

He only makes it a few light-years further before his energy fades out to nothing, and he slows to a halt. It's only then that Danny starts to panic alone in the vacuum of space. The furthest he's even been from home and the comfort of his friends and family.

"No. No, no, no, no." He repeats over and over. "Not far enough. Not far enough! I'm still too close!!" (2)

His stuttering heart rabbits inside his chest along with his crumbling core. He hugs himself tight with the false hope that maybe that would stop himself from falling apart. He cries for his family, his friends, his planet. His life and lives he's about to take through no fault of his own.

Because for a star to give life, they must first destroy. (3)

"I'm sorry. I-I'm so sorry! Please!"

He sobs into his hands as the light of his core pulses one final time.

"Please." He whispers brokenly.

His core shatters, and he screams for the entire cosmos to hear. His form expands with immeasurable force and shakes the very foundations of creation. His desperate attempt to spare the Earth from his self-destruction was in vain as the waves of his shattered core ravaged the solar system and destroyed everything within its path.

The countless people and other creatures on Earth didn't even have time to blink before they were completely eradicated. Quick and painless but nonetheless gone.

It took centuries for everything to settle again.

It wasn't until countless millennium passed that the solar system began to take shape again. However, everything was reshaped and put back together as though with a child's memory of what it used to be from so long ago. Some things were bound to be different, like how Mars gained its own population of intelligent humanoid creatures. How Earth's own population started to develop extraordinary abilities and magic was able to be used more freely outside of supernatural species.

Soon, there were heroes popping up all over the universe of all shapes, sizes, and species. Some people were even reborn. They started remembering a life that, as far as they knew, never actually existed. How could it? None of the people they were before showed up in any records. There were records, of course. They just, unfortunately, no longer existed.

No one knew why, either. At least not until a magic user stumbled upon a tome belonging to what they knew as the Underworld. It told the story of a young boy who died too young and was destroyed from what he became afterward. How his destruction also destroyed the world despite the boy's efforts to save it.

This story was shared with the masses of people experiencing these memories of other lives, including the heroes who took up the mantle of keeping the Earth and other corners of the galaxy safe. They mourned the loss of a life so young, so bright and full of potential. They hoped that wherever the child ended up, that they were at peace.

Little did they know, the child was part of the universe itself, his very being woven into the fabric that makes up the night sky and everything that lays beyond. They can't see or hear him, but that precious child--the Ancient of Space--laid curled around the Milky Way itself with Earth cradled gently in his trembling hands.

✦

(1) Because of his status as the new Ancient of Space and the fact that he is half human/alive is the reason his destabilization took longer than the ghost he was previously fighting. An Ancient has immense power of the aspect of reality they control, and his human half was desperately trying to keep him alive. He can't live without his ghost half, though. It was also the power of his Ancient status that made his destabilization so explosive and damaging. However, him being a halfa is also what saved his existence in the end and allows him to still continue to be the Ancient of Space, as Space itself is always in a state of dying and rebirth. It just took several thousands of years to pull himself back into a semblance of what he previously was, but obviously irrevocably changed.

(2) According to scientists a supernova would have to be within 30-50 light-years to trigger a mass extinction on Earth. To be actually completely safe from one, however, it'd have to be 160 or more light-years away. Danny didn't even make it to 20 light-years before his core self-destructed, which is why he was panicking.

(3) As I'm sure most of you know, supernovae are essential to creating life, but that life is preceded by the death of said star.

(*) I haven't really thought of who would be reborn into which character. I originally thought of Jack Fenton being reborn as Bruce Wayne, but Bruce only disguises himself as a himbo while Jack actually is one. The only reason I thought it would work out it because 1) Jack's paranoia about ghosts and translating into Bruce's own paranoia 2) him regaining his past memories would explain his propensity to collect black-haired, blue eyed children because of his loss of Danny and 3) him and his relationship with Jason after he came back as Red Hood.

Other than that, I can't think of who any of the other characters might be. You can decide!

[the-deadrobin]

For @wait-whos-batman DCU Valentine's Day 2024!

Happy Valentines Day!♥️

Here's a little fanfiction about Jason and Roy going through the trials of the Hanahaki disease with Greek Mythology parallels.

Summary:

Apollo lost his lover; and where the body of Hyacinthus lay clutched between the arms of the weeping God, a flower bloomed. Thus Hanahaki was born, for when love is believed to be unrequited–you'd wither away.

Just as Hyacinthus once did for Apollo.

Just as Jason Todd does for Roy Harper.

TW: Blood, Graphic Imagery, Vomit (and things related to that)

[teeelsie-posts]

Fanfic Writers' Director's Cut: Winter Quarters

 @drgrlfriend asked for Director’s Cut commentary about Winter Quarters, so here you go!

Ages and ages ago, I stumbled on a short one-shot C/C fic, Feathered Friends. by Perpetual Motion. It’s an MCU/DC crossover that introduces Dick Grayson as an old friend of Dick’s from the circus days.  Honestly, I didn’t think much of it at the time because I wasn’t into DC at all then, but it was C/C and by an author who had written other things I’d liked.  I liked the fic, though, and always sort of remembered it vaguely.  Some years later, I was needing a distraction from life (for reasons) when a writer I admire and follow cast about looking for a beta for a 60k Jay/Dick fic. For those of you who might not be aware, Jay/Dick is a significant pairing in the DCU (the tag has the most fic in the DCU and Batman fandoms ao3). Anyway, I spent a couple months with that fic and that got me interested in more Dick Grayson fic, in particular. And then one day, it hit me like a bolt of lightning: Dick and Clint both grew up in the circus and there’s so much potential there for crossover fic!  I checked out the tag and there were only 8 fic with the pairing. Eight! A travesty! From there, I just started thinking about it, a lot. Like, really a lot. 

I toyed with them at the same circus, but their respective circuses are so well entrenched in canon that I decided I didn’t want to do that.  And for reasons I won’t get into, I was aware that circuses used to winter over in Florida, and I thought, oh, wow, wouldn’t that be great fodder for angst, to have them coming in and out of each others’ lives every year, have their relationship grow, but then have to LEAVE each other year after year.  Mmm, yummy angst! 🤤 Thus Winter Quarters was born!

Mmm, what else… well, I think Clint and Dick work well together for the same reason that Clint and Phil work together: it’s the yin and yang.  While they both grew up in the circus, Dick’s early life was vastly different from Clint’s. His family was loving and stable and his parents were kind and supportive and encouraging. Just the opposite of Clint’s.  I enjoyed writing Dick’s slow realization that Clint’s life was nothing like his own.  Dick’s life wasn’t sheltered, exactly (I mean, he did grow up in a traveling circus), but because his parents protected him, he never really faced head-on the kind of horror and trauma that Clint experienced regularly. Because he couldn’t recognize it for what it was, it takes him a long time to understand what’s going on with Clint.

And if Clint had anything to say about it, he never would have learned about it.  I see them both as very protective of the other (which is why they both make excellent super heroes), with Dick, once he learns what Clint’s going through, he wants to save him from it. Whereas Clint sees Dick as this sort of, unmarred shining star, doesn’t ever want to expose Dick to the darkness in his life—from Clint’s perspective, he’s afraid he’s going to…sully Dick, and he doesn’t want to do that.

In truth, I wasn’t super well informed about Dick Grayson when I started writing this.  I had to sheepishly ask a few people on tumblr if they could give me, like, Dick’s baseline personality traits. Those I asked were very kind and gave me enough to go on and pointed me toward a few essential Robin/Nightwing comics so I could get my start.  One of them said something about Dick and his ‘dad jokes’ which is the entire reason I inserted all those dumb jokes in there.  I spent a stupid amount of time googling ‘dad jokes’ and puns to try to find a handful that would fit into the story line. In the end though, I kind of liked how they worked into the narrative.

The hardest thing about this fic for me, I think, was writing with a young boy’s voice. I never was one, I never had bothers, and my kids are girls, so I was pretty insecure about how authentic they sounded. I still am, if I’m honest. But I suppose there’s a universalness to the teenage experience, regardless of what your gender is, so hopefully I wasn’t too far off the mark.

In all honesty, I didn’t think anyone would be interested in this crossover—it genuinely was one of those situations when they say you have to write for yourself and not other people—so the response the fic has gotten has 100% blown me away. But it makes me super happy and I hope it will inspire more people to write some Clint/Dick!  In the meantime, I continue to think about Part 2 on a daily basis and I’ll get there eventually, if for no other reason then that I have already written the denouement and I really like it so I want to write everything that leads up to it so I can post it! 😅

Thanks for the ask, drgrlfriend!

Fanfic Writers' Director's Cut ask game.

[ofgravcyards]

❝ I’m old . very old . so I invite you to contemplate how insignificant I find you  ❞

         𝑐𝘩𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟⧸𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑒 :  athenadora  »   vampire   »   nina dobrev  .

❛❛   aesthetic.  ❜❜   ⸻   ◜   ❏  . ⸻  sinful  lips   whispering  the   most   wonderful   horrible  things   and  bloody   touches , they  say  the  loveliest   angel  makes  the  cruelest   demons ,  this   is   simply  bloodsport  for  a   being  like   you , “ she’ll  eat  you  alive “ . ⸻

🇦​🇵​🇵​🇱​🇮​🇨​🇦​🇹​🇮​🇴​🇳 »

 * ⠀ ✞ ⠀ nina dobrev   .   cis woman   .   she/her   .   |   *   tonight is the night i die   by   palaye royale   *   |   athenadora   was   just   seen   lurking   around  the  docks near  the  woods    ,   wonder   what   they’re   up   to   ?   they’re   a(n)   thirty3 / two thousand   year   old   vampire   that   has   been   in   forks   for   a few days   because   caius brought her along   . their   allegiance   lies   with   the volturi / caius   &   given   their   +   clever & - unbothered  personality   ,   it’s   no   wonder   they   feel   irritated   towards   the   possibility   of   a   cure   &   hopes   the   existence   is   a lie  .

🇧​🇦​🇸​🇮​🇨​🇸 »

full name :  athenadora .

age : 33 / 2000+.

date of birth :  unknown.

occupation : socialite / caius' wife .

species : vampire .

language(s) spoken : universal .

hair color : brunette .

eye color : red .

notable scars : the bites she has when turned .

🇮​🇳​🇹​🇪​🇷​🇮​🇴​🇷​ »

positive : clever  ,  independent .

negative : unbothered  ,  merciless .

moral alignment : chaotic .

hogwarts house : slytherin.

deadly sin : lust + wrath .

abilities : zookinesis  |  user can manipulate, communicate, tame, control, understand all that form the biological kingdom Animalia. They can command, speak/understand etc., with all forms of animal life .  

character inspo : faith ( btvs )  ,  margo hanson ( the magicians )  , lucrecia montesinos hendrich ( elite )  ,  leticia 'letty' ortiz ( the fast and the furious ) , lagertha ( vikings ) , selena kyle ( dcu )

🇫​🇦​🇻​🇴​🇷​🇮​🇹​🇪​🇸​ »

book : history books .

movie :  doesn't watch tv or movies .

food : blood .

flower : none .

season : the fall / autumn .

🇫​🇦​🇲​🇮​🇱​🇾​​ »

mate / significant other :  caius.

🇧​​🇮🇴​​ »

—  athenadora doesn’t remember her human life. Only thing that sticks out to her was that she was born and raised as a shield maiden / warrior . so she knows how to hold her own in battle if needed to. Being born and raised a warrior if she has to kill she will kill and will do so without mercy. she is vicious to those whom she deems enemies and has no problem in form of torture.

—  she’s a woman of considerable courage and resolution with a fierce determination and isn’t afraid to speak her own mind and stand up for what she believes in. having no memories of her human life, all she knows was Caius being there when she had turned and began travelling together as nomadic couple before they formed the Volturi with Aro and Marcus .

—  Her powers are not known within the coven, only caius knows. she remains totally loyal to Caius and the two depend on each . despite this she does love her new found family . Many seeing her as complete opposite of caius considering when you first meet her she is kind. Beauty and the beast is what most say, yet beauty can be just as cruel as the beast when provoked . so , she can be sweet but she will sweetly smile at you while killing you and without thinking about it twice if you cross her or her husband or family

—  hearing about the cure irritated her to no ends when people flocked about for it. she believes something like that should be destroyed and thus hopes is a lie . she came to forks with caius and the rest .

[aboutzatanna]

Where was Zee born/raised? I know she lives in San Francisco but the wiki says she was born in NY, but also close to Arkham (isnt that in Gotham, though?) and that the Zatara mansion is in Gotham county too (Shadowcrest). That's so confusing! lol

Zatanna was born in NYC. Pretty much all of her childhood flashbacks indicate that she grew up on the road traveling from one place to the next with her father.

Her main base is Shadowcrest mansion. The place is magic so naturally it doesn't stay in the same spot and there is also the fact that Zee can just teleport there with her powers.

Besides that, her family owns a home in NYC where she was born (which was also destroyed the same issue it was introduced in) and her father owns a home in Gotham City as well. Most of the time, Zee is shown either staying in Shadowcrest mansion or various hotels/apartments ranging from ritzy glamorous hotels or really run down motels (the latter is more common in Nu52 era). I guess it depends on how much she makes each year as a performer.

Zatanna being born in NYC and "near Akham Asylum" was established in 'Justice League of America' #162 (cover date 1978):

Arkham Asylum was introduced in Batman #258 (1974).

Could the writer, Gerry Conway, have mixed up Gotham and New York?

Unlikely, since Gotham is mentioned in the issues prior to this one and the one that followed and it's treated as a separate place.

Thus, the only conclusion is that the NYC of the DCU also has an Arkham Asylum totally separate from the Arkham in Gotham. This has never been brought up again.

It is possible that the writer, Gerry Conway, intended for Zatanna to be born in Gotham but later changed it to NYC but kept the Arkham reference. He is on Tumblr, you could ask him but I doubt he remembers the details of a story he wrote 40 years ago.

I should note that Arkham itself is also a reference to HP Lovecraft so the Asylum always had supernatural connotations.

Either way, at the end of the day, Zatanna was born in NY, grew up on the road and currently lives in San Francisco.

[lands-of-fantasy]

DCU Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters

After a private press event on Monday, January 30, 2023, Co-Chairmen and CEOs of DC Studios James Gunn and Peter Safran announced to the public on January 31st the first batch of projects planned for DC Universe’s first chapter, titled “Gods and Monsters”. 

Collider shares Gunn and Safran’s plan maps out 2 chapters in this universe, which will take 8 to 10 years to be told, leaving space for other stories in the future.

5 films and 5 HBO Max series (one of them animated) were disclosed:

CREATURE COMMANDOS Animated Series

7 episodes written by Gunn. Amanda Waller creates a black-ops team out of monstrous prisoners.

L-R: Rick Flag Sr. (who is going to appear in other projects too), Nina Mazursky, Doctor Phosphorus (Batman villain), Eric Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein (the lead), G.I. Robot and Weasel.

WALLER Series

Starring Viola Davis, this series features Team Peacemaker, taking place between season 1 and the future season 2.

SUPERMAN: LEGACY Film

The proper launch of the DCU. Written by Gunn, will focus on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing - It won’t be an origin story. Safran describes Superman as “kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old fashioned”. On theaters on July 11, 2025. 

Superman’s actor has not been cast yet.

LANTERNS Series

Starring Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart. A True Detective-type mystery on Earth investigated by the duo, who find an ancient horror that leads into the overall story arc of the DCU. 

THE AUTHORITY Film

DC’s WildStorm team who think the ends justify the means. Gunn explains “They are basically good-intentioned, but they think that the world is completely broken and the only way to fix it is to take things into their own hands, whether that means killing people, destroying heads of state, changing governments—basically, whatever they want to do to make the world better. We’ll see how that journey goes for them. There are morally gray characters (in our DCU), of which these are.”

PARADISE LOST Series

Set in Themyscira or Paraside Island, home of the Amazons and birthplace of Wonder Woman. The series focuses on the genesis and political intrigue of this society of women. Takes place before Diana is born.

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD Film

The DCU will introduce its Batman and his son Damian Wayne, Robin, who Bruce didn’t know existed for the first eight to ten years of his life, and who was raised as an assassin. Inspired by Grant Morrison's comics. 

DCU’s Batman has not been cast yet. Matt Reeves’ The Batman - Part II, starring Robert Pattinson, will hit theaters on October 3, 2025, but outside of the DCU continuity, under the “DC Elsewords” seal. Similarly, Joker: Folie à Deux will also continue to be its own separate Elsewords project.

BOOSTER GOLD Series

As put by Safran: “A loser from the future who uses his basic future technology to come back to today to pretend to be a superhero”. 

SUPERGIRL: WOMAN OF TOMORROW Film

A science fiction adventure based on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s comic. 

Gunn explains that while Superman was sent to Earth and raised by loving parents, Kara was on a piece of Krypton that drifted away from the planet, and lived there for the first fourteen years of her life in a horrible situation where she watched everyone around her die. “She’s a much harsher and more f*cked up Supergirl than you’ve been used to thus far.”

SWAMP THING Film

The film will investigate the dark origins of Swamp Thing.

*****

Other projects from Chapter 1 remain under wraps for now!

[aro-aizawa]

i know this is like. super specific but im going through a big batfam fixation rn and i am absolutely being influenced by my favourite piece of art ever and also this wonderful chat fic, and i have thus far made a mega crossover au where both danny from dp and marinette from ml are damien’s siblings. because the potential interactions there are just. so wonderful.

BUT i have one itty bitty problem in that i can’t plausibly find a way for both danny and mari to escape the league of assassins alive. but i really want to. SO if you would please indulge me and let me know which seems more plausible? (honestly non dcu fans can chime in bc i have only the bare basics knowledge on dcu lore lol)

okay so here’s how i want it to go down: danny is the eldest at 16, mari is the middle child at 14 and damien is the youngest at 12/13. i figure that danny was born first, and a couple years later they decide to have a backup, so mari is born but whoops ra’s is a mysogynist so mari is abandoned, and then damien is born.

my take on talia is that she doesn’t actually care all that much about kids that disappoint her, so i think that if her dad says mari has to go, she wouldn’t hesistate to kill that baby. so im thinking maybe she passes the order off to someone else, and that person gets cold feet at killing a literal hours old baby, so they leave the baby where she can be found and given a better life. when damien is born and is started to be train, it’s clear that he’s much better at what the league want out of him over danny, so danny is discarded. HOWEVER i can’t for the life of me figure out a way that he’d get out alive. because one non-damien kid getting away from the league i can accept, but two seems too much.

in my au before i decide to merge the two (i had two separate mari and danny sibling fics lol) i had danny die of a mysterious death and brought back with the bare minimum of pit waters just enough so he’d live again, but in critical condition. this is the reason i’d likely keep to, but again, it feels like too much of a “yeah i don’t really care abt how plausible it is - it just happens”.

like. i get that way when im making aus for fandoms that i am heavily familiar w and have been in for like 3+ years, not one im literally only just dipping my toes into lmao.

SO my question, is this plausible? does this make sense? would it make bruce have a heart attack upon realising he has three bio kids instead of just one???? will jason cackle himself back into the grave????????

[lightdancer1]

If we go by The Black Ring and A Winter's Tale:

Anyone who actually captured Death of the Endless causes her function (both dying and *things being born*) to not happen in the dislocated pattern of the dreaming or the one from the other Endless who isn't quite a part of the family (not spoiling it for the newbies unless they check out the comics for a guide to what's going to happen) but to outright collapse.

Sandman starts in 1916, in the original comics.

Now imagine, and this is one of the starting points in my original story and why it's pretty much the Sandman version of the 'Dark Multiverse' if thought through even slightly, two things. World War I is in full swing at this point. Abruptly, nobody's dying even if people on a large scale very much wish they would. If that goes on long enough WWI breaks down in 1916 well before it was over out of simple confusion and well, paranoia.

Now imagine, since this DC we're talking about, how entities like Darkseid or Mongul react to one of their favorite pasttimes suddenly not working and the people they want to kill (and as the main targets for Darkseid for a long time are other New Gods they come back but still) aren't dying. And if they find out that the reason this is happening is Earth, which has no superheroes or supervillains outside the ones in the background like Vandal Savage who wouldn't be much help against Darkseid anyway.

The 'Dark Multiverse' version of the Sandman is the one where Burgess captures Death, Uxas of Apokolips reacts like a glorified spoiled brat (which ol' concrete face is, LBR) to having his toys taken away from him, and goes 'dread it, run from it, destiny arrives all the same' on Earth without a friendly neighborhood Kryptonian and thus you'd end up, probably with a world whose first human superhero is a Green Lantern because Abin Sur *would* show up here and he'd do what he does in canon anyway, namely die.

And Earth, exposed not to the kindly side of aliens as the big wham!moment but to the likes of Darkseid, goes down precisely the paths you'd expect while Darkseid could and would extort from Death/the Black Racer (as he'd see her) a bargain at his terms, on his leisure, in exchange for her freedom.

And that, basically is what my AU where Burgess captures Death, aka 'And When the Windows Failed' is about at the *start*, anyway. Now granted in this story it's a part of the Death Cycle and as such there are some various differences but this would fit pretty solidly into aspects of canon. Particularly given how the 1916 and later vintage stories were so solidly rooted in the DCU.

I do at some point intend to do a similar story at a shorter scale noting that if it had happened in straight up canon that Death would have taken it harder than Dream or most of her siblings due to some very obvious drawbacks of what are also, ultimately, both her strengths as a character and why writing her as a protagonist like Dream requires a careful use of those drawbacks to create narratives.

The drawbacks are simple. Death is 'bound by no rules' and takes that freedom very, very seriously (and this is where a great many of her flaws that are all over the canon but usually overlooked in the rush to see her in one way). If she were held captive, even for a short span of time the dampener on something that she takes for granted would be a harder blow, psychologically, whether or not anything else actually happened. As per A Winter's Tale she's surprisingly fragile, psychologically.

So, ultimately, there are all kinds of 'Worst Case Scenario' stories to spin here and people wanting to write 'the end of the world as we know it and nobody feels fine'/scenery gorn stories could cut their narrative teeth on it, really.

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

For You, For Me (2.0)

by Nariva

Bruce had been born with a white Opposite Bond - a soul mark that would mold his destined love into a role opposite of him. Unwilling to force his unknown mate into darkness, the omega had turned to villainy instead. Thus Batman, the night terror of Gotham and Bruce Wayne, corrupt billionaire, came to be.

There was only one problem: fate is not easily denied.

Words: 1178, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: M/M

Characters: Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Joker (DCU), Selina Kyle, Harleen Quinzel

Relationships: Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne, Joker (DCU)/Bruce Wayne

Additional Tags: Omega Bruce Wayne, Alpha Clark Kent, Opposites Attract, Fights, Court of Owls, Bruce Wayne is a Member of the Court of Owls, Dubious Consent

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/42820971

[redrobin-detective]

I realized I’ve talked big game about Billy and Jason coexisting as a young Captain Marvel and Robin Jason but never really explained it. I swear it’s not just because I think Jay and Bill would be the absolute best friends ever and deserve each other. So! Captain Marvel started off with Fawcett Comics in 1939 and was eventually absorbed by DC comics sometime in the mid 70s before becoming more prevalent in the 80-90s. Jason was introduced in 1983 so Jason and Billy’s introductions to the DCU are much closer together than the other Robins. So on that front I like the continuity but it’s also deeper than that.

Despite being created alongside the Golden heroes like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, I really like the idea of Captain Marvel coming into play after that first wave and with the second. It’s kind of mentioned in First Thunder that the Wizard saw that a great era of heroes was dawning and wanted his champion to be there to help with any threats, magical or otherwise, that may result. By the time Billy is granted his powers, the Justice League is well established and its main heroes considered to be the shining example of heroics. Hell, in this timeline Billy was probably born around the time these heroes first became active. 

The JLA is in many ways considered and run like a business, especially as it expanded beyond the original seven and required more care and coordination. The League is in this weird time where it’s starting to expand but doesn’t quite have all the kinks worked out like they will later and thus it’s the perfect time for Cap to be able to keep his identity under wraps. But also the idea of people looking up to the original heroes who paved the way, there’s some metaphors there not only of Billy growing and coming into himself through their example but in many ways exemplifying the ideal they may stray from. I really like the idea of initial tension between Supes and Marvel because, for all his kindness and goodness, Clark can be flawed. I can see him being nervous around a magical version of himself with seemingly no weaknesses. As the League gets bigger, gets involved more on social/political issues, having Billy/Marvel to serve as a reminder of what they stand for, it’s something I like. 

This period of transition extends also to Robin Jay. We had the first wave of superheroes and their sidekicks but now those sidekicks are growing up. Nightwing is with the Titans and then his own solo, Wally has assumed the mantle of the Flash from Barry, Speedy was struggling with addiction. Jason (to my mind don’t jump down my throat) was one of the first times a legacy character was properly replaced by a new character (Dick Robin -> Jason Robin). There’s a realization there that there will be heroes beyond the originals and their first set of sidekicks, that time is moving on and change in inevitable. To me and their respective origins and places in the larger DCU, Jason and Billy are symbols of change. 

This rant is getting away from me so I’ll wrap it up. Basically I think the second wave of heroes is the perfect era to slot in Billy Batson with him eventually becoming friends with newly inducted Robin Jason Todd. This, of course, later leads to tragedy with Jason’s death which poor Bill doesn’t deserve but also opens avenues on how Bill would interact with the League as it, and himself, grew up. I like most have trouble imagining Billy past 13 but imagine him giving advice and reminiscing with Tim Drake about Jay when they’re about the same age. Imagine Bill as an older teen on the cusp of adulthood when he learns his best friend has come back from the dead as a criminal. Imagine young adult Billy, trying to make his way in the world now as a proper adult having to deal with Damian’s attitude and arrogance. 

We all love perpetually baby Billy but there is a certain poetry in slotting him in a young, still getting itself together, Justice League. A Justice League that is, in itself, in its awkward preteens and trying to find it’s footing and place in the world. It puts him elbow to elbow with Superman who is struggling to find himself in his new role as the Man of Steel and is now confronted with a godlike being who absolutely could kill him and also with Jason, a street rat like him working to make a difference for the little people. I will always feel its the best place for Billy to find himself alongside a heroics organization which is looking to do the same.

[cactusspatz]

January recs

Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m starting with The Untamed again since that’s the bulk of the stories this month, but there’s more miscellaneous fandoms under the cut. Enjoy!

THE UNTAMED

watch the slow door by Lirelyn - AU where Lan Wangji shows up a little too late at Dafan Mountain to hear the song and thus doesn’t recognize Wei Wuxian right away. Short and sweet, but some devastating ‘pining for supposedly dead person who is secretly right next to you’ action before the reveal.

a micro utopia born as the overture plays by tardigradeschool - canon AU in which Meng Yao and Lan Xichen get engaged during the war, and thus he is invested in solving the problem of Wei Wuxian so that the Lan brothers will stop being sad about it. I am weak for ‘Meng Yao uses his powers for good and fixes things’ AUs, but this one does a particularly great job with the XiYao relationship as well - their love is one of knowing as well as trust.

Moonlight as My Guide by BromeliadDreams - fantastic modern AU casefile where Wei Ying is a talisman researcher who Lan Zhan consults about a set of disturbing murders.

Just Say Yes by edenwolfie - long and satisfyingly original AU where Lan Qiren is a better teacher, recognizes Wei Wuxian is bored as hell in his classes, and shoves him into advanced studies with Lan Wangji, causing a lot of things to change. The series consists of several stories covering the events of the war and aftermath - there’s just one story left, but since the main plot is wrapped I’m gonna go ahead and rec it now.

To pluck the misunderstanding before it grows. by kaminikaku - quiet but lovely little story about Sizhui starting his musical studies, and Lan Zhan talking him through a problem.

every breath that comes before by tardigradeschool - canon AU where the wine that Jin Zixun tries to make the Lans drink is poisoned, and the banquet and Qiongqi prison camp events go very differently.

vintage youth by sami - this early nineties/modern AU where Lan Zhan happens upon long-presumed-dead Wei Wuxian while he's a fugitive from the police is absurd and dramatic and SO MUCH FUN, I love it. The later stories in the series are more celebrity-and-baby oriented fluff, which is all well and good, but not as delightful as Lan Zhan laser-focused on evading a police search without any shame or qualm whatsoever while Wei Ying is stuck in confused lust (with light trauma) mode.

dreaming and getting a glimmer by verseau - modern AU where Wei Ying belatedly figures out he’s very gay in college thanks to a number of things happening all at once. Implausible three-way identity porn and implausibly hot actual porn. Mind the tags.

OTHER

(Temeraire) Good Neighbors by ChronicBookworm - delightfully gossipy look at Tharkay & Co post-canon from the perspective of his neighbors.

(Temeraire) Rowan Tree by peevee - in which Tharkay goes out in a winter storm to rescue an injured neighbor. A little bit of competent action, a little bit of feels, and just nicely atmospheric.

(Queen’s Thief) The Path is There. Follow it. by ama - brilliant AU where Kamet refuses to let Costis travel to Roa with him, and they are both much more involved in the war. The romance, the different perspective on the events of RotT, and the use of mythology are all spectacular.

(BNHA) Conventional Taste by WowBoring - smart and sweet pre-slashy story about Todoroki attending a hero convention with Midoriya. Unlike a lot of similar stories, the author has clearly attended a lot of conventions before and does a great job with Midoriya (who is truly deeply passionately nerdy about heroes and the business and not just a fanboy, and would 100% take intense notes during panels) and the hero industry and the boys’ own burgeoning hero status, plus a light but thoughtful touch dealing with Todoroki’s abusive father.

(Cherry Magic) Touched by @drownjngindreams​ - gorgeously simple vid, for all of your hand porn and UST needs.

(DCU/Batfam) Panic Room by envysparkler - intense h/c piece where Damien locks Jason and Tim into a panic room that they can’t escape for several hours, and they’re pretty fucked up about it.

(DCU/Batfam) Into the Brighter Night by shoalsea - *heartclutch* Look, I just love Tim Drake SO MUCH, and this story (written from the POV of other members of the Batfamily) really captures him in all of his loyal self-sacrificing chameleon workaholic genius-dumbass teenager ways, featuring the Bats and his wonderful weirdo network of friends from various teams and past adventures.

[batboyblog]

So…in your version of the DCU, Christopher Kent is Dick’s Godson correct? Well, Imagine then if you will; Dick and Kory (aka Starfire) are wedded beforehand and had two kids of their own, Mar’i and Jake. So…think of the bond between say a 12 year old Chris, a 12 year old Mar’i and a 8 year old (or 10 year old if you like) Jake and the adventures they have together?

(Now if you have other shipping endgames for Dick Grayson or even leave him single you prefer, I perfectly respect that)

first off thanks for stopping by with head canon I wish more people would

second it's a very fun idea and one I kinda have an overlapping idea for.

So I wouldn't say I have one idea for the DCU, I kinda flip between Dick Grayson in a kinda Peter B. Parker vibe where he's like 28-30 years old, living in a studio apartment in Bludhaven and he has to fake he's got his life together for a stream of teenage younger brother type figures, Tim, Damian, Chris, and I like the idea of reimagining Tad Ryerstad (Nite-Wing) into a street kid, like Jason Todd, who basically follows Dick home and is one part foster kid one part stray cat one part Tim Drake blackmailing you into allowing him to be a superhero.

any ways on the other hand, at least personally I've always seen Barbara Gordon as "endgame". In my head I feel like Dick and Kori did get married during the New Teen Titan days, when they were 18-19 during Dick's "fuck you dad!" phase toward Bruce and it didn't work, just one of those right people, wrong time kinda marriages. They have Mar'i but split up but thanks to the Titans etc manage to stay friendly and co-parent.

I had a fun thought that Dick and Babs would get married 10-ish years after Dick was married to Kori and have a kid, a son named JJ (John James, after John Grayson and James Gordon). And I thought right when he's born a time-space type bad guy traps the world in a speed up trying to end the world by fucking with time. Because JJ was born when the bubble started his whole life he can kinda see it. Any ways he grows up to like 11-12 years old and is his Dad's Robin but he figures out the time thing and breaks the bubble causing things to snap back thus replacing new born JJ with 11 year old Robin JJ. I feel like he's a shy younger brother to Mar'i who's about his age and lots of fun time travel stuff with him being frustrated by all this old tech we have and also being used to Mar'i or Dami being 10+ years older than him not his own age etc

so thats my ramblings on what I'd do with Dick Grayson if DC gave me the keys to the car.

[aboutzatanna]

The Secret Origin of John Zatara

 So I’ve covered the backstory of Zatanna’s mom, Sindella but what about her Dad, John Zatara?  

In terms of publication history, John Zatara is a character who is about old as Superman himself and was created by Fred Guardineer. He debuted in 1938 in Action Comics #1 as a back up feature then continued to be a back up feature in Action Comics and later got a feature in Worlds Finest that lasted until 1951. Even though Zatara’s feature was in the same comic as Superman , he wasn’t necessarily in the same universe as Superman. The idea of a shared universe was still in it’s infancy back then and as far as I know Zatara didn’t cross over with any other hero in stories published prior to Zatanna’s debut in 1964.         

As a character, John Zatara was one of the many riff offs of Mandrake the Magician but Zatara has managed to outlast his contemporaries largely thanks to his daughter. Otherwise he would be as well known as Tor and Merlin two other magicians created Fred Guardineer who also used backwards magic and teamed up with John Zatara.  

The first modern telling of John Zatara’s origin story happened in DC’s Blue Ribbon Digest #5 written by Gerry Conway with art by Romeo Tangal which also shows the moment Zatanna first found out that her father has gone missing and we also get a flashback showing Zatara as the son of Italian immigrants, he was born in America and his grandfather, Luigi is the one who introduced him to stage magic:   

As an adult he tried to pursue a career in stage magic but things don’t go quite as planned:  

In order to improve his act, John Zatara begins to research into magic, including reading books written by Leonardo Da Vinci whom he remarks is an ancestor:   

Zatara’s backwards spoken magic and Italian heritage is likely inspired by Da Vinci. Interestingly enough, Bob Kane drew the first sketch of Batman inspired by Da Vinci’s sketch of a flying machine. That’s two characters inspired by Da Vinci. I’m surprised he hasn’t played a role in a DC event thus far.   

Anyway, after discovering that he can do real magic by speaking backwards, Zatara goes back to performing and even uses real magic when a fire broke out during one of his performances: 

Look familiar?   This is the scene that YJ adapted when they showed the flashback to Zatara’s past in S4, only Kent Nelson wasn’t a member of the audience.  

Zatara’s backstory remain unchanged when it was retold in Secret Origins #27 after the DCU history was altered after 1985′s Crisis on Infinite Earths.  The main addition was the reveal that Dr Mist has secretly been manipulating Giovanni and Zatanna’s respective pasts as well as world history itself.   The Dr Mist connection has never been brought up again and has been ignored by subsequent writers.  

Back in the Golden Age, Zatara went on adventures with his friend Tong  (an unfortunate Indian stereotype) and solved various cases together.

Source: Action Comics #1 (Zatara’s first appearance)

Zatara had a recurring foe during this period was the Tigress who also debuted in Action Comics #1 :

   A thief and a grifter who plans elaborate heists which Zatara and Tong had to foil. Sometimes he had to work with Tigress as an ally.  

The real name of this Tigress is unknown, there is no connection between her and the more well known Paula Crock (who was both Huntress and Tigress) who was also the mother of Artemis Crock. Some sources suggest that Zatara’s Tigress and Paula being sisters but I haven’t come across any concrete evidence of that thus far.     

Zatanna’s friendship with Artemis in the YJ show is a nice nod to this Golden Age history.   

Tong disappeared after Zatara’s original Golden Age stories came to an end. In the 1987 Zatanna Special we are introduced to Kasim who appears to be an updated version of  Tong, he was the caretaker of Zatara’s residence and came across as an almost Alfred like figure:  

While a huge step up from the Golden Age version, Kasim feels a bit dated by today’s standards.  

(Sigh, if only Zatanna got a regular solo feature in the 80 and 90′s, besides Dini, Conway was the only other writer who wanted to develop Zatanna as her own character with her own mythos)

Zatara’s contemporaries during the Golden Age were Tor and Merlin. Tor was created by Fred Guardineer for Quality Comics in 1941,  a few years after Zatara debuted. He was just like Zatara; cape, mustache and spoke backwards to cast his spells.  Only his mustache was fake and his real name was Jimmy Spade, a photographer who also used his magical adventures as a double for assignments. Here is a good write up of him.  Merlin was created by Dan Zolnerowich for Quality Comics in 1940, he was an English playboy named Jack Kellog who learned that he was a descendant of  Merlin the sorcerer. See a good write of him here. Under Guardineer, Merlin began to cast his spells by speaking backwards as well.    

In 1956, DC, then known as National Comics Publication bought out Quality Comics. Then in 1999′s All Star Comics Volume 2 #1 written by James Robinson we very briefly got to see Merlin, Tor and Zatara working together: 

    I say, briefly because Tor and Merlin are killed in the next couple of pages. This is also more of an Hourman & The JSA story than a Zatara story. Still, I recommend checking out  this comic,.   

And even though Zatara has multiple tricks up his sleeves, his creator only seem to have one, as Fred Guardineer also created  Marvelo: Monarch of Magicians for Big Shot comics (#1-10) who was also mustacioed magician (much like his creator) but wore a turban and cast his spells by speaking his sentences forward while frequently exclaiming ‘Kalora’ (’Kalora! Turn into pigs!’).  He also had an racist caricature as his assistant who was named Zee (probably a mangling of the Chinese name Xi). He was also much more brutal in dealing with criminals than anything I’ve seen from Zatara who was usually more playful.       

Anyway, Zatara’s continued relevance even to this day is largely thanks to his daughter.  The mustacioed magician characters becoming less and less of a popular archetype over the decades have also served to make him feel more unique in the present day.      

Zatara’s backstory has stayed the same for the most part but there have been a few addition over the years:

1. JSA & The All Star Squadron | 2. Superman  | 3. Charity from Starman | 4. Madame Xanadu | 5.  Thomas Wayne   | 6.  Zatanna & Sindella   |7. Death 

1/7 JSA  & The All Star Squadron 

The All Star Squadron (talk about a team name you can’t abbreviate) was a battalion of superheroes  gathered by Eisenhower during WW2 to fight the Axis Powers.  

 I can’t find any examples of him teaming up with the JSA or any Golden Age heroes during the 40′s. AFAIK, his connections to them were added in well after Zatanna debuted.  

All Star Squadron was a comic launched in 1984 written by Roy Thomas and it’s literally the comic that invented the word ‘retcon’. It was a playground for all the Golden Age heroes but set on Earth 2 so as to not outshine the JL who were set on Earth 1. Zatara appeared a couple of times in it but didn’t really have a starring role. The title was kind of like JLU only with Golden Age characters where you had this huge cast of characters and you didn’t know who was going to get the spotlight in the next issue.  

It’s also unclear whether the Zatara in All Star Squadron is the same Zatara that we see with Zatanna.  One would assume that the Zatara we saw in Zatanna’s Search was the Earth 1 Zatara who had adventures similar to his Golden Age counterpart but existed closer to the JL’s time period while the Earth 2 Zatara was the actual Golden Age Zatara who had adventures from 1938-1951.   It gets murky when you factor in that sometimes characters move between Earth 1 and Earth 2, this was the case for Sargon the Sorcerer.  AFAIK, this wasn’t clarified for Zatara.

Then after COIE, Earth 2 was gone and the JSA was now in the distant past of the main earth.  In Secret Origins #27  retelling of Zatara’s backstory, his origin remains the same but he has also been with the All Star Squadron during WW 2  but at the same time has managed to exist long enough to have  a daughter close to the present era. Whether he is immortal, long lived or time traveled to a period closer to the present has never been clarified. Secret Origins does state that Homo Magi can live for 3-4 centuries but if that was case for Zatara, it is odd that nobody has noticed that he hasn’t aged in 70 years especially since he’s a celebrity.     

Secret Origins also revealed that Dr Mist has also been secretly manipulating and orchestrating both Zatara and Zatanna’s lives but this is an addition that has since been ignored. 

2/7 Superman 

Zatara appeared twice in ‘New Adventures of Superboy (1981) ’ series.  

First, in a back up story in New Adventures of Superboy #14  starring Clark Kent as a baby. The Kent takes baby Clark to a magic show performed by John Zatara. During the show he made Martha Kent float and gave a bouquet of tulips.  In the story, Zatara is said to still be getting a hang of his powers.  

Later he catches baby Clark flying and thinks that the spell he used to make Martha fly also affected Clark. So he takes Clark’s ability to fly!

But then the two are confronted by gangsters who wants Zatara to use his abilities for crime (of course) and douses Zatara with a gas that takes away his voice. Zatara realizes that baby Kal has powers of his own when he sees the baby beat those crooks. He then gives Clark his ability to fly back.  Zatara ruminates whether he will see the child with powers again. 

Also, baby Clark is adorable!

Normally I’m not a fan of characters meeting each other years ago but the Zatara’s being traveling magicians really makes it work.  

Zatara appeared next in New Adventures of Superboy #49 this time with a teenage Clark Kent attending one of his magic shows.

This time he invites Clark up on stage and puts him in a closet as part of a disappearing act but something goes wrong during the show as a tyrant from another dimension uses Zatara’s magic powers as a focal point to invade their dimension. 

Zatara and Superboy work together to stop the tyrant with a little help from John Webber (a reformed villain) who helps them out secretly:   

Zatara also met young Clark Kent in the DCAU in one of it’s tie in comics Superman Adventures Annual #1 in which Zatara trains young Clark Kent (the same way he trained Bruce) and also entrusted an amulet to him. 

3/7 Charity from Starman   

Starman was a series about Jack Knight, the son of the Golden Age hero Starman/Jack Knight, a reluctant hero who takes up his fathers mantle in exchange for him using his scientific genius. A big part of the series was about what it means to be a hero and how being a superhero shaped the lives of the children villain and hero alike.    

Charity was a supporting character in the Starman series. She was a fortune teller with actual precognitive abilities who debuted in Forbidden Tales of the Dark Mansion #7 (1972) and later incorporated in the 90′s Starman series. In the Starman series she has a picture of Zatara at her fortune telling place.  

In Starman Vol 2 #37, our protagonist Jack Knight met with the ghosts of the JSA members including John Zatara who each give him and his brother David advice on what it means to be a hero. When it comes to Zatara’s turn we also learn more about his relationship with Charity:  

  The idea of him disappearing for 20 years is an inconsistency. Zatanna’s initial Whos Who and another one came out shortly after Books of Magic (1991) stated that her father disappeared when she was a child.  However, her post Crisis ‘Whos Who’ (1986) and even the one from 2006′s 52 weekly series clarify that her father disappeared when she was 18 years old and by the time she debuts in Hawkman, she had been searching for him for years. 

On to Charity:

Also, yeah, I have no idea what to make of the 30 year age difference thing. Zatara has been around since WW2 so he is really 60-70 year old who looks 40. Charity ages slowly too and in some panels looks middle aged while in others, she looks much younger. He also claims to have met her after Sindella died which would have been during the time Zatanna joined the Justice League and he died a couple of years after that and the Starman series came out in 1994, not that long after Books of Magic (1990).  At best, the age difference between them would have been something ‘oh Charity, you’re 40, I’m really 80 we can’t be together’ or their relationship happened in the 40′s and Zatara had a wife before he met Sindella.   

Also, note that one key difference between Zatanna and Zatara is that Zatara was always a performer first and crime fighter second whereas with Zatanna she’s always been a hero first and and a crime fighter second. Zatara says as much in this story: 

Zatara also randomly mentions that he has a son:  

I always had this theory that Zachary Zatara was actually Giovanni’s son and Zatanna’s younger brother and the cousin thing was just a cover and Robinson also wrote Zachary’s character in his Superman run. Although this is probably just a attributed word balloon since Hourman on the same page is also talking about his son.   

Zatara made one more appearance in the final issue of Starman, Starman #80  in which he left one parting gift for Charity and helping her out during a moment of despire.  

I won’t spoil it for you, go read Starman, one of the best DC series ever put out.   It’s probably one of the greatest feats he’s ever pulled and without even showing up for real and from the beyond the grave. 

But Charity wasn’t only precog Zatara had a relationship with, the man has a type apparently,  there was also: 

4/7  Madame Xanadu/Nimue Inwudu

In the 2009 Madame Xanadu series written by Matt Wagner with art by Amy Reeder, we learn that John Zatara and Nimue Inwudu/Xanadu had a sexual relationship in the 40′s:  

Source: Madame Xanadu #9 

We also learn more about his past in this comic when Xanadu asks him about the Phantom Stranger:  

Interesting to note that Zatara mentions that he spent his childhood in Italy and he is written with a thick Italian accent here. In Secret Origin #27 it’s stated that he was born to immigrant parents while in Blue Ribbon #5 he is shown to be living as a child in America but only his grandfather had the accent. Anyway, I prefer the original version of him being born in America since I don’t think 3rd or 4th generation immigrant characters get much focus in comics. However, I do like the idea of him being terrified of telling anyone of his powers, not even his parents. I think this is the first time we ever saw any mention of Giovanni’s relationship with his own parents.      

He is also clearly smitten by Madame Xanadu here and she clearly feels something for him even though she knows his future and avoiding any possibility of a relationship.  Also, can you imagine how powerful a child between the two of them would be?  

While Xanadu and Charity has never met in any comic. They do share a connection in that they’re inspired by the host of  Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion. 

From wiki: 

“ Madame Xanadu debuted in Doorway to Nightmare #1 (February 1978).[1] The character was designed by cover artist Michael William Kaluta at the request of editor Joe Orlando, based on Kaluta's unnamed host character (later known as Charity in the pages of Starman) from the DC Comics mystery title Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion (seen only on that title's indicia page) and the person of Cathy Ann Thiele. The original storyline was developed by writer David Michelinie.[2] “

The Madame Xanadu series by Matt Wagner and Amy Reeder was about the centuries long cat and mouse game between Nimue and the Phantom Stranger. The series covers Xanadu’s encounters with the enigmatic Phantom Stranger throughout the centuries and her attempts to find out his ultimate game plan; she goes from being intrigued by him to being attracted to him to hating him for the choices he makes for the sake of ‘the greater good’ to wanting revenge against him to later atone for her own misdeeds.  

Teaching John Zatara magic is one of the many ways that Phantom Stranger is subtly ‘nudging’ different pieces of history to ensure that the age of heroes happens.   

The series also builds up on Xanadu’s appearances in the 80′s Spectre Vol 2 which was written by Doug Monech with art by Cam Kennedy in which Xanadu was the Spectre’s co-lead. Issues #7-8 titled ‘Pieces of Zatanna’ featured  Zatanna interacting with Madame Xanadu on panel for the first time and despite this being their first published interaction, the two seemed well acquainted with each other. 

Xanadu having a relationship with Zatara in the past explains how Zatanna knows her. Also, I have always thought that in Giovanni’s absence or death, Nmue would be the perfect mentor for her and could even serve as a maternal figure in Zatanna’s life in Sindella’s absence.   

Anyway, Niume broke things off with Zatara in her own series so she could atone for her role in unleashing the Spectre on the world.     

5/7 Thomas Wayne  

The idea of Zatara training a young Bruce Wayne was first established in 1993′s Batman: The Animated Series episode titled ‘Zatanna’ written by Paul Dini but the idea of Zatara and Thomas Wayne being friends with Zatara was established in Detective Comics #833 also written by Paul Dini.   

Their friendship was further explored in the ‘House of Hush’ story arc which ran from Streets of Gotham #14-21.  The main character of the arc was Judson Pierce; an aging mobster released from jail who bears a grudge against the Waynes, specifically Martha for ruining him years ago. At the time, Thomas Elliot was pretending to be Bruce Wayne (since the real one was believed to be dead at the time) and Judson kidnaps him. Later, the two begin working together as the Bat Fam including a now back-from-the-dead Bruce Wayne attempts to track them down.

In between this, we get flashbacks showing the lives of Thomas and Martha Wayne and how they met.  Martha is a social activist who works to help the poor and attempting to raise funds for Leslie’s clinic. Thomas was a brilliant but spoiled neurosurgeon akin to Tony Stark and Dr Strange who loves to party and drink with his good friend John Zatara.  Here is Zatara’s first appearance in the flashback when Martha was meeting with the Elliots:

Source: Streets of Gotham #14

Dini already established in Detective Comics #847 that Zatanna and Zatara and Romanii. and this is expanded upon here. Elliot is bigotry against them was inherited from his mother. He spends a lot of time calling the Zatara’s ‘gypsies’ (a slur) but never directly to her face.     

Source: Streets of Gotham #16

Much of the story arc is about the contrasts between the Waynes and the Elliots. The Wayne’s are portrayed as benevolent while the Elliots are portrayed as the typical rich snobs who puts on a  welcoming face but are prejudiced and looks down on the ‘poors’.  Thomas becomes a better man thanks to Martha while the Elliots double down on a life of corruption, greed, abuse and alcohol.       

It’s not just Thomas who shapes up after this arc, Giovanni as well, likely inspired by Thomas:  

Source: Streets of Gotham #19

And later he showed up again at the climax of the flashbacks to save Thomas and Martha along with Leslie from attempted arson and he brings along a few friends:   

Yeah, timeline wise this makes no sense. Don’t even try to explain it. The JSA were active in the 40′s unless this was a time traveling adventure. But sometimes DC likes to pretend that WW2 was only 20-30 years ago.

Also note that the ‘Wonder Woman’ there is Hippolyta who was the WW of the Golden Age era. No interactions between the two but this implies that Zatara and Hippolyta have at least met each other.  Would love to see how a conversation between the two of them could go. I love the fact that Zatara has had some kind of interaction with the parents of all three members of the Trinity. Wonder if he ever tried to flirt with the Marthas or Hippolyta?

This is probably my favorite expansion of Zatara’s backstory next to his meeting with Madame Xanadu. I also love this take on the Waynes. I know current adaptations lean towards making Thomas Wayne either corrupt or have done something immoral in the past and while I enjoyed Telltale Batman, I really prefer Dini’s more thoughtful approach here where Thomas was flawed but not evil and he eventually became a better man. Also his take on Martha Wayne is a great way to build up on her characterization in Batman: Ultimate Evil by Andrew Vacchs and Batman: Family miniseries. Guess we know where Bruce gets his crusader side from.   

6/7 Sindella, Allura & Zatanna

Zatara’s final appearance in the Golden Age was in Worlds Finest #51 in 1951. He had no wife or daughter back then and his strip just ended abruptly,  after which he disappeared in limbo. His daughter debuted 13 years later in 1964 in Hawkman #4 searching for her missing father. 

 Father and daughter finally reunited in  Justice League of America #51 (1967).  

We learn that Zatara was cursed by an old enemy called Allura and thus had to flee the mortal plane, if he ever and his daughter were to meet each other face-to-face they would die:  

He appeared in Detective Comics #379 in which we learn that he is retired and opened up a magical prop shop. The story involves Zatara being knocked out and kidnapped by criminals who want to use his powers for a bank robbery so Zatara summons Elongated Man  to help him. and gives him his magic powers  aswell: 

 There is no mention of Zatanna in this story. Though Zatara does mention that he has been doing backwards magic for 30 years lending credence to the idea that this is just the Earth 1 Zatara.  Most amusing part was Ralp Dibny using a notepad to figure out how to cast spells backwards. Lets face it this is how we would be if any of us had to learn backwards magic for the first time. 

Allura returned again in a story arc in Adventures Comics #413-415 (1971) in which she possessed John Zatara, banished Zatanna and her boyfriend Jeff Sloan to another dimension and tried to wreck havoc as Zatara. Zatanna managed to save her father and trap Allura in a bottle.   

Zatanna finally joined the League in Justice League of America #161 (1978). Zatara was said to be retired at this point but not before we get an adventure involving Zatara’s wife and Zatanna’s wife, Sindella.  

I covered the story of Sindella here but long story short here is a flashback of Zatara and Sindella’s first meeting:  

Source: Justice League of America Vol 1#163

Zatara thought that Sindella had died in a car crash shortly after Zatanna’s but it turns out she was kidnapped by her people, the inhabitants of the Hidden City.   When the Zatara and the JL go to rescue them, they end up captured. While, they are held captive, we learn that Zatara still holds Sindella dear:  

It seem that out of all the women Zatara has interacted with, Sindella was the one who truly captured his heart.  

Tragically, Sindella ends up dying trying to protect Zatanna from her people. 

Zatara was barely brought up during Zatanna’s tenure in the League. He was retired now and it it was his daughters turn in the spotlight.  

He appeared briefly with Zatanna in DC Comics Presents #18 where he commends his daughter for her magical knowledge and indicates that she has begun to surpass in when it came to magic:  

In Zatanna’s own series, Zatanna #8 (2011) by Paul Dini we learn that when Zatanna was just a child John Zatara turned a puppeteer named Oscar Hampel into a puppet for attempting to harm his daughter while committing a robbery. Afterwards he wiped that memory from Zatanna’s mind which she rediscovers years later and is also forced to confront a now revenge obsessed Oscar Hampel.   

7/7 Death   

John Zatara perished in Swamp Thing #50. After John Constantine coerced him, Zatanna and a group of other mystics to a seance meant to power up the forces of good against a being called the Great Darkness that loomed over hell, the group quickly realized that the Beast sensed their presence and one by one each member of the group began lighting up like an overblown fuse. The first one to go was Sargon the Sorcerer and when the Beast began to target Zatanna next, Zatara opted to sacrifice himself in her place:  

In a way, his death became his defining story as every subsequent story afterwards referenced his death and build their stories around it. Post Nu 52 it’s even treated as the lynchpin story that connects Zatanna, Constantine and Zatara together.  Perhaps to detriment of Zatanna’s own character. As subsequent writers began defining her more and more as being in her fathers shadow even though she had already surpassed him during her JL days.   

It should be noted that Moore’s characterization of Zatara here as this stern, overprotective and borderline ruthless sorcerer who tells Sargon to ‘die like a sorcerer’ is wholly an invention of his own. In all his previous appearances Zatara was always depicted as a laid back and cheerful father figure. This sterner interpretation seems to be what DC is continuing with JLD Vol 2.      

Of course, being dead has never stopped John Zatara from being relevant in modern Zatanna stories but that’s another post entirely.     

See you then!

And if I got something wrong in this wrong or if there is anything you would like to add or if you have questions, feel free to ask! 

Cheers! 

[thevindicativevordan]

Terra-Man

I created a section for Superman Rogues in my Superman masterpost so I feel obligated to actually write about a character for there. But I don’t really want to dive into the nuances of Lex or any of the big guns just yet, so how about we talk about a guy most people don’t even know exists?

Terra-Man friends! The Pre-Crisis version was created by Cary Bates, Curt Swan, and Dick Dillin. Based on Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name”, he was a child of the old American Wild West, with his father killed by an alien. Young Tobias Manning was then adopted by said alien out of guilt. The alien took Tobias with him out into the cosmos, trained him, and crafted high tech weaponry for him that resembled weapons used by 19th century cowboys. He was also gifted with slowed aging that gave him nigh-immortality. Tobias killed his alien guardian and struck out on his own as an interstellar criminal, taking the name “Terra-Man” to homage his Earth roots. His Pre-Crisis fights with Superman varied between him being treated as a bizarre gag villain and a deadly serious threat.

Spoilers: The guy who ages up Superman is Tobias. He actually comes across as a legitimate threat in the story, using preptime to outwit Clark repeatedly:

And it was the first time I had read a story with Terra-Man in it that made me go “this guy could be a legitimate threat”. Of course Bates had more creativity in his pinkie than a lot of creators produce in their entire careers, and the Post-Crisis revamp of Terra-Man really sucked:

They got rid of his cowboy hat (a creative felony if I ever saw one), and revamped him as a businessman who had a crisis of conscience over the environmental damage he was causing, and thus set out on a crusade to protect the environment. They kept the high tech weaponry, and gave a lot of it an ecological spin, he had gadgets that allowed him to drain Superman’s solar levels to make him susceptible to weaponry, but the background motivation has aged poorly. Given the current environmental state of the world, more people would probably cheer this version of Tobias on as a hero (just look at Green Arrow or the Poison Ivy fans!) than want to see Superman beat him up. Also he still talked like an old school cowboy for some bizarre reason? Or maybe that was just how writers thought every Texan talked.

Anyway he ended up getting ripped in half by Black Adam and basically has been gone ever since as far as I’m aware:

 So he’s been absent for two whole reboots now, New 52 & Rebirth, so I feel entitled to give my idea for how to make him work as a Superman Rogue. First up: his design. None of the ones I posted above really worked for me, none of them look “cool”, and if Venom and Carnage have taught us anything it’s that 90% of why some villains stick around is that they look cool. The Pre-Crisis one is too plain looking, he looks generic, the Post-Crisis look lacks a hat and the cowboy theme and is thus unacceptable. Luckily there’s already two very cool looking sources to draw on for a new design:

Guy front and center is Terra-Man from the Legion of Superheroes cartoon, and my first introduction to the character. His backstory was heavily modified for the show, but he was a stone cold badass, forcing Imperiex and Superman X to team up to beat him. Think Cad Bane from The Clone Wars by way of Terminator and you basically get the gist. I honestly wouldn’t mind just straight up taking that design and adding the mustache of the comic version. But there’s another source to draw from:

How the hell this guy never caught on I’ll never know. Maybe because Morrison never gave him enough badass moments during their Action run? But Nimrod has a very cool design, and he also has some crazy weapons like a gun that shoots telepathic bullets, he already feels somewhat like a Terra-Man revamp to me. I’d take the idea of a helmet/full body suit and the crazy high-concept tech weapons from Nimrod & Pre-Crisis Terra-Man, and combine it with the color scheme, basic outfit and hat of the animated Terra-Man. That would be a really cool design that would get people interested in Tobias I feel.

Second off: the name. Maybe I was just dumb as a kid, but I was always wondering why animated Terra-Man never used his earthbender powers. He clearly had them, why else would he call himself Terra-Man and not Space Cowboy? In the interest of retroactively justifying my young self’s stupidity, I propose a new name: The Terran. I think that does a better job of conveying what his deal is, that he’s a former resident of Earth aka Terra who has gone out and made a name for himself in the cosmos. Think of the children who will no longer be confused about why he’s not throwing boulders at his foes. I rest my case.

Third and finally: The motivation. Why does this guy show up on Earth? What’s his deal? Why does he hate Superman? Well I think there’s some easy justification in explaining why he would finally return to Earth in the first place by making him a hunter like Nimrod was. Terran is out to hunt the most dangerous creatures of a species for sport and profit. Guess who has an Intergalactic Zoo in his Fortress, containing last members of extinct species some of whom posses hides or organs that would fetch high prices on the galactic black market? That’s an easy way to justify why the two would first come to blows, and where the root of the contempt for each other would begin.

But that would only be the beginning. See there’s some very interesting twists on the Superman concept with Tobias. He inverts a lot of the core components of Superman. He’s a human who was abducted and adopted by aliens as a child. He got his “powers” from his alien father, and his “name” from the aliens he worked for and killed. He’s a human straight out of Earth’s past, a literal Man of Yesterday. I think you could do some very interesting stuff by contrasting the two, and one of the big ways to do it would be to make Tobias Manning gay.

Yeah yeah get your jokes out of the way but hear me out: Tobias is from 19th century America, not exactly known for it’s tolerance of homosexuality (or anything non-WASP really). Part of why Tobas stayed away for so long then was that he felt alienated from his home planet. He thought he would never be accepted there, and thus stayed away and tried to carve out a life for himself in space where at least no one looked down on him for who he loved. So when he finally comes back and sees the way things have improved he’s overjoyed. Finally he can be himself among his own kind, he doesn’t have to stay away from Earth anymore, he can stay here and reconnect with his heritage. But then he runs into another barrier: He was raised according to 19th century American norms as a kid, then by alien norms for the rest of his life. He has zero in common with regular humans in the 21st century DCU Earth. His speech is antiquated and peppered with alien words no one understands, marking him as odd. Nobody shares any of his interests, and his job, which would’ve been cool and badass in the 19th century, now invites disgust in everyday conversations. Tobias may have been a human born on Earth, but he was born in the Wild West and raised in space, and he’s become totally alienated from the rest of humanity.

Enter Superman, an alien born on another planet but perfectly able to live amongst humanity since he was raised by them and educated in their modern standards. He’s white-passing and straight, and those two attributes help him be accepted. It would absolutely piss Tobias off that this alien is viewed as more human than he is, is accepted where he is not, and that would fuel the fires of resentment. So when he and Clark cross paths, Tobias is out for blood. Not just to beat/kill Superman, but to embarrass him, humiliate him, make him the outcast for everyone to point and gawk at. Also killing one of the last Kryptonians would really help cement Tobias’ reputation as a stone cold badass hunter which doesn’t hurt either.

On Superman’s side, part of him would absolutely despise Tobias for being a poacher, for hunting and killing endangered species, for trying to kill or humiliate him. He’d be put off by Tobias’ 19th century ideal of manhood and enjoyment of killing, something Superman wholeheartedly abhors. But on the other hand he would absolutely empathize with Tobias’ frustration. Clark has felt alienated from humanity at points himself, but also recognizes that he was lucky to look and be like he does given where he landed. He’d want to try to reach this guy, to connect with him, given how much he can sympathize with the longing for a place where you can be yourself without fearing rejection from others. Whether he would ever succeed is anyone’s guess.

I realize the possible pitfalls in making a prominent villain, who is also a cowboy gay, but I do think what I have here is an interesting way at looking at the very concept of “alieness”, a topic often explored in Superman stories. I’d add a prominent gay member to Superman’s supporting cast as a counterbalance too, either to the Daily Planet or the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit.

So yeah that’s how I’d revamp Tobias into the Terran.

[davidmann95]

For definitely no reason whatsoever, in response to nothing specific, can you rank the DC Multiverse Earths and tell us a bit about why each is in its place on the list?

Were this in response to an article, I could assure that I generally enjoy the writer’s output perfectly well from what I’ve seen and was absolutely baffled by the bizarrely selective research that went into it. Anyway, I hope you feel guilty enabling the amount of work I put into this truly ridiculous task by the end.

Cliff notes for the relatively uninitiated: that gorgeous monstrosity up above is The Map Of The Multiverse from the miniseries Multiversity, presented as a series of concentric circles bordered by the ‘Overvoid’ that all of reality is suspended in (and framed in such a way as to make clear it is the white of the pages comics are printed on). You go inwards from the borders of creation - moving moreso with each sphere from abstraction to the realm of the physical - to the Monitor Sphere in which once lived the near-omnipotent, now nearly extinct Monitor race that observed and maintained the multiverse, into the Sphere of Gods where the various beings of myth and divinity dwell, and into the innermost sphere where ‘we’ live. The 52 Earths you see within aren’t the whole of the multiverse but the ‘local’ 52 worlds, with infinite other Earths dwelling in their own dimensional pockets; all these universes actually exist in the same three-dimensional space at the same time but suspended in a higher-dimensional substance called ‘the Bleed’, and vibrating at distinct frequencies. Also there’s a ‘Dark Multiverse’ that’s cosmologically speaking ‘beneath’ the map, disintegrating half-formed potential realities that new proper universes are culled from. There’s a lot more to it than even all of that, but that’s enough to explain what’s up with these.

My ranking here is obviously subjective, but mostly comes down to a mix of ‘how cool is this Earth’, ‘how much would this Earth be worth using again’, ‘how well does it work in the context of being part of a shared multiverse’, and ‘do I seriously see creators unearthing any of this Earth’s potential down the road’. Also, Earths 24, 27, 28, 46, and 49 aren’t here, as they’re among the 7 Unknown Earths on the map that were left behind for future creators to define; 14 and apparently 25 have since been revealed.

64. Earth 14

A worthy bottom-place entry, Earth 14 is at the top of the Multiverse Map, and is shown as physically different from the other Earths, seemingly vibrating as if in two places at once; map co-designer and illustrator Rian Hughes suggested in an interview the intent was that this was where new universes entered the multiverse. Instead, ending up the first Unknown Earth to be revealed after the doors were opened to other creative teams, it was shown as a generic dystopian world home to a ‘Justice League of Assassins’ that were quickly dispatched by a generic cosmic threat. A monumental tribute to contextual ignorance and creative laziness.

63. Flashpoint

This is one of several Earths I’ll touch on that exist in neither the ‘local’ nor Dark Multiverse, but has directly crossed over or been framed in reference to the currently operating version of the DC Universe and so is probably worth a mention even if I’m not going over every Elseworlds and Imaginary Story DC has ever published. Another dystopian world, in this one an attempt by The Flash at fixing a change to history resulted in an Earth torn apart by war between Aquaman and Wonder Woman, where Cyborg was America’s greatest hero and Kal-El was held captive his entire life in a military bunker rather than becoming Superman. Aside from the prospect of a Thomas Wayne who became Batman when Bruce was gunned down as a child rather than vice-versa - resulting in him being pulled into a recent Batman run after this worlds’ destruction, the reason for this Earth’s inclusion - absolutely nothing of value came of this or the stories tied into it, such that astonishingly in spite of being the impetus for one of the biggest DC reboots of all time with theoretically an entire revised history to play with, essentially no one cares about this anymore.

62. Earth 1

The site of DC’s standalone, bookstore-market oriented ‘Earth One’ graphic novels. The incredible tunnel vision of marketing these for that purpose with titles that exist in reference to their multiversal structure aside, the Green Lantern book is the only one of those I’ve heard about being even kind of good; the rest top out at an interesting failure in Wonder Woman, with a standard forgettable failure in Teen Titans and truly flabbergasting misfires in Superman and Batman. Even Multiverse Map co-designer and writer Grant Morrison described this Earth in a blurb as having a history ‘in flux’, implicitly permitting the reader to believe it’s something else if they really want to, but as it stands in spite of the theoretical wide-open possibilities the foundations have already been built on salted Earth.

61. Watchmen

Home to the cast of characters of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal miniseries. Crossed over with the DC Universe 30+ year later in Doomsday Clock, which clearly intended to set up this world as one ripe for future stories and development rather than a singular text, but instead misinterpreted, stripmined, and otherwise nuked essentially everything that might have had one interested in exploring it further in the first place (in spite of the source text’s very definitive conclusions to all major narrative threads and characters). The only reason this is not ranked even lower is the possibility that the upcoming, as-yet untitled Watchmen project by Tom King and Jorge Fornes might manage to dredge something out of this.

60. Earth Negative 11

The first of the Dark Multiverse Earths here, a gender-flipped Earth where Bryce Wayne generically altered herself into an Atlantean in order to do battle with Aquawoman and the forces of Atlantis. As the Dark Multiverse worlds we have seen thus far are described as being borne of Bruce Wayne’s fears, it’s odd that as opposed to the ‘want of a nail’ scenarios shown on all others, this includes the additional twist of making Bruce a woman, yet does nothing with that. Anyway, this is a very clear product of the Dark Multiverse’s debut in Dark Nights: Metal wanting an evil Batman to correspond to each member of the Justice League, and it’s the oddest, most perfunctory of the lot.

59. Earth 34

Home to the heroes of the Light Brigade, defenders of Cosmoville, this is an Earth meant to evoke the classic creator-owned superhero comic Astro City. However, as Astro City is itself made up of archetypal signifiers yet isn’t meta about its usage of them, being defined by its storytelling principles rather than the shared universe it builds up in the background, there are essentially no stories to be told here that couldn’t be told with the regular heroes of the DC universe. Which is a shame, those are some neat character designs.

58. Earth Negative 12

A Dark Multiverse Earth where believing Wonder Woman killed in a battle with the war god Ares, Batman took up the deity’s helm in hopes of redefining war, instead being corrupted by it and becoming an unstoppable monster. There’s basically nothing here.

57. Earth Negative 44

A Dark Multiverse Earth where a computer program meant to replicate Alfred after the butler’s untimely death, attempting to protect its charge, takes control of Batman by way of mechanizing him and turns Gotham into a digital nightmare. A little more on-point than the previous entry, but still not much here.

56. Earth Negative 22

A Dark Multiverse Earth where Batman is finally pushed into killing the Joker, but the Clown Prince of Crime secretes a particularly potent Joker Toxin upon his death that corrupts the Caped Crusader into a second Joker known as The Batman Who Laughs, who slaughters his way across his universe before ultimately making his way to the ‘main’ DCU. The prospect of a Batman/Joker combination is interesting, but an origin for the ultimate corrupted Batman ‘he got drugged into going bad’ falls short.

55. Earth Negative 32

A Dark Multiverse Earth where Bruce Wayne moments after his parents’ deaths was judged worthy of a Green Lantern ring, but having only his hatred of crime rather than the discipline and morality he would come to develop becomes the murderous terror of the underworld, with even the Corps unable to stop him when he manages to force the darkness of his heart through the ring into ‘dark constructs’. Another ultimately throwaway Earth, this at least illustrates the properties of the Dark Multiverse in an interesting way: the constructs he creates aren’t something that’s ever been indicated as being possible or even sensible with the ‘real’ Green Lantern, but as this is a world literally made of nightmares that’s irrelevant.

54. Earth 39

Home to the United Nations superspies the Agents of W.O.N.D.E.R., who operating using super-technology with eventually deleterious side-effects. A pastiche of the obscure T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, it’s hard to imagine anyone with much to say about them wouldn’t simply wish to write an actual comic about them under the current rights-holders, though the concepts described in Morrison’s provided information are enticing.

53. Earth 41

A riff on several of the superheroes published by Image Comics over the years, they’re worth having around for the occasional heroes of the multiverse groupshots for your big crossover comics and Dino-Cop turned out to be charming, but it’s doubtful someone with a big Spawn story in them for instance would use Spore as their outlet.

52. Earth 9

All I know about this is that this is a ‘what if superheroes really changed the world’ Earth, and when those are a dime a dozen, the additional conceits of the names of the various characters not at all corresponding to their traditional backstories and attributes, and being the brainchild of creator Dan Jurgens, are far from enough to sway me. I understand there are some fans out there who may heartily disagree, to be fair.

51. Earth Negative 52

Another Dark Multiverse throwaway Earth, this time one where a Batman shattered by losing his various partners taps into the Speed Force so that he can finally be everywhere at once to stop all crime. This is distinct however in that he achieves this by defeating The Flash, chaining him to the hood of the Batmobile, and driving it so fast their atoms explode and merge, which is thoroughly rad and gets it big-time bonus points next to its contemporaries.

50. Earth 37

An Earth based on the DC works of creator Howard Chaykin, its conceit of being a world that progressed technologically far faster than our world but culturally remains decades behind us is interesting, but I’m not much of a fan of his work that I’ve read and most of what’s been drawn upon here doesn’t seem to have much of a following.

49. Earth 30

The world of Superman: Red Son, where Kal-L landed in the Ukraine and grew up to become leader of a global Soviet Union, before realizing he had deformed humanity’s development and faking his death. Leaving Earth in the hands of a Lex Luthor who while still very much a bastard found public approval in America for fighting Superman, Lex ultimately led Earth into a utopia that over time fell into complacency and became its universe’s version of Krypton, Jor-L (Luthor’s distant descendant) and Lara sending their baby back in time to survive and establishing a predestination loop. While several elements of the DC Universe are present in a limited capacity that could in theory be expanded on, Superman and Wonder Woman are the only superheroes of long-term note and both their stories are very much concluded, seemingly leaving little to do here except have the Superman with the hammer and sickle logo show up in event comics.

48. Earth 6

The world of the Just Imagine Stan Lee Created The DC Universe series, where the father of the Marvel Universe rebuilt several DC figureheads from the name and a few pieces of imagery up. The results were mixed at best, but a series of gorgeous artists involved in the projects mean the characters certainly look interesting even if it’s hard to imagine creators going back here in any meaningful capacity.

47. Earth Negative 1

A Dark Multiverse world where Superman turned on humanity for reasons unknown, and Batman deliberately infected himself with the ‘Doomsday Virus’ to gain the properties of the hulking monster and defeat his former friend. Now numbed to human emotion and vulnerability, this Batman hopes to spread the virus as to make humanity similarly indestructible, as well as shield them emotionally from what he has come to see as the false hope Superman represents. This Batman didn’t end up a major figure in the same way as The Batman Who Laughs, but the conceit is killer and I hope someone picks up on it one day.

46. Earth-52

A universe somewhere outside the local 52, a ‘remnant’ of sorts of the main DC universe circa 2011-2016 prior to cosmic revisions resulting in the current setup. A world where superheroes had emerged approximately 5 years earlier and home to lots of dudes in very dumb battle-armor, most fan-favorite stories from this era have been carried forward into the current history, and its unique version of Superman under Grant Morrison - a socialist crusader in a t-shirt and jeans who battled corrupt institutions and cosmic supervillainy in equal measure - was depicted as set loose from his world after 2016′s continuity changes as a defender of the multiverse. While a significant part of DC history both in-universe and publishing-wise, there wouldn’t seem to be all that much left here worth exploring.

45. Earth 2

A world where Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman alone represented the first wave of superheroes, they nobly fell in battle repelling an invasion of Earth by Darkseid. In time a new generation would emerge that were modernized, youthful iterations of the Justice Society of America, the superhero team predating the Justice League in DC’s publishing history. While the logline’s an interesting one and the successor to Superman Val-Zod debuted to some acclaim, for the most part this reinvention didn’t end up received well by either new or longtime fans, and a last-minute overhaul where this bunch was transplanted into a rebooted world without superheroes probably didn’t help. You still see them in crossovers and there are promising concepts, but this world seems basically dead.

44. Earth 50

When Lex Luthor ascended to the presidency and soon thereafter executed The Flash, Superman snapped, executed him, and took over the world alongside his allies as the Justice Lords, until they were ultimately overthrown by way of a parallel universe Justice League and a repentant Lord Batman. A Better World unequivocally rules, but given this is supposed to be those specific versions of the Lords rather than a new iteration, it’d be weird to see them up against any universe other than the DCAU. And, well...

43. Earth 12

The DCAU, currently world of Batman Beyond and a future Justice League. The DCAU, you may be aware, extremely rules, but is also somewhat redundant in this context - the ‘regular’ DCU already has all its core components without too much aesthetic differentiation, and there’s already frequently a Batman Beyond in the future of said universe. It has its unique attributes that make people love it, it’s cool that it’s here, but on the macro scale it’s too clean an adaptation to bring much to the table to crossovers and whatnot, and you’d never see any further stories told there otherwise as really being part of the DCU cosmic landscape so much as a comic tie-in to the TV show.

(Also it’s odd this is placed here with the Justice Lords Earth as if to go ‘it’s secretly been part of the 52 all along, you just never noticed when it only crossed over with the one other!’ when there were two other parallel universes in the DCAU.)

42. Earth 43

A nightmare world haunted by the once-heroic, now vampiric Blood League, the obvious potential would be for this world to function as DC’s equivalent to Marvel Zombies. Recently however DCeased has come to fill that position, and while this world in practice if not concept skews more closely towards that source material as the former heroes still have vestiges of their old personalities - in theory distinguishing it as its own spin worth keeping around - it’s hard to imagine most takes on ‘Justice League but monsters’ won’t come out under the DCeased banner for the foreseeable future.

41. Earth 40

A world of pulp villains made to oppose Earth 20, these guys are simple but a hoot.

40. Earth 35 aka the Pseudoverse

More analogues to analogues, this time of the Awesome Comics characters largely defined by Alan Moore in Supreme. This opens up the promising vista of ‘DC if it were designed by Alan Moore’, but in practice as demonstrated by his work with both DC and the analogues these mimic, that would just be...well, good DC comics, which you don’t need a whole extra universe for. The notion of this as a universe artificially created by Monitor ‘ideominers’ however both gives it a unique place in the multiverse, tackles its status as a pastiche in a unique way, and gets back to ideas of the power of imagination in both Supreme and Moore’s other works, so it’s likely there could be something to be done here.

39. Earth 11

A bit of a study in contradictions. This is seemingly a rather straightforward ‘gender swap’ Earth with Superwoman, Wonderous Man, and so forth. Also, its version of Star Sapphire implied it’s not subjected to constant crises in the same way as the main universe it mirrors, maintaining a greater degree of consistency in the process. At the same time however it’s mentioned that the Amazons rather than leaving Man’s World for Themyscira shared its technology and philosophy with the world, changing it forever, suggesting a far different world from what we’ve seen in glimpses here. Until it decides one way or another whether it’s a simple mirror to the regular DCU or a radically different take, it hovers in a state of uncertainty.

38. Earth-2 aka Earth Two

The original version of Earth-2, home to the DC Universe of the 1940s with aged versions of Superman and company and the original Justice Society of America. The first take on a DC universe that would progress in something resembling ‘real time’ rather than keeping the headliners as perpetual twenty-to-thirty-somethings, this was also the birthplace of heroes such as Power Girl and Huntress. I’m of the perhaps controversial opinion that this is a concept that was explored better in later takes: there’s a sense here that the largely forgotten follow-up generation eventually introduced, with the exception of the two heroes mentioned above, will never really matter in the same way as their still fully-active predecessors in spite of ostensibly taking over the family business, meaning you never quite actually get what you want here, which is to see a DC where things meaningfully change and move on - well into his middle age and his mentor’s death long behind him, Dick Grayson is still Robin. Add in the odd, ignominious demise of the original Batman and its Superman’s odd eventual fate - which slide from bizarre to intolerable if you accept the frequent implication that these are meant to be the original versions of them from the 1930s - and I can’t help but think the enjoyable high concept was never realized as well as it could be here.

37. Earth 4

The Earth of the characters of Charlton Comics who would go on to inspire Watchmen, this initially seemed like one of the most promising worlds after its debut in Pax Americana drew perhaps the most pronounced critical acclaim of any single issue in the past decade as the site for creators with something to say to work with Watchmen without actually touching that property. Now, however, Watchmen itself is in the mix: most wouldn’t reasonably go here while the material they’re truly referencing is now freely available (especially those simply wanting to draw fan attention by visibly playing with those toys, the way Earth 4 sidestepped) even though that world itself is now massively compromised past the original text, and with the ‘Watchmen Earth’ no longer an option and the characters themselves - if cleaned-up, more mainstream versions of them - existing in the DCU proper, this world’s role seems to have been largely stripped from it. I have to imagine there’s still potential here for those with the talent and commitment though.

36. Earth 44

A world where in the absence of natural superhuman beings, Doc Tornado created a Metal League of robot superheroes to protect the Earth. A promising concept definitely worth a few stories.

35. Earth 15

Once a perfect universe destroyed in a rampage by another Earth’s Superman, it was artificially reborn through the will of Countess Belzebeth - a cosmic vampire - as a copy of the Prime universe with the Green Lantern Corps replaced by Belzebeth’s despotic Blackstars, the uncertain and bitter heroes of this universe warped through the lens of Belzebeth’s perceptions of them had no chance against her forces. While its inhabitants are a bit samey what with all life having been subsumed into the diamond will of Blackstar Controller Mu, the idea of a conceptually weakened DCU being turned into an army against the rest of the multiverse makes for a terrific threat, and the prophecy of the ‘Cosmic Grail’ (a Green Lantern power battery lost somewhere in the multiverse) and that the First Lantern of the multiverse Volthoom hail from its original incarnation lend it some extra mythological weight.

34. Earth 32

A mashup world hosting the likes of the Justice Titans, Young Justice International, and the Doom Society. A world that’s home to Aquaflash will probably never have an ongoing all its own, but plenty of stories, miniseries, and even a brief line of comics have been based on mashup characters before, so there’s plenty of proof of concept for this being able to endure.

33. Earth 23

An Earth where Batman (naturally) is the only white guy on the Justice League, and Superman is not only President of the United States in his secret identity as Calvin Ellis, but the leader of the multiverse-spanning superteam Justice Incarnate. It reads like Morrison trying to do his idealized take on an ‘Ultimate DC’, a more diverse and politically engaged superhero landscape that doesn’t scale down its big ideas in turn, and if I were ranking it at the time it was introduced it would go much higher. The problem is that its version of Superman is modeled after Barack Obama, and that guy isn’t President anymore (and for that matter his legacy seems to grow more complicated by the year). As a result the vibe goes from triumphant to wistful mourning if not outright bitterly ironic, and that’s a needle that would have to be threaded before doing any substantial work here.

(Also, since several Justice Leaguers here rather than being made black are replaced with various black counterparts they’ve had over the years, that means Wonder Woman here is the 70s Amazon Nubia. And, uh, that name is something that would have to be...something.)

32. Earth 19

Steampunk superheroics; superhero period pieces are usually fun, and this is built on a foundation of pretty Mike Mignola art (though confession that I’ve never read Gotham By Gaslight), so sure, this one has potential.

31. Earth 18

Same as above but cowboys instead. This gets extra credit because cowboys mesh better with superhero conventions, and the additional twist of this world being frozen in history by the Time Trapper, forcing them to approximate modern technology with 19th century resources.

30. Earth 31

A post-apocalyptic waterworld where humanity is protected by Captain Leatherwing and assorted other pirate superheroes. Another ‘superheroes but in another genre’ setup, the post-apocalyptic, environmental twist makes it unfortunately more relevant than its peers, though I don’t think it’s quite the best end of the world as we know it on the list.

29. Earth 42

Home to the adorable, innocent world of the chibified Little League...secretly robots unwittingly enacting an endless stage play for the malevolent being known as the Empty Hand, running scenarios of his devising in preparation for a coming war with the rest of the multiverse. It’s a neat little multipurpose world, able to be played both as amusing contrast, or as parody whether light-hearted or cynical, in their endless ‘playtime’.

28. Earth 7

Formerly home to counterparts of the heroes of Earth 8, it was shattered by the Empty Hand’s forces and its desiccated cities made his throne, the zombie hordes that were once its champions his armies. The ‘Ultimate Marvel’ to Earth 8′s Marvel proper (and now Marvel Zombies), the idea of the broken remains of the cool version of the cool superhero universe as the lair of the ultimate evil has a certain appeal.

27. Earth 52

The last of the Earth 52s on this list, this newly added 53rd core Earth is home to Frank Miller’s Dark Knight books. Much as the reception to it over the years has become...mixed, at best (for my money Dark Knight III is the only one that’s not at least bad in a very interesting way, and even it still has its moments), the surprised generally positive reception to the most recent entry in Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child suggests there’s still life in this oddball corner of the cosmos yet.

(Fun fact: this was Earth 31 in a previous version of the multiverse, and Morrison intended it to be included as such in Multiversity - hence why Earth 31 is made up of inky scratches on the Map - but Miller requested he not since he wanted to keep his domain separate from DC’s ongoing storylines. Instead he agreed later to Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s use of it in Dark Nights: Metal as DKR is famously Snyder’s favorite comic, bringing it in as Earth 52.)

26. Earth 47 aka Dreamworld

Where the Love Syndicate of Dreamworld dwells, baby: all is groovy. It’s incredibly specific in both era and theme, but a psychedelic universe with heroes to match invites tons of possibilities.

25. Earth 10 aka Earth X

It’s the Nazi Earth that sucks. It has superheroes who unnervingly are about as well-intentioned and effective as the standard set in the New Reischman, opposed by the few remaining dregs of the Freedom Fighters led by Uncle Sam; only their Kal-L, Overman, once Hitler’s weapon, truly understands the scope of the atrocities that led to their ‘utopia’, having grown a conscience too late and ever-aware that no feat in the present can ever redeem the oceans of blood on his hands. You can do horrifying introspective stuff with them as in their Multiversity chapter, you can tell Freedom Fighters stories like the recent miniseries, or you can just have the Justice League show up to fight the Nazi Justice League. A Nazi world is a standard one in multiverse stories for a reason, you don’t get easier targets.

24. Earth 5G

The DC universe that’s...sort of here and sort of not. Doomsday Clock and other upcoming stories appear to be shifting us over to this, but in most of DC’s line of titles the leap hasn’t taken place yet. As we haven’t seen the bench of successor heroes apparently primed to take over only so much can be judged, but the vast changes suggested by the new ‘official timeline’ that’s been leaked suggest a bizarre attempt at incorporating as many of their editorially-favored biggest hits as possible into a bizarre selective mishmash, without particularly serving the status quos any of the constituent characters said history is meant to bolster (with the exception of Wonder Woman, now framed as the first superhero, which would at least be interesting and a deserved bolster to her profile if there were any particular impression her new standing would be meaningfully followed-through on), while also not only reinstating the mutually destructive retcon of the JSA as preceding Superman, but taking the absurd extra step of actively presenting them as his inspiration. Of course we haven’t seen it in practice yet, and at the end of the day good stories will surely still be told here, but the foundations here are about as shaky as they’ve ever been for the ‘core’ DCU as a wholehearted capitulation to placing dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s over the actual narrative logistics of making a shared universe function smoothly.

23. Earth Negative Zero aka Betwixt

A world where those whose senses of self entire disintegrate fade away to seeking to feed on those still well-defined, this bears similarities to the realm of Limbo where ignored superheroes reside, but with just enough conceptual differences and a hellish, malleable twist that makes it the best thing anyone’s come up with to date to do with the Dark Multiverse.

22. Earth 48 aka Warworld

While its iconography is rooted of all things in castoff characters from Crisis On Infinite Earths and no-hopers from Countdown To Final Crisis, the actual conceit here of a world where literally everyone and everything is a superhero that operates by superhero rules, a world built by the New Gods as defenders of reality, is wide-open and tantalizing.

21. Earth 38

Another major shot at a DCU that aged in real time, this version has its own idiosyncrasies but far more of a sense of forward momentum and meaningful change, with the original Superman and Batman still leading the pack one way or another but successors to both them and the rest of the heroes truly stepping up. Also the predominant hero of the 21st century is Knightwing, the grandson of both Superman and Batman who has only partial Superman powers but also Batman training, which is just really cool.

20. Earth 3

The good ‘ol classic evil mirror universe, where strength is the only law, the forces of evil always win in the end no matter how bright the day may become, and thus the Crime Syndicate operates as it pleases. It’s never quite as interesting as you want it to be - its villains are largely one-note - but its warped societal and cosmic rules, and that each character has a handful of twists on the mythology of their counterparts rather than being an exact (if morally inverted) duplicate, means it could easily one day come to live up to its obvious potential in the right hands.

19. Earth 21

Here, most superheroes were forced into retirement after World War II by McCarthyist paranoia, but at the dawn of the 1960s the few remaining and a new generation are emboldened to step back into the light, spearheaded by the Justice League of America. DC: The New Frontier is a modern classic, with a direct standalone follow-up virtually out of the question; as it doesn’t quite lead into the world of the actual 1960s DC Comics either, its sole function in its capacity as a world in the multiverse is as a 60s ‘period piece’ Earth. Given that’s where most of the architecture of DC as we now know it was built however, that’s hardly a problem.

18. Earth 26 aka Earth C

Funny animals are fun, and in a superhero universe that means you get superhero funny animals, courtesy of Captain Carrot and his amazing Zoo Crew. What’s not to love?

17. Earth 22

While time has somewhat dimmed the acclaim that originally surrounded it, Kingdom Come and its tale of a Superman coming out of retirement alongside his allies to try and reign in an out-of-control new generation remains a landmark moment in the genre, and in many aspects still holds up. Unlike many stories of its stature this world has always played nice with the mainline universe in terms of guest appearances and crossovers, including works by the original creators Mark Waid and Alex Ross, and as the most iconic and conceptually expansive work to date set in a DC universe that has joined in the march of time, that makes it a prominent and useful one to have around.

16. The Antimatter Universe of Qward aka The Reversoverse aka the Anti-Verse

The original dark flipside of DC reality, this has occasionally also played home to the Crime Syndicate - and their best stories by far, to boot - but mainly serves as a home base to the Weaponeers of Qward and occasionally Sinestro. While largely unexplored it has a massively central place in DC’s cosmology and the birth of the multiverse, the glimpses of a society of pure evil in early Silver Age Green Lantern and JLA: Earth 2 are far more fun and interesting than anything seen in Earth 3′s history, it’s about to get even more room under Morrison to find definition, and as the ultimate mysterious Forbidden Realm of the DCU the possibilities could be essentially endless in the right hands.

15. Earth-1985 aka Earth One

The DC universe of 1956-1986, and the dragon an entire generation of creators have spent their livelihoods chasing as the ‘classic’ iteration, as evidenced by one of them flat-out confirming it still exists somewhere out there. While that makes it frequently redundant when the main DCU is trying hard to mimic its feel - a few divergent notes such as Maggin’s idiosyncratic take on latter-day Superman and its version of Jason Todd aside - the prospect of a DCU that remained in that mold forever to a greater or lesser extent even if time may have moved forward could, in principle, free the main universe to go off in wildly different directions, knowing this image of DC always exists in its own space to return to when so desired rather than actively turning the current status quo to face backwards.

14. Earth 17

The Atomic Knights of Justice quest across the radioactive landscape of Novamerika in a world decimated by nuclear was in 1963 in search of Earth 15′s Cosmic Grail, their only hope against the coming of Darkseid. A mashup of the Justice League with the protagonists of one of the most fascinatingly bizarre comics of DC’s Silver Age in the Atomic Knights, a mythic quest, and most relevantly “What if Fallout had superheroes?” leaves this feeling like it’s just waiting for its moment to shine.

13. Earth 8 aka Angor

Known across the rest of the multiverse as the protagonists of the Major movies and comics (as opposed to the sub-imprint Essential Major reflecting Earth 7), in actuality the non-actionable champions of Angor - the Retaltiators, the G-Men, the Future Family, and The Bug, among others - are as real as any other superheroes, and while they struggle under the weight of both mistrust by the general public and frequent in-fighting, they’ve thus far protected their world from threats global, universal, and multiversal alike. The Big Two having stand-ins for each other is a longstanding tradition for good reasons: it not only allows for crossovers where the legal stars don’t align (and adds an extra fun shock of recognition whenever the reader realizes what’s happening), but provides each of them an ongoing version of those archetypes to play with within the confines of their own narrative, whether as contrasts or bending them to fit the tone of a very different shared universe than they were originally created for.

12. Earth 16 aka #earthme

The world where every sidekick, super-son, successor, and short-lived ‘new generation - of HERO!’ at last seize their moment in the sun...in a world already saved by their predecessors, with little left to do but lap up lives of super-celebrity and wish for one, just one little alien invasion or immortal tyrant to justify their existences for them. The best of DC’s futuristic/what-if-time-mattered alternate Earths in my opinion, taking to its logical conclusion the notion as stated by Morrison in interviews that as the Justice League will stick around as long as there are evils that need fighting, the ever-present promise of the torch being passed could only ever truly, permanently take place in a world where the job was already redundant. Playing as it does with in-universe history, real-life publishing realities, celebrity culture, generational divides, and the question of what being a superhero even means sans the usual confrontational justifications, it’s by its nature only going to become more expansive and interesting a commentary as time goes by and the regular DCU goes through its cycles of reboots, rebirths, and returns to form.

11. Pocket Universe 54471

Exactly what you see: Superman made a little pocket universe a half mile wide to go fishing in and he was gonna take Bruce and Dick there for the former’s bachelor party, and he knows about and/or created at least 54470 others. It’s absolutely delightful not only in its own right, but as an opening of the door to what the multiverse can mean in DC comics as a sci-fi idea generator beyond riffs on existing properties, while still being presented with a distinctly DC sense of playfulness.

10. Earth 45 aka Earth 45™

The origin of one of the best Superman villains of all time in Superdoomsday - the Superman idea in a world without him brought to life but twisted by committee into a murderous living brand - a horrifying corporatocracy standing for all Superman and company are meant to stand against, and an enduring threat with the world still in shackles and those in power still able to dream to life whatever vision they please of absolute power to be wielded in their name.

9. Earth 36 aka Terra

Justice 9, the defenders of Terra - or I suppose Justice 7 now after the losses of Optiman and Red Racer, though how long does that matter in a superhero universe? - is the most interesting of the direct analogue groups for my money. Technically speaking they’re another twice-removed set like 34 and 35, standing in for the heroes of Big Bang Comics, but given my understanding is that there’s no major “Like the DC heroes, BUT” twist in that book the way Astro City and Supreme have other than a retro ‘good old days’ bent (which definitely isn’t the case here with at least two queer members), Justice 9 basically function as direct analogues for the Justice League...in the same comics as the Justice League. To me, that’s actually fascinating: one of the most useful elements of stand-in characters like this is the ability to tap into the iconic power of archetypes without the familiarity surrounding the actual figures, in the way Planetary for instance uses just enough distance from the source material to make a couple dozen decades-old pop culture touchstones feel completely new, and this implements that approach to the material to the DC characters with heroes who can actually themselves team up with DC proper. As many approaches as could be taken with that though, that potential alone probably wouldn’t be enough to shoot it this high up the list if not for a major additional factor: in the same way that in the old-school DC universe the heroes of Earth-1 had comics reflecting the adventures of the heroes of Earth-2 long before learning they were real in another universe, DC Comics are published on Earth 36. Aside from the neat trick of putting our leads in the same position as the Golden Age heroes, it means Justice 9 grew up with the Justice League as their heroes in the same way as us the audience before becoming heroes themselves, and then they grew up to learn they were real. These folks absolutely deserve to become multiverse standbys.

8. Earth 51

The Earth where all Jack Kirby’s ideas live as a single cohesive world and adventure. No further justification is needed.

7. Earth 13

A world of occult danger where DC’s traditionally superheroic magical figures such as Zatanna and Deadman are given the full Vertigo horror treatment, while the more intimidating and morally dubious figures such as Etrigan and John Constantine get logos and codenames. Not only an expansion but an offputting inversion of one of DC’s most acclaimed corners, this oddball bunch could bounce off of the capes and tights crowd as easily as your Shadowpacts and Justice League Darks, in ways no other team from any corner of the multiverse could.

6. Earth 20

Pulp champions of a 21st century that remains aesthetically moored in the early 20th, of the handful of Earths converting DC standbys into different genre territory in the local 52 the homeworld of the Society of Superheroes hits hardest, given the role the likes of Doc Savage and The Shadow played in that time shaping the conventions of superheroes as we know them. Add the wealth of concepts presented in their oneshot and the decision to hew away from the traditional Justice League riffs of parallel Earths, and of all the truly new worlds introduced in Multiversity, Earth 20 is the one that most feels like it could support an ongoing all its own.

5. Earth 29 aka Htrae

You gotta have Bizarro World. You just gotta.

4. Earth 33 aka Earth Prime

The in-universe representation of our very own pale blue dot. Whether it’s the birthplace of Superboy Prime where assorted DC creators had to deal with a visiting Flash and Superman throughout the 60s and 70s, meta games with the various incarnations of Ultra/Ultraa, a looming threat yet also victim in need of rescue through the eyes of Justice Incarnate, or the unwitting home of the ‘Superman’ or ‘Batman’ of Kurt Busiek’s off-center takes on the characters in Secret Identity and Creature of the Night, over the years DC has shown a decent amount of restraint in not going back to this particular well too often unless someone has a really clever tale to tell, and as a result it has maybe the single best batting average of all the ‘parallel Earths’ that have been regularly returned to by DC over the years. Give yourselves a hand, folks!

3. Earth 5 aka Thunderworld

Home not to ‘Shazam’, but Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family in all their glory, a technicolor world playing by the rules set down by Otto Binder and company where a superhero can literally battle planets and the most dangerous villain of all may be a very, very mean worm with glasses, a place of dream logic and childish innocence even by the standards of superhero comics. Captain Marvel at his best is one of DC’s most iconically potent players yet many seem to agree that much of his woes in recent years have come down to trying to find a unique space for him in the DCU proper. While I don’t know that it’s at all impossible to make that work, it’s certainly true that Marvel as he was originally presented doesn’t quite make sense in that world, whereas back in his own he keeps a flavor entirely unique to himself and his partners, whether for solo adventures or teamups with the heroes of the other worlds, playing it straight or examining some of the unsettling implications established by Thunderworld or finding a new way to make it work. Much like Bizarro World, it’s simply a locale the place doesn’t quite feel whole without.

2. Earth 25 (?)

While I’m a bit dubious on it definitely being Earth 25 in the core 52 based on interpretation of an offhanded line from Mr. Terrific (it has a multiverse all its own!), the fact of the matter is that America’s Best Comics came roaring out of the gate as proof of its own title, and basically didn’t stop until it ended. A couple after-the-fact Tom Strong miniseries (containing perhaps the most singularly cowardly hack move in the history of shared universe comics in undoing the end of Promethea) can’t detract from the core ABC lineup being made up of some of the most singularly clever, gorgeous, and heartfelt superhero titles to hit the stands, pretty much the platonic ideal of what you want books like these to look like. If this universe can hang around in any capacity at all until someone god willing picks them up again in a big way, it’s a win in my book.

1. Earth 0 aka Prime Earth

The extant version of the main DCU for at least a little longer, it really does feel like more than just about any version before it - at least for my money - they finally got all their ducks in a row, albeit right before blowing everything to hell. Most of the stories you really want to still have some sort of weight for the major characters are still in play to be built on, and most of the stories that clearly needed to be dropped are dropped. The cosmology’s fleshed out and expanding, the big names mostly work as they should ideally work while still heading into new territory, the JSA is mysteriously somehow around in the past without interfering with the primacy of Superman and the Justice League as the first known superheroes (a mystery that will never be resolved now due to the current reboot; damn shame) and the Legion of Superheroes have a new coat of paint, and there’s room for stories cosmically massive and intimately personal and utterly bizarre throughout the line rather than there being a single overriding idea of what these books should be. It may not be the perfect DC Universe by any means, but it’s a real, real damn good one, and of course without that thing, none of the rest of these universes would have been there in the first place.

[ao3feed-supercorp]

it stood thus in our stars when we were born

by Jazzfordshire

It’s a happiness like Kara has never felt, knowing she’s successfully pulled off their ruse and bumbled her way into her first tournament. She’s full of restless energy, so buoyant that she’s sure she could fly, and she spurs her horse onwards through the crowd, reveling in the joyous squalor of the city. It reminds her of home. Of London, the tiny hovel in the cheapest part of the city where Eliza worked her fingers to the bone as a healer to support her and Alex, before she sent them away to make a better life for themselves.

It’s in this mood, dressed as a man and brimming with hope as she meanders through the streets grinning at anyone who will give her a second look, that she sees an angel.

OR

Kara Danvers is a knight’s squire, a girl of humble origins just trying to find her place in the world. When the lord she serves unexpectedly gives her the oppourtunity to change her stars, she takes it without hesitation, finding love and purpose along the way.

OR OR

The medieval AU based on A Knight’s Tale, the sexiest historical movie in existence.

Words: 12440, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Supergirl (TV 2015)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/F

Characters: Kara Danvers, Lena Luthor, Alex Danvers, Samantha "Sam" Arias, Winn Schott Jr., Lucy Lane (DCU), Jack Spheer, Morgan Edge

Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Minor Samantha "Sam" Arias/Alex Danvers, Minor Winn Schott Jr./Jack Spheer, kara is a poor sunshine jock who poses as a man to compete in the joust, lena is a genius lesbian trapped in the heteronormativity of the medieval period, when they meet just GUESS what happens, smut in later chapters

from AO3 works tagged 'Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor' https://ift.tt/2DFejEt via IFTTT http://archiveofourown.org/works/21659971