#elseworld 64

[calciumcryptid]

I think it would be funny if my DickKori kids didn't have fingerprints because they have toe beans instead. Just, the image of Grandfather Bruce trying to fingerprint them only to have black smudges.

[superman86to99]

Adventures of Superman #514 (July 1994)

"THE FALL OF METROPOLIS," Part 4! Metropolis is invaded by aliens! And werewolves! And Nazis! And Lois Lane dies! And Professor Hamilton loses a limb! Only one of these things ends up being true by the time the issue is over.

Metropolis is still in ruins after the explosive events of Action #700 (it's not like they can magically fix it from one issue to the next, right?) and on top of that, the city is now covered in so much fog that it's giving me Superman 64 flashbacks. But this is no regular fog: when some armed preppers walk through it, one of them suddenly hallucinates that his friends are alien invaders and kills them in a panic. Elsewhere, three soldiers are affected by the fog and start seeing everyone around them as "commies," the Viet Cong (so "commies" again), and werewolves (communist ones, presumably).

Superman stops a soldier from shooting a rabbi/imaginary werewolf, but the soldier sees him as a vampire while the rabbi thinks Superman is a Nazi (both solid Elseworlds premises).

While trying to contain all the people tripping balls around Metropolis, Superman runs into Lois, who's just chilling in the middle of the ruins. Just as Superman comments that he seems to be immune to whatever is making people hallucinate their worst fears, that trigger-happy prepper from before appears and shoots at them, thinking they're aliens (well, he's half right).

Superman just lets the bullets bounce off his chest... not noticing that one bounced in Lois' direction, fatally injuring her. NEXT: Reign of the Lois Lanes?!

Making matters worse, Ma and Pa Kent happen to stroll by, having seemingly traveled to war-torn Metropolis just to tell their son what a disappointment he is. Then Lex Luthor shows up too, with his luscious red locks inexplicably restored, and tells Superman none of this would have happened if he hadn't stolen Lois and Metropolis from him. Lex finally concedes that Metropolis is "Superman's city," but only because, as Superman just noticed, the city is full of nothing but corpses now.

Meanwhile, Professor Hamilton is having a tough time too: a prostitute has just shot him in the arm because she hallucinated that Hambone was her abusive pimp. Hamilton is rescued by a white-haired young lady who smacks the prostitute with a plank of wood. Ham and the girl jump into his car to escape the crazed crowd around them, but then he hallucinates his worst fear: not being able to operate a vehicle because the controls are too complicated.

"Also, I'm naked!"

The girl jump-starts the car's engine and they speed away from the crowd -- only to realize that being in a speeding car with someone who's hallucinating at the wheel isn't such a brilliant idea. They end up driving the car off a pier, and right before they do, we see that Ham happened to have a box full of something called "synthetic enzymes" on his back seat...

Back to Superman, he angrily flies into the sky with Luthor, who morphs into his old school bald self and goads Superman into killing him. Superman refuses to give in to hatred and delivers a speech about rebuilding a better, Lex-free Metropolis, causing Luthor to fade away, as does Lois' corpse. Right then, Hamilton and the white-haired girl come to tell Superman that they've figured out how to stop the hallucinations: no, not "facing and overcoming your deepest fears," but simply spreading that convenient "synthetic enzyme" throughout the city to negate the fog's effect.

(This is why I never leave the house without synthetic enzymes in my car since reading this issue.)

Superman makes the enzyme rain down over Metropolis and everything goes back to normal... except for Professor Hamilton who, to quote Arrested Development, is now "all right," because he lost his left arm. Superman and Hamilton figure out that the crazy fog was another one of Luthor's "fail-safes" in case he was ever defeated, like the killer robots that have been attacking Metropolis over the past weeks (Man of Steel #35 and Superman #91).

But there's still one fail-safe left, and it's a big one...

TO BE CONCLUDED!

Creator-Watch:

This month's issue of Adventures is guest-drawn by Peter Krause, who coincidentally also guest-drew Adventures and Superman exactly two years ago during the Agent Liberty two-parter. We'll see a little more Krause in the near future via another Adventures issue and the Metropolis S.C.U. miniseries… and maybe a LOT more in the not-so-near future if our plans to cover his Power of Shazam! ongoing series with Jerry Ordway in our newsletter come into fruition. (Don is a big fan and I've always been curious about it because 1) it's Ordway and 2) José "Gangbuster" Delgado is in it.)

Plotline-Watch:

The loss of Professor Hamilton's arm will be the longest-lasting consequence of Metropolis' destruction. (It will also be used to turn him into a villain after this era, but we won't be covering those issues and I'm glad.) I like that good ol' Ham is so absent-minded that he seems to have forgotten about his missing arm like five minutes after they amputated it. He also forgot that his hair is supposed to be grey, apparently.

There's a dark irony to Hamilton losing a limb after being shot by a prostitute, considering that Adventures #425, his second appearance, was about him kidnapping a "strumpet" at gunpoint out of desperation after Luthor stole his invention. He did his time and got his shit together after that, though.

Yes, Luthor's final fail-safe is the Awesome Kryptonian Battle Robot, which was built in ancient Krypton, sent to the Phantom Zone, ended up in the Fortress of Solitude (where Professor Hamilton used it to play tag with robots), and was most recently used by the powerless, recently resuscitated Superman to walk from Antactica to Metropolis during "Reign of the Supermen." I guess Superman sorta lost track of it after that, but to be fair he did have a lot on his mind at that point.

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Dr. Kitty "Rampage" Faulkner tells Superman that right before Project Cadmus was destroyed (as far everyone knows, anyway), they used some fantastic sci-fi technology called a "modem" to send S.T.A.R. their info on the cure to the Clone Plague. Despite Luthor being a dick in and out of Superman's hallucinations, Superman still makes sure he's delivered to S.T.A.R. at the end of the issue so they can apply the cure (though we already know he won't stay there for long).

"Mardis" up there is Dr. Jean Louis Mardis from the recent S.T.A.R. Corps miniseries, who is somehow still employed by S.T.A.R. despite trying to pass off alien tech as his own inventions, accidentally turning a bunch of regular people into superpowered freaks and nearly causing an AI to conquer the world. S.T.A.R., which has also employed Hamilton in the recent past, seems to be big on second opportunities.

As far as I can tell, that white-haired young lady who has a weird amount of protagonism in this issue Never Showed Up Again. [EDIT: k9feline reminded me in the comments that she DOES show up again, with her rock band! Shame on me.] Given the color of her hair, her surprising skill with machines, and the fact that she keeps calling Professor Hamilton "pops," I'm gonna assume she's supposed to be his secret lovechild (with a prostitute?).

Big Belly Burger sighting! "Eat 'em!"

Shout Outs-Watch:

Big belly shout outs to our supporters, Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, and Dave Shevlin! Join them (and get extra articles) via Patreon or our newsletter's "pay what you want" mode!

And now, stick around for The Don Sparrow Show:

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

We open with the cover, and it’s a pretty affecting one, a pieta style pose with a massive Superman mourning an apparently grievously injured Lois Lane.  Very emotional, and pretty restrained, in terms of '90s-excesses—in the hands of a lesser artist, the idea of Lois’ tattered clothes would be treated as titillating rather than sorrowful, so it’s an effective choice that Barry Kitson makes here.

The cover is all the Kitson we get, as the interiors are handled by Pete Krause, a terrific artist, and soon-to-be companion of Jerry Ordway on the excellent Power of Shazam! series.  Though I think his sharpest work is ahead of him, his pencils are solid throughout this issue, an interesting middle ground between the shadowy slickness of someone like Stuart Immonen (indeed, I don’t remember Krause ever looking so much like Immonen), and the pure linework of someone like Tom Grummett. The shot of Superman rescuing the old man is a great one.  Our introduction to Lois Lane in the story is also a cute panel, as Superman greets her with a (fairly wide) open mouth kiss.

The image of Professor Hamilton getting shot in the arm is something of a mixed bag—the expression of pain is great, but it also doesn’t actually show him getting shot (the drawing appears to indicate that he was only grazed by the bullet) but we later learn that the injury is so severe his arm must be amputated. [Max: I also got the impression that the injury wasn't so severe, but the girl does mention that Ham spent "hours" looking for Superman without getting medical attention, so that didn't help.]

The smoke is well used as a framing device for the dream sequences, as both the cause of the hallucinations, and a good way of demonstrating the dream like quality that feverish fantasy lends.  The panel of a majestic Lex II is particularly well done.

The best panel in the book might be on page 16, where an enraged Superman flies Lex II up up and away, and Lex’s roses fall to Earth, giving a real sense of height and motion. 

The pages where Superman puts Hamilton’s cure into action are great, as Superman soars into action, and creates a water spout to deliver the cure.

Finally, I always love seeing the Mignola-designed Kryptonian battle suit in action, and it’s an efficient piece of storytelling that Lex picked it up when it was just abandoned on the harbour in the "Reign of the Superman" storyline.

I’m not generally a fan of dream sequences as I often find them to be indulgent writing, and also inconsequential plotting—they rarely mean anything more than actual dreams do.  But this issue on the whole wasn’t as frustrating as some fever dream issues can be, as Karl Kesel deftly uses Superman’s nightmarish doubts to fuel action that did matter to the plot.

SPEEDING BULLETS:

Though the film is decades away, the alien infected soldiers from Jeff Scully’s chemically induced reverie look for all the world like the Orcs from the unrelentingly terribly 2017 movie from future terrible Superman writer Max Landis, Bright.

I can’t remember a time when a one-off character got so many name mentions as Jeff Scully, who gets identified no fewer than three times in the book.  I wonder if it was a buddy of Karl Kesel’s perhaps.  [Max: Since he's obsessed with aliens, I always took it as a little X-Files shout out.]

Then on the other end of the spectrum, we’re introduced to the lady in the headband who pulls a Thelma and Louise off a pier with Professor Hamilton, but in spite of having pages of dialogue, is never given a name, that I can find.

The “baker to alpha” soldier is a dead ringer for Pork Chop Hill era Gregory Peck, in my estimation.

I’m not entirely sure who I’d cast as Emil Hamilton, but in the final pages of this story, he looks a lot like Awakenings era Robin Williams to me.

I had forgotten exactly how Hamilton lost his arm, I just remember that he suddenly had a robot arm.  It’s a bit odd that a high tech character like him loses his arm to plain old gunfire.   

Am I alone in being confused why the toxin was able to affect Superman’s super-efficient system?  Though he needs to breathe, traditionally, he’d never show much vulnerability to gases in past stories. [Max: I guess it's possible that Lex intentionally designed it to be strong enough to affect Superman, and the military rejected it when they were like "uh, why does the budget include a $100 million 'Kryptonian respiratory system research' item...?"]

GODWATCH:  A very overt reference to the almighty from our Holocaust survivor elderly man, thanking both God and Superman for dispelling the fear toxin—complete with a literal and symbolic rainbow after the storm.

One wonders if Lex’s weaponized fear toxin was in any way based off of Batman villain Scarecrow’s concoction.  Seems like a missed opportunity, though it’s a pretty jam packed issue. 

[green-arrxws]

📂| CAROL FERRIS/STAR SAPPHIRE READING GUIDE

Who's Carol Ferris/Star Sapphire?

Carol Ferris is the boss and occasional love interest of Hal Jordan. Her family owns the Ferris Aircraft company, where she acts as an executive, and sometimes as a pilot. She is also Star Sapphire, a once villainous character occupying another part of her personality entirely. In the Star Sapphire Corps, where she fights for love across the universe, she has taken on a more heroic role.

» PRE-CRISIS

ESSENTIAL READING

Showcase: #22-24

Green Lantern (1960): #1-7, #10-13, #15-18, #20-29, #32, #34-39, #41-44, #46, #48-49, #53, #69, #73-74, #83-84, #88-89, #93-94, #97, #99, #104-106, #108-109, #121, #124, #126-134, #136, #138-151, #157, #172-176, #178-183, #185-193

additional reading ↷

Superman (1939): #261

The Flash (1959): #235

DC Comics Presents: #6

» POST-CRISIS (PRE-FLASHPOINT)

ESSENTIAL READING

Green Lantern (1960): #199-200

The Green Lantern Corps: #201, #211-213

Action Comics (1938): #601-605

Green Lantern (1990): #21-24, #26-27, #29, #32-34, #36, #38, #40-47

Extreme Justice: #10-11

Parallax: Emerald Night

Green Lantern (1990): #81, #102, #119

Spectre (2001): #1-5, #21-23

Green Lantern: Rebirth: #1-2, #6

Green Lantern (2005): #18-20, #29-35, #38

Blackest Night (crossover storyline): Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps: #2 / Blackest Night: #1 / Green Lantern (2005): #44-48 / Blackest Night: #5-6 / Green Lantern (2005): #50 / Blackest Night: Wonder Woman: #3 / Green Lantern (2005): #51 / Blackest Night: #7 / Green Lantern (2005): #52 / Blackest Night: #8

Brightest Day (crossover storyline): Green Lantern (2005): #53 / Brightest Day: #1 / Green Lantern (2005): #54-55, #57-58 / Brightest Day: #13, #17-18

Green Lantern (2005): #63-64, #66-67

additional reading ↷

Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn: #1-2, #4, #6

Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn II: #1, #6

Eclipso: The Darkness Within (crossover storyline): Green Lantern (1990) Annual #1 / Eclipso: The Darkness Within: #2

Green Lantern (1990): Annual #2, Annual #4

Green Lantern Secret Files and Origins: #1

Flash & Green Lantern: The Brave and the Bold: #6

Legends of the DC Universe: #28, #33

Silver Age: Green Lantern

DC First: Green Lantern/Green Lantern

Green Lantern Legacy: The Last Will and Testament of Hal Jordan

Green Lantern Secret Files and Origins 2005 ("Flight")

Wednesday Comics: #1, #3

Convergence: Suicide Squad: #1-2

Convergence: Green Lantern Corps: #1

» NEW 52 (POST FLASHPOINT)

ESSENTIAL READING

Green Lantern (2011): #1, #3-7, #12

Rise of the Third Army (crossover storyline): Green Lantern: New Guardians: #0, #13-15, Annual #1, #16 / Green Lantern Corps (2011): Annual #1

Wrath of the First Lantern (crossover storyline): Green Lantern: New Guardians: #18-19 / Green Lantern (2011): #20

Green Lantern (2011): #21

Green Lantern: New Guardians: #21-23

Lights Out (crossover storyline): Green Lantern (2011): #24 / Green Lantern Corps (2011): #24 / Green Lantern: New Guardians: #24 / Red Lanterns: #24 / Green Lantern (2011): Annual #2

Green Lantern (2011): #25

Green Lantern: New Guardians: #25-30, Annual #2, #31-34

Godhead (crossover storyline): Green Lantern: New Guardians: #35-37 / Red Lanterns: #37 / Sinestro: #8 / Green Lantern (2011): Annual #3

Green Lantern (2011): #38

Green Lantern: New Guardians: #38-40

additional reading ↷

Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War: #3-6

Star Trek/Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds: #1-3, #6

New Talent Showcase (2017) ("Dead Bacons")

» REBIRTH

ESSENTIAL READING

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps: #31, #50

The Green Lantern: Season Two: #9-10

additional reading ↷

Green Lantern 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular ("Last Will")

» INFINITE FRONTIER

ESSENTIAL READING

Green Lantern (2023): #1-6, #8 (currently ongoing title)

» ALTERNATE VERSIONS

ELSEWORLDS

Green Lantern: Evil's Might: #1-3

Superman & Batman: Generations II: #2

Justice League: The Nail: #1

Justice League: Another Nail: #2-3

Justice: #6-8

DC New Frontier: #3-5

Flashpoint: Hal Jordan: #1-3

Ame-comi Girls: #8-10

Injustice: Year Two: #3, #6, #19, #21

The Green Lantern: #11

The Green Lantern: Season Two: #7, #9-10

DC's Very Merry Multiverse ("To Stop the Star-Conqueress!")

Wonder Woman (2016): #777

» OTHER MEDIA

ANIMATED

Justice League: S1: EP8-EP9, EP16-EP17 / S2: EP19-EP20

Justice League Unlimited: S3: EP13

Green Lantern: First Flight

Batman: The Brave and The Bold: S3: EP4, EP10

Justice League Doom

Green Lantern: The Animated Series: S1: EP1, EP9, EP13-EP14, EP20, EP22, EP26

Young Justice: S2: EP7

Justice League Action: S1: EP7

DC Super Hero Girls (webseries): S1: EP6, EP10 / S2: EP10, EP17-EP18, EP22, EP26 / S5: EP6-EP7, EP22

DC Super Hero Girls (tv series): S1: EP6, EP22-25, EP31, EP46 / Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse

LIVE ACTION

Green Lantern

VIDEO GAMES

DC Universe Online

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

Infinite Crisis

DC Legends

DC Unchained

LEGO DC Super-Villains

DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power

DC Worlds Collide

[insomniac-jay]

It is hysterical to me that Palette was originally paired up with Mardon so you could use the ship name watercolor, because in Elseworld 64 I gave Mardon a daughter named Jocelyn who is a painter that specializes in watercolors.

Also please post miss Jocelyn. I need her to meet her sisters from another dimension

[assortmentrandom]

The top 100 best Wonder Woman stories

Im going to preface this with the confession that this is not a list I am entirely satisfied with, with some titles on this which I stuck in because I felt they brought something interesting to the character of Wonder Woman or her mythology.

I will also heavily emphasize that I did not in any way, shape, or form attempt to organize this list from best to worst. This was the result of me spending days considering what stories across Wonder Womans portfolio warranted recognition and jotted them down as I went along.

Some time in the future I may revise this by either changing the selection, or perhaps someday I will be mad enough to try organizing it by level of quality. But for now...I present what I consider 100 of the best Wonder Woman stories.

101. wonder women of the world 100. Wonder Woman (v3) #18-#19 Khund story 99. Sensation Comics(v1) 1-8 establishing the status quo 98. Wonder Woman(v1) #5 Doctor Psycho introduction and  sensation comics(v1) #20 Marva Jean Grey story 97. Sensation Comics(v1) #37 children visiting paradise island 96. sensation comics(v1) #11 Eros story 95. sensation comics(v1) #36  scooby doo mystery 94. sensation comics(v1) #75 leprechauns return 93. sensation comics(v1) #67 bar-l ranch rodeo 92. sensation comics(v1) #37 Joy Foundation 91. sensation comics(v1)#71 sun warriors 90. wonder woman(v1) #1 origin 89. wonder woman(v1) #2 mars intro 88. wonder woman(v1) #3 baroness 87. wonder woman(v1) #6 cheetah 86. wonder woman(v1) #7 wonder woman president 85. wonder woman(v1) #28 villainy inc 84. wonder woman(v1) #153 wonder girl medusa 83. wonder woman(v1) #140 dream tour 82. wonder woman(v1) #178-#182 and #187-#188 doctor cyber 81. wonder woman(v1) #183-184 battle for the amazons 80. wonder woman(v1) #212-222 labors of wonder woman 79. wonder woman(v1) #239-#240 trial of wonder woman 78. wonder woman(v1) #269-#272 bronze age status quo 77. wonder woman(v1) #291-#293 the Adjudicator arc 76. wonder woman(v1) #297-#298 and #310 the...Artemis arc? 75. wonder woman(v1) #326-#329 Pre crisis finale 74. Legend of Wonder Woman #1-#4 (1986) return of queen atomia 73. Wonder Woman Amazonia victorian england elseworld 72. legends of the DC universe #30-#32 maybe? on the fence. To reconsider later 71. wonder woman(v2) #1-#7 Opening Perez 70. wonder woman(v2) #10-#14 paradise lost 69. Wonder Woman (v5) #69 Nice 68. wonder woman: donna troy girl frenzy 67. wonder woman: the once and future story flashback story with domestic ab 66. wonder woman spectacular throwback story about Mars 65. wonder woman(v2) #66-#71 space rebellion 64. wonder woman(v2) #75 hospital visit 63. wonder woman(v2) #83-#84 Donna Milton 62. wonder woman(v2) #164-#167 Gods of Gotham 61. wonder woman(v2)  #170 Lois Lane interview 60. wonder woman(v2) #177 Themyscira reborn 59. wonder woman(v2) #190-#194 game of the gods 58. wonder woman(v2) #212-#213 Divine coup 57. wonder woman(v2) #215-#217 Journey to the underworld 56. Wonder Woman(v2) Annual #1 Perezian 55. Wonder Woman (v3) #26-#33 genocide arc 54. Wonder Woman (v3) #20-23 swords and sandals 53. Wonder Woman (v3) #611-#614 post crisis finale 52. Wonder Woman (V5) #2, #4, #6, #8 Rebirth year one 51. Wonder Woman (v5) #51 52nd visit 50. wonder woman(v2) #46 chalk drawings 49. JLA: a league of one 48. Wonder Woman (v5) #758 four horsewomen finale 47.  Wonder Woman (v5) #770-#779 journey back to Earth 46. Wonder Woman: Steve Trevor 45. Wonder Girl #1-#2, Wonder Girl Annual 44. Bombshells United #1-#7 American Soil 43. Nubia: Queen of the Amazons 42. sensational wonder woman special 41. Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary super spectacular 40. Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman #12-#13 phoenix egg 39. Wonder Woman '77 #4-#6 who is wonder woman? 38. JLA #62-#64 The broken truth 37. Sensational Wonder Woman #3-#4 36. sensational wonder woman #5 35. Sensational Wonder Woman #9-#10 34. sensational wonder woman #13-#14 33. sensational comics featuring wonder woman #7 32. Wonder Woman Black & Gold 31. wonder woman(v1) #243 angle man 30. wonder woman (v1) #201-#202 catwoman team up 29. wonder woman the true amazon 28. just imagine stane lee: wonder woman 27. wonder woman the hiketeia 26. wonder woman (v4) #8-#10 (Im throwing that run ONE BONE) 25. wonder woman agent of peace #6 gundra 24. wonder woman agent of peace #7 etta focused story 23. wonder woman agent of peace #16 russian fable 22. wonder woman (V2) #9, #28, #29 Barbara Minerva 21. wonder woman(v1) #312-#316 mishkin circe 20. wonder woman (v2) #18-#19 perezian circe 19. wonder woman adventures 1-3 18. tales of the amazons 17. comic cavalcade #14 wanta wynn 16. wonder woman (v1) #286 dying wish 15. wonder woman (v2) #206-#211 medusa 14. wonder woman (v2) #186-#187 sebastian bellasteros 13. Wonder Woman (v2) #20 and Wonder Woman annual #2 12. Wonder Woman (V3) #24-#25 11. Trinity (2008) 10. legend of wonder woman (2016) golden age throwback 9. wonder woman: spirit of truth 8. wonder woman war of the gods 7. wonder woman: warbringer 6. wonder woman/Conan the Barbarian 5. wonder woman: the adventures of young diana special 4. Nubia: Real One 3. Wonder Woman Amazon Historia 1-3 2. Diana: princess of the Amazons 1. Diana and Nubia: Princesses of the Amazons

[thecomicsnexus]

TMNT: BLACK, WHITE AND GREEN #4

August 2024

By Lee Garbett, Chris Condon, Jeremy Holt, Patrick Gleason , Carson Thorn, Sebastian Piriz, and Nathan Widick.

Four more stories in black, white, and green. Final issue.

SCORE: 7

I think that this book had some pretty good art throughout its run, with stories some times being at the same level. But it's always hard to tell short stories, and I think not all these writers were ready for the challenge.

Perhaps I am too basic and fell for the nostalgia, but my favorite story in this issue was the one with all the times Shredder got stuck into something. It worked very well with the format, and replayed some all-time favorites.

There is a story about Donnie becoming a cyborg which was clearly inspired by the Image run. But too many of those panels were mostly black with some texture and captions. I'm not sure what to think of this story. It kind of felt like looking at AI art. But it's probably because of that black and white photograph style the artist went for (which looks very good on the backgrounds).

The main attraction was (my opinion) the Patrick Gleason story. Which is another story with great visuals and a snippet of a story. I got very confused reading this story, actually. Like there were missing panels.

But hey, it ended with a splash page...

Overall, the book showcase a lot of talent that you don't usually see on TMNT, and all of them "belonged." They were clearly fans of the material (comics, movies, and shows), and I am sure all of them should be able to deliver great stories. In fact, I would take this experiment into a graphic novel direction. Make them elseworlds if you have to (to please IDW and Nickelodeon). Think about it, we don't get many TMNT graphic novels at all. You can bring in new and veteran artists to tell a 64 page story, maybe 6 times a year. That would be an amazing addition to any collection. And you never know, some of those may become greatest hits.

Think about it...

[ectonurites]

"I think about hyper-tension with Supergirl." Krypronite salt?

DSGFHBDFGSD

Hyper-Tension! is the name of the storyline that last post featured panels from, it has to do with Kon jumping through Hypertime (and well, it's all tense because the story arc starts with a dying alternate Kon being dropped on the Justice League's doorstep!)

The story is in Superboy Vol. 4 #60-64 with a wrap-up/epilogue in #65!

And I mentioned Supergrrrl (not Supergirl) in my tags because she's one of the cool alternate timeline Superboys we get to see in the story (cloned from/based off of Kara rather than Clark, from the setting of Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl)

(Superboy Vol. 4 #61)

[ufonaut]

Ok same anon as before: so what did alan do after he was forced into retirement as green lantern? Was he just stuck then as normal alan scott for however many decades? I assumed at first that alan’s company failed because he sucked at being green lantern and as a ceo- but was he solely just alan at that point when his company was dying? I really gotta read the older comics man- can you get me some JSA comics recommendations to read over break? I just love the old JSA history

alright, i feel like there’s a couple misunderstandings here when comes to the jsa/alan so before i get into this i wanna make sure we all know that:

1) the jsa’s history is both closely tied to and obviously informed by real life history. before the presidential decree that mystery men fighting in the war would be bad for morale became canon (somewhat recently), the vast majority of the jsa’s members were actively pictured in the war in their civilian identities (as per forties comics). the most recent example of that is one of the early 2000s christmas specials which has a hollywood canteen (club ran by celebs, open to all allied servicemen. look it up!) type event where ted grant gets tremendously drunk ‘cause he’s shipping out in the morning. i can’t remember the exact issue rn but i’ll edit if i find it

2) huac (house un-american activities committee) targeting mystery men is an obvious nod to the hollywood blacklist and steeped so firmly in the red scare & mccarthyism that it literally cannot be removed from that context. understanding the far-reaching effects of huac and how it ruined the jsa’s lives requires a working knowledge of how that played out in real life. again, the jsa is much more closely related to irl history than literally any other superhero team

now that we’ve got that covered, it should be obvious that alan was affected by huac the most out of everyone in the jsa. while james robinson’s the golden age (1993) is ostensibly elseworlds, the beginning of it is actually identical to canon and i’d definitely recommend it for the simple fact that it’s the singular comic to analyse exactly how alan is dealing with everything. he’s affected in his personal life for the obvious reasons (though he’d only been gaycoded at the time, the fact that it’s now canon adds to it), in his professional life since he works in media & more than half of the gbc writers end up being blacklisted and in his life as green lantern. that brings us to the fact that gbc actually goes bankrupt 2-3 times with alan as its ceo but the first time is specifically because of huac

(the golden age #3)

the second time is during paul levitz’s run on all-star comics (#58-#74), which is a personal favourite of mine actually, and it’s the one where alan’s solution is to hold up an airport:

(all-star comics #64-#65)

the third time is in infinity inc #8-#9 when he declares himself the communications czar:

as you can see his reactions get progressively worse and it’s only sometimes related to his own terrible sense of business but the period you’re referring to is definitely specifically because of huac tearing down everything he’s built. it’s canon that for the entirety of the fifties the jsa did not exist:

(adventure comics #466, technically part of the aforementioned levitz run and the first mention of huac in relation to the jsa)

so yes, alan was not green lantern for the majority of that time. og canon states that superheroes returned in the sixties (when the second volume of green lantern started, with hal jordan this time) and while that’s not been updated to keep up with the current timeline, i’d still keep their return somewhere around the late sixties, say with the emergence of the younger members of the all-star squadron like amazing man during the detroit riot in ‘67

i hope that gives you a rough timeline of what went on with alan and definitely feel free to take everything i mentioned above as a wholehearted recommendation! i also have an alan scott rec list here and to that i’d add the alan story in the green lantern 80th special, dc universe: legacies #2 (outsider pov on the huac situation), pretty much the entirety of jsa (1999) if u wanna do a whole run, the justice society of america (1991) and justice society of america (1992) miniseries, all the jsa returns one shots but especially jsa returns: all-american comics (1999) #1 for a focus on alan and dc first: green lantern/green lantern #1 to start u off. half the fun is the search though so if you’re genuinely interested in this, i’d say the next step is taking a look at comicvine and various dc wikis and see what looks interesting to u personally!!

[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.

[batsupes-love]

Challenge

Write one of the following. 01. Top! Bruce Wayne x Bottom!Clark Kent 02. Top!Joker x Bottom!Bruce Wayne 03. Top!Dick Grayson x Bottom!Clark Kent 04. Top!Jason Todd x Bottom!Clark Kent 05. Top!Tim Drake x Bottom!Clark Kent     06. Top!Tim Drake x Bottom!Conner Kent 07. Top!Damian Wayne x Bottom!Tim Drake 08. Top!Barry Allen x Bottom!Clark Kent 09. Top!Hal Jordan x Bottom!Clark Kent 10. Top!Barry Allen x Bottom!Hal Jordan 11. Top!Lex Luthor x Bottom!Clark Kent 12. Top!Dick Grayson x Bottom!Bruce Wayne 13. Top!Jason Todd x Bottom!Bruce Wayne 14. Top!Tim Drake x Bottom!Bruce Wayne 15. Top!Damian Wayne x Bottom!Jonathan Samuel Kent 16. Top!Damian Wayne x Bottom!Conner Kent 17. Top!Alfred Pennyworth x Bottom!Clark Kent 18. Top!Ted Kord x Bottom!Michael Carter 19. Top!Billy Batson x Bottom!Clark Kent (Just imagine how Elseworld, Distant Fires might have turned out...) 20.Top!Lobo x Bottom!Conner Kent 21. Top!Roy Harper x Bottom!Jason Todd 22. Top!Tim Drake x Bottom!Jason Todd 23. Top!Batzarro x Bottom!Bizarro 24. Top!Batzarro x Bottom!Clark Kent 25. Top!Bizarro x Bottom!Clark Kent 26. Top!Kirk x Bottom!Hernan 27. Top!Thomas Wayne x Bottom!Jor-El 28. Top!Owlman x Bottom!Ultraman 29. Top!Joker x Bottom!Clark Kent 30. Top!Joker x Switch!Bruce Wayne x Bottom!Clark Kent 31. Top!Eradicator x Bottom!Clark Kent 32. Top!Lord Batman x Bottom!Lord Superman 33. Alpha!Bruce Wayne x Omega!Clark Kent 34. Alpha!Dick Grayson x Omega!Clark Kent 35. Alpha!Jason Todd x Omega!Clark Kent 36. Alpha!Tim Drake x Omega!Clark Kent 37. Alpha!Damian Wayne x Omega!Clark Kent 38. Alpha!Alfred Pennyworth x Omega!Clark Kent 39. Alpha!Lex Luthor x Omega!Clark Kent 40. Alpha!Damian Wayne x Omega!Jon Kent 41. Alpha!Tim Drake x Omega!Conner Kent 42. Alpha!Kirk x Omega!Hernan 43. Alpha!Lord Batman x Omega!Lord Superman 44. Alpha!Thomas Wayne x Omega!Jor-El 45. Alpha!Dru-Zod x Omega!Kal-El 46. Alpha!Hernan x Omega!Kal-El 47. Top!Midnighter x Bottom!Apollo 48. Switch!Midnighter x Bottom!Clark Kent x Top!Bruce Wayne x Switch!Apollow 49. Alpha!Midnighter x Omega!Apollo 50. Alpha!Eobard Thawn x Omega!Barry Allen 51. Alpha!Jay Garrick x Omega!Alan Scott 52. Alpha!Big Barda x Omega!Scott Free 53. Top!Scott Free x Bottom!Clark Kent 54. Top!James Gordon x Bottom!Clark Kent 55. Top!Jimmy Olsen x Bottom!Clark Kent 56. Top!Perry White x Bottom!Clark Kent 57. Alpha!Steve Lombard x Omega!Clark Kent 58. Top!Dan Turpin x Bottom!Clark Kent 59. Top!Ron Troupe x Bottom!Clark Kent 60. Alpha!Dirk Armstrong x Omega!Clark Kent 61. Top!David Corporon x Bottom!Clark Kent 62. Top!Inspector Henderson x Bottom!Clark Kent 63. Top!James Jacob Harbor x Bottom!Clark Kent 64. Top!Mick Rory x Bottom!Clark Kent 65. Top!Leonard Snart x Bottom!Clark Kent 66. Top!Bibbo Bibbowski x Bottom!Clark Kent 67. Top!Pete Ross x Bottom!Clark Kent 68. Top!John Henry Irons x Bottom!Clark Kent 69. Top!Kenny Braverman x Bottom!Clark Kent 70. Alpha!Lar Gand x Omega!Clark Kent 71. Top!Agent Liberty x Bottom!Superman 72. Top!J’onn J’onnz x Bottom!Clark Kent 73. Top!Orion x Bottom!Clark Kent 74. Top!Rip Hunter x Bottom!Clark Kent 75. Top!Clarkn x Bottom!Clark Kent 76. Top!Constantine x Bottom!Clark Kent 77. Top!Rokk Krinn x Bottom!Clark Kent 78. Top!Anung un Rama x Bottom!Clark Kent 79. Top!Tony Stark x Bottom!Steve Rogers 80. Alpha!Loki x Omega!Thor 81. Top!Alec Holland x Bottom!Clark Kent 82. Top!Reep Daggle x Bottom!Clark Kent 83. Top!Garth Ranzz x Bottom!Clark Kent  84. Top!Querl Dox x Bottom!Clark Kent 85. Top!Mark Moonrider x Bottom!Clark Kent 86. Top!Jason Teague x Bottom!Clark Kent 87. Top!Davis Bloome x Bottom!Clark Kent 88. Top!Adam Knight x Bottom!Clark Kent 89. Top!Carter Hall x Bottom!Clark Kent 90. Alpha!Vandal Savage x Omega!Carter Hall 91. Top!Victor Stone x Bottom!Clark Kent 92. Top!Roy Harper x Bottom!Clark Kent 93. Top!Garth x Bottom!Clark Kent 94. Top!Thomas Wayne x Bottom!Clark Kent 95. Alpha!Jonathan Kent x Omega!Clark Kent 96. Top!Halk Kar x Bottom!Clark Kent    97. Top!Bruce Banner x Bottom!Clark Kent 98. Top!Slade Wilson x Bottom!Clark Kent 99. Top!Deadshot x Bottom!Superman 100. Top!Ra’s Al-Ghul x Bottom!Clark Kent     

[calciumcryptid]

Me: Yeah, in my Elseworld 64 Mick Rory is an aromatic asexual masc non-binary who has a queerplatonic relationship with Leonard Snart where they are simultaneously married and divorced. They are the pseudo-uncle of Hartley Rathaway. They live in a beaten-up camper on the Rogue hideout property and hog the living room with beer so they can watch firefighter shows to see the flames. Bonfire nights with them are awesome, and they get smores perfectly right.

@insomniac-jay: Yeah, so Mick Rory is married to a famous rocker chick named Roxy who will beat his ass with the power of song. In fact, that was their first meeting, all because Roxy mistook Mick for a cop. At their wedding, they did bodyshots on each other. Also, they have a son who is a weirdly perfect mixture of them. Roxy has more hockey beef with Leonard than Mick does. It is great.

Me: Hell yeah.

[superman86to99]

Superman #84 (December 1993)

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

Oh, man.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued!

Character-Watch:

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

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

Plotline-Watch:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Patreon-Watch:

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

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

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

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow​):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

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

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

[green-arrxws]

📁| KHALID NASSOUR/DOCTOR FATE READING GUIDE

Who's Khalid Nassour/Doctor Fate?

Khalid Nassour is an Egyptian-American college student who was chosen by the Egyptian Gods to act as the latest incarnation of Doctor Fate. Currently, he is a member of the Justice Society of America and Justice League Dark.

» READING GUIDE

ESSENTIAL READING

DC Sneek Peek: Doctor Fate

Doctor Fate (2015): #1-18

Justice League Dark (2018): #2, #8-29

The Flash (2016): #775-779

Justice League (2018): #63-64, #68-69

Justice League Dark (2018): 2021 Annual

Justice League (2018): #70-71, 2022 Annual, #72-74

Dark Crisis: The Deadly Green

Lazarus Planet: Assault on Krypton ("Gone Dark")

The New Golden Age

Justice Society of America (2022): #1-2

additional reading ↷

Martian Manhunter (2015): #11

Superman (2018): #23-24

» ALTERNATE VERSIONS

ELSEWORLDS

Earth 2: #9-12, #14-17, #19-26, #31-32

Earth 2: World's End: #1-3, #5-9, #12, #25

Earth 2: Society: #8-10, #13-14, #16

POSSIBLE FUTURES

Future State: Justice League: #1-2

» OTHER MEDIA

ANIMATED

Young Justice: S4: EP9-EP13

[insomniac-jay]

The idea of Krystal getting into your world is fun because she is actually used to world hopping, and used to the regular template the people she knows are variants of. Her seeing Lewis being white isn't going to shake her much.

(Don't worry, her going along with things is immensely accurate because she is typically just figuring out if there is a Flash.)

Side Note: In Elseworld 64, Leonard Snart is a third generation Ivorian (Ivory Coast) immigrant.

Delicious lore. Thank you.

But also the potential of Krystal just knowing random bits of information about the kids from my DC universe is so funny.

[stefanoavvisati69]

Batman: alcuni Elsewords

“Elseworlds” è una collana di albi Prestige (48-64 pagine con carta bianca patinata) lanciata dalla DC nel 1989 senza una periodicità fissa (2-3 uscite all’anno) e con Batman protagonista assoluto. In tutte queste storie però l’uomo pipistrello agisce in realtà e tempi diversi da quelli che troviamo generalmente nelle sue collane regolari. Accade così di trovarlo alla fine del secolo scorso, in…

[lornahs]

Where to start reading Clark Kent?

Since this will end up being a long recommendation post which will almost be like a reading order I will be dividing it in origin stories, older comics (pre52), recent ones (nu52 and rebirth) and elseworlds

Origin stories

Man of Steel

Superman: Birthright

Superman Earth One

All-Star Superman

Superman: Secret Origin

Pre52 comics

Action Comics (esp #1-2, 14, 23, 64, 93, 107, 151, 211, 233, 236, 238, 240-242, 238, 245, 252, 254-255, 257, 261, 266, 289, 300, 336, 338-339, 367, 375, 429, 436, 461, 466, 484, 489-491, 494, 507-508, 544, 554, 595, 600, 644, 649, 655, Annual #2, 10-11)

Superman v1 (esp #1, 9, 11, 17, 23, 30, 40, 48, 53, 58, 61, 65, 76, 79-80, 90, 96-97, 107, 127, 129, 141, 146-147, 149, 156-158, 161, 164-165, 167, 169-170, 181, 199, 205, 233-238, 240-242, 247-249, 270-271, 276, 280, 286-287, 294-295, 298, 300-302, 307-309, 338, 347, 400, 416, Annual #1, 11)

World of Krypton #1-3

The Phantom Zone #1-4

Superman: Whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (Superman v1 #423, Action Comics #583)

DC Comics Presents #85

Superman v2 #2, 3-4

Superman: Exile (Superman Vol. 2 #28-30, 32-33, Adventures of Superman #451-456, Action Comics Annual #2, Action Comics #643)

Superman: Eradication (Action Comics #651-652, Adventures of Superman #460, 464-465, Superman Vol. 2 #41-42)

Dark Knight over Metropolis (Superman vol 2 #44, Adventures of Superman #467, Action Comics #654)

World’s Finest #1-3

Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite (Superman Vol. 2 #49-50, Adventures of Superman #472-473, Action Comics #659-660, Starman #28)

Time and Time Again (Action Comics #663-665; Adventures of Superman #476-478; Superman Vol. 2 #54-55)

Action Comics #660, 668, 672, 676-678

Death of Superman

Funeral for a Friend

The Return of Superman

Doomsday Year One Annual

Superman: Peace on Earth

The Death of Clark Kent

Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey

The Trial of Superman (Superman: Man of Steel #50-52, Superman v2 #106-108, Adventures of Superman #529-531, Action Comics #716-717)

Superman: The Wedding Album #1

JLA vol 1

Electric Superman arc (Action Comics #729, 732, Adventures of Superman #542, 545, Superman v2 #119, 122-123, Superman: The Man of Steel #64, 67)

Superman/Doomsday Wars #1-3

Superman: Endgame (Action Comics #763, Adventures of Superman #576, Superman Vol. 2 #154, Superman: The Man of Steel #98, Superman Y2K #1)

Superman: Emperor Joker

President Lex (Adventures of Superman #581, President Luthor Secret Files, Superman: Lex 2000, Superman Vol. 2 #162-165, Superman: The Man of Steel #108-110, Action Comics #773)

What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way? (Action Comics #775)

Our Worlds at War

Return to Krypton (Superman v2 #167, Adventures of Superman #589, Superman: The Man of Steel #111, Action Comics #776)

Superman vol 2 #175

Superman: Day of Doom #1-4

Superman/Batman

Superman: Godfall (Action Comics #812-813, Adventures of Superman #625-626, Superman Vol. 2, #202-203)

Superman v2 #204-215

Adventures of Superman #527-638, 640-641, 644-647

Superman: Sacrifice

Up, Up and Away! (Superman #650-653, Action Comics #837-840)

Camelot Falls (Superman #654, 658, 662-664, 667, Annual #13)

Superman: Last Son (Action Comics #844-846, 851, Annual #11)

Action Comics #858-863 (Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes)

Action Comics #866-870 (Brainiac)

Final Crisis, Final Crisis: Superman Beyond

New Krypton arc

Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom

World of New Krypton #1-12

Last Stand of New Krypton arc

War of the Supermen #0-4

Superman: Grounded (Superman #700-711, 713-714)

The Reign of Doomsday(Steel v3 #1, Outsiders v4 #37, Justice League of America v2 #55, Superman/Batman Annual #5, Superboy v5 #6, Action Comics #900-904)

Nu52 & Rebirth Comics

Actions Comics v2 #1-18, Annual #1

Superman v3 #1-12, Annual #1, 0

H'el on Earth (Superman Vol. 3 #13-17, Superboy Vol. 6 #14-17, Annual Vol. 6 #1, Supergirl Vol. 6 #14-17)

Superman Unchained #1-9

Batman/Superman

Batman vol 2 #19-20 (Ghost Lights)

Krypton Returns

Doomed: Prelude

Superman: Doomed

Superman: American Alien

Superman: The Final Days of Superman (Superman v3 #51-52, Batman/Superman #31-32, Action Comics v2 #51-52, Superman/Wonder Woman #28-29)

Superman: Lois and Clark #1-8

Superman: Rebirth

Superman v4 #1- (ongoing)

Action Comics #957- (ongoing)

Trinity vol 2

Super Sons

Elseworlds

Kingdome Come

Red Son

Superman/Batman: Generations

JLA: Shogun of Steel

Superman for All Seasons

Superman: Secret Identity