#i think part of the issue is that dc flash fans like the personality and heart. they aren't drawn specifically to superspeed

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

How do you feel about the various Marvel speedsters, most prominent of course being Quicksilver but also Northstar, Makkari and Speed?

Speed is baby and I love him. Seriously though I've been a Tommy fan for a long time. House of M was one of the first comics I've ever read. My parents took me to a comic book store and I hand picked it out of all the others. It was the first comic I chose to buy (albeit with my parent's money because I was a child). My younger brother was in the hospital at the time, he's better now but at the time it was hit or miss, and I was keeping him company so they wanted me to have something to read while he was comatose. I think I read that book front to back 50 times. Despite its faults House of M will always have a special place in my heart because of that.

The whole convoluted mess that is the Maximoff family is fantastic. Pietro and Tommy included. I'm particularly a fan of Speed though. He's great in the Young Avengers and whenever he shows up with Prodigy and I just really really really like the guy. He's like a kicked puppy in the rain. I wanna give him a blanket and food and another puppy to be friends with. He's so sad.

Pietro I like but in a 'oh my god he's such a fuck up, ain't he great?' kinda way. I really love him. He is such a fuck up though I swear to god. It's different from Tommy too. Tommy is a kid who just wants stability and love and is terrified of being hurt. His 'bad decisions' are a thinly veiled mask for a traumatized kid. But Pietro??? Pietro wakes up and says 'today I'm going to make the worst decisions possible' and then he does it. He kidnapped his daughter at one point, which almost caused a war, and then drugged her, with sacred religious and volatile drugs he stole, to give her powers, which could have killed her. He makes very bad decisions.

Northstar is a bit of an asshole. I'm going to be honest here... I'm not really a Northstar fan. I think it kinda defeats the purpose of Marvel having speedsters in the first place if Northstar is ten times faster than them. It'd be like if Superman was faster than the Flash. It just kinda sucks the air out of Marvel speedsters in general. Like, cool, this random mutant can fly way faster than the speedsters and they have no chance in hell at being faster than him. That's great I guess.

Makkari I'm not super familiar with. I do like Marvel but I definitely don't have the same in-depth knowledge on Marvel lore as I do for DC lore.

Oh also there's Speedball. I think he would count as a speedster? It's been a while since I've read his stuff. If I remember correctly he absorbs energy and then uses it to bounce around at superspeed and create kinetic energy fields. He's connected to space and time and he can control kinetic energy and motion. He can control his molecules and one time he used his kinetic energy to make a suit. He doesn't run but he's still the closest thing Marvel has to a DC speedster.

It is.... extremely unfortunate what happened to him. They took a good, fun loving, nice, happy and wholesome guy and made him the catalyst for Civil War. Had him be responsible for a city blowing up. Took this sweet kind guy and made him a reckless asshole who killed thousands. Then they gave him an edgy make over and had him come back as the darker meaner bader version of himself. Anyway. I was a Speedball fan. Civil War trashed his character though.

[briarmoon1015]

I think I’ve already confessed that I’m not a big birdflash fan, but there is something I really gotta point out because it’s bothering me.

I see a lot of people use specific comic panels to try and show how close these two characters are, but completely miss the whole point of the comic itself.

For example, I’ve seen a lot of people use panels from The Flash 1987 210, in which Wally reflects on his relationship with dick.

The problem with this is they are literally cutting out the next part of the page that explains that they have drifted apart

Wally is extremely different from dick, and once he takes up the flash mantle, it becomes clear that these two characters are on different paths. Wally wants to uphold the legacy of the flash, dick desperately wants to escape the legacy of Batman. Wally has a wife, three children, and a stable job. Dicks life changes at a moments notice, one minute he’s broke, one minute he’s rich, sometimes he has a job as a police officer, sometimes he’s dating one of his many red headed girlfriends, he’s the opposite of stable.

And that’s not to say the different characters can’t be friends or be together, but as this same comic shows, these two often struggle to understand one another once adults

Wally, after zoom caused his wife Linda to have a miscarriage, went to Hal as the spectre for help, which no one liked, including Dick. He is somewhat miffed Wally didn’t come to him, be he also sides with Bruce about how reckless and stupid the action was

He definitely empathizes with Wally’s situation, but he’s not really there to give support. Later on, dick does start to get the point, and the two take down gorilla grod. Dick apologies for his actions and both agree to stay in touch more. Obviously every good friendship is going to have some moments of tension and disagreement, but I think this really shows why Wally and Dick fell apart as adults.

And this really is the crux of why I’m personally not a big fan or birdflash. These two characters are inherently different and it’s so rare for me to see any birdflash content that acknowledges this. They can be together in a way that acknowledges and builds off of this, but it really hasn’t been done.

More importantly, I’ve noticed that to make burdflash work, a lot of fans completely erase Wally’s character to ignore these differences. His own goals, his own backstory, his own relationships, are just gone so he can be with dick. There is never any acknowledgment of the canon of Wally’s own motivations, such as living up to the flash mantle, or any mention of his connections to characters outside of Dick.

Even more so, I think erasing the presence of his wife and kids from his life so he can be with dick is really hard on the character. Linda is so essential in Wally’s life. She is the character in which speedsters learn the importance of having a lightning rod. She is the one to often push Wally to keep going. His kids redefined his life. He literally broke the source wall in order to keep them in his life. These are essential relationships that are just erased from Wally’s life.

As someone who truly prefers Wally over Dick, it hurts to see a potentially good pairing erase the good aspects of Wally like this. There is plenty of erasure done to other dc characters because of how popular the Bats are, and this ship, at least to me, is one of the worst examples. These characters are different, and often times it makes it hard for them to understand each other. Ignoring that issue doesn’t make the ship good in my eyes.

Anyways, I really don’t want to poop on birdflash as a whole. It is by no means a bad ship, I personally just don’t really like it. It has a lot of qualities that bother me. Despite all of this though, I do love seeing people’s art of it and I actually do think it can work a bit better when they are young and apart of the teen titans. I also know as a halbarry shipper I’m throwing rocks in a glass house lmao. But please ship what you like, I really don’t care, I just needed to shout into the void about my feelings around it :)

[guiltyofbitchcraft]

Finally read the first issue of the new Flash run and I'm honestly really intrigued about the direction it's going! Do I have a lot of questions? Yes. Is it perfect? No, I do have a few critiques. However, I am really interested in talking about what's going on with Linda cuz I'm actually a big fan of what Spurrier appears to be doing.

First of all, I am not really worried about Linda and Wally divorcing. I think they'll be fine cuz it would be a really stupid move on DC's part to break them up after all the hassle it took to get them back together. To me, the Grodd line about a breakup felt like a red herring. I actually think this has the potential to lead to some really beautiful moments for their marriage and the sense of overwhelm and isolation they're both feeling parallels well with the cosmic horror plot that's going on.

But it honestly the setup for everything Linda is going through makes so much sense. Not only did she just have her third child (and remember that right after he was born Wade was kidnapped and Linda was caught in an explosion, it was not a fun day), but she already has some previous trauma and worries surrounding pregnancy so her having postpartum depression makes absolute sense, although even without those factors it would arguably make sense regardless because it's a super common thing! But she also lost her powers. Linda is the only nonpowered person in her family and while I think she was fine with that, the pregnancy allowed her a glimpse of everything she was missing, it allowed her to connect to her husband and kids in a way she hadn't been able to before and that's gone now. She is absolutely allowed to mourn that, especially since from her POV(and I do love that we're getting so much of her POV), her family doesn't seem capable of slowing down around her.

The scene with her sitting on the couch was beautiful and tragic and I truly felt Linda's loneliness and overwhelm. I feel her frustration with her husband who doesn't seem to understand what she needs. And I honestly get it from Wally's perspective too like I don't think he's necessarily the bad guy in this situation!! The dude has been regularly phasing out of reality into truly horrific realms for the past month, I don't blame him for being super distracted. Plus I do think he is trying he's just missing the cues. He knows Linda is dealing with a lot, that's why he's taking on so much himself to try and give her space. But she doesn't necessarily need space I don't think, that space he's giving her is just making her feel further isolated from her family even though that is absolutely not his intention. He's also completely overwhelming himself to the point that he's missing very basic things like the fact that she can't have caffeine while breastfeeding.

To me, this is the start of a story about a family who loves each other so very much that they're trying to protect each other from their problems and in doing so causing a gap between them. Which is very realistic to me like that happens. And I don't think this story will end in tragedy for them, I think this is very clearly setting up that the way they're continuing cannot last and it will blow up and force them to connect again. I hope I'm right and if I am I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of this story unfold.

[flashfuture]

Too many writers are obsessed with Jason and Dick being identical when they explicitly rebooted Jason after crisis to be Nothing like Dick after their pre crisis attempt at Jason was an identical copy.

Like the imagery, they created with turning Jason into a delinquent. Someone with no practical skills to be Robin. Someone with anger issues in comparison to Dick Grayson the shining golden star. The boy raised in a golden age with Batman and Superman showing him the ropes. But Jason, now Gotham runs in his veins. The new grit of the post shining golden and silver ages into the bronze age have hit him. He's a diamond in the rough Batman never got to polish.

Jason didn't listen. Jason didn't play by comic book rules. Jason wasn't allowed to be on the Titans to keep him isolated now (they retconned that away but this was an original change). Jason wanted to enact change that explicitly went against Bruce and Dick personal vow to each other to follow the path of the righteous. Under the Red Hood Jason did not come out of nowhere and was not a massive personality change. It was a natural conclusion to that version of Robin who wanted to kill the bad people.

But since the writers want to assign Dick similarities with Jason but are unclear which Jason he's supposed to mimic now we have to go back in time and pretend Dick Grayson had anger issues as a child instead of environment and personal relationships causing a genuine sense of friction between him and Bruce. And this rips away Jason's one defining character trait. Dick was never the angry Robin not until fans saw angry Nightwing and the writers figured he was always the same and a static character. Boring as people find Tom Taylor his current Nightwing is silver age Dick Grayson before the first crisis to a T.

They even have begun discussing this in parts recently. How Dick's childhood was light and bright and things were just less serious <- the golden age was very unserious. But with their everything is canon their retcon of Dick being an angry kid fits so poorly into the puzzle of he's the shining light who showed Bruce the way in the dark.

Overcoming anger issues was never and should never have been Dick Grayson's role. It was always Jason's. But Dick is so much easier for them to write because all they have to do is throw up leader of the Titans, Batman's pride and joy, 80 years of history next to some pretend flashbacks about moments Dick was so angry >:( and then voila it's like character growth happened. But Dick was never At that stage. Dick's been an adult since 1969 so everything is a flashback to a hypothetical childhood they don't actually have to explore outside of whatever point they want to make then. (For example trying to retroactively establish Two Face and Robin feuds to give Tim something to do) And whenever they want they can flash up something from Dick's real childhood that was fun and awesome.

My point then I suppose is editorial likes to make the Robins indistinguishable in lots of ways broad strokes for readers. What's one Robin to another. But that is lazy and boring. The 80s writers may have wanted to kill the idea of Robin but really they inspired the idea of Robins being anyone, instead of Robin needing to be Dick Grayson. To the point the writers don't even think Dick Grayson's Robin needs to be Dick Grayson. So where we're at in 2024 is you say the angry Robin and DC wants you to ask which one. Only Tim remains with a single defining feature of being 'smart' but DC would really rather you think of him as the bisexual Robin instead of any personality traits.

[lonelywretchjervistetch]

My DC Cinematic Universe: Superman (Part XII)

Part Twelve: Hope

...Jesus Christ, did I actually devote 11 POSTS to this? Goddamn. Well, since I've come this far...

When I started this, I originally planned , like 6 posts, tops. And then, I just kept...typing...more. It's hard for me not to talk about this, I guess, because...well, as I said in the very first post, I love Superman. He's always been my favorite DC hero, and not just because of his supporting cast, or the villains, or the stories told about him. I do love those things, but no. Superman is my favorite because he represents hope in a bleak, uncaring world. A world that's so often marred by violence and pain, and terror around every corner. Superman is the bright colorful primary hope in a greyscale noir darkness. A solar-powered beacon amongst the gloom.

And that sucks, because more and more, it feels like audiences...don't really want that from their heroes. Or at least, filmmakers don't think they do. Think about this for a second. How many heroes in the DC Universe do you think actually inspire hope? In the comics, a bunch could be given that mantle, as well as the Justice League as a whole, most of the time. But the movies?

Think about this. I mean really think about this, OK? Pattinson's Batman is the first version of the character to directly help people as a hero. Sure, Nolan and Burton's Batmen helped people indirectly, and maybe saved a couple of people they didn't know personally, like...a few times? But they never really helped people directly in the same way as Pattinson's Batman did. I'll be making a post about Batman soon enough, but this most recent version is definitely one of the better ones for me for this reason. That said, though, Batman is supposed to inspire fear primarily, which the Pattinson Batman also does well. But what about the other major heroes we've seen?

Well, Wonder Woman is supposed to exude strength in truth, and I definitely don't think Gadot's Wonder Woman pulls that off in her most recent installment. After all, most of that film is basically composed of her lying to herself, and I also think it's one of the reasons that giving her the secret identity of Diana Prince is a mistake. Again, I'll get to her in a later essay series. Oof, that one's gonna be interesting.

I like Momoa's Aquaman, but I can't say he inspires much hope, in either the films or the comics. It's not really his bag. To be fair, a huge problem with his personalization is that he's more defined by his role and powers, than he is as a human being. And Momoa does that well enough, but also leans more into the "underwater badass" vibe than anything else. Which has...mixed results, in truth. Again, Aquaman'll get another entry; I have ideas for him as well.

Cyborg exudes...being depressed. He should more exude anger and frustration, in my opinion, alongside an existential angst, but he's not particularly hopeful. Inspirational, maybe? Even then, that's another character with poor characterization in recent years in the comics, mostly due to the bizarre decision to choose him as a member of the Justice League in the New 52. That's a whole other issue I have, and we'll get to that one too...somehow.

I think that's everybody, right? Right?

Ew, Ezra Miller. Gross. Well, if I must. First of all, Flash is one of my other favorite DC heroes. Yes, I know, I'm a basic bitch of a comic book fan, but sue me. I liked Flash WAY before he was cool, back in the mid-2000s as a teenager. As a hero, Flash does inspire some hope, but weirdly enough...I think he inspires more wonder and mystery than hope. A red wind that blows in and fixes your problems. He wears a mask, but also wears a smile. Unlike Superman, he doesn't exude the sane amount of trust with an unobscured face, but he still inspires joy and excitement. And Miller's Flash annoys the ever-loving shit out of me. I know, the new movie is allegedly great, but we'll goddamn see. He's not my Flash, that's for sure, and he's certainly not the most hope-inspiring hero.

What about Shazam? Again, more wonder from him in the film, but he's also a bit of a hopeful figure in the comics, at least in his early incarnations. I wouldn't say that that's reflected in the film, but the film version is based more on the New 52 version of the character, and he has more of a family-oriented message. And for the record, I think that works perfectly for the character, so no complaints here.

And of course...there's Cavill's Superman. I've said it once, and I'll say it again: I do like Cavill's Superman in a number of ways. With what he's given, he's not bad in the role. But of all things that Superman represents in the Snyder DCU, it isn't hope. Sure, he claims that the symbol on his chest stands for hope (WHICH IT FUCKING DOESN'T, BY THE WAY), but you know what I think when I watch his performance as Superman?

Oh, look, it's the guy responsible for the DEATHS OF HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE! Yeah, bug fucking surprise there, I know, but that's a little piece of baggage that's kinda hard to shake, I think! Sorry, but he never recovers from that for me, and the sequel honestly makes it worse, because they emphasize that even more. It doesn't work, and it certainly wouldn't inspire hope in me if I was in that universe.

Look, I get that I'm rambling. I'm a rambler, it's what I do, but my point is this: we deserve a Superman that we actually like, and that inspires hope in us and the people of Metropolis. Reeves mostly pulled that off, and it's time to bring that idea back to live-action Superman. And here's the fun thing about that concept...it can inspire stories to come. Because, hey...let's say that this first movie puts Superman on the path to inspiring hope. Because that's what I did. I introduced the character and his friends and foes, emphasized his struggles in the film, and examined his impact on the people of Metropolis. That's where you start.

We hit the second movie, and we cement Superman's popularity. We started the first film with metropolis feeling neutral-to-negative. Then, we start the second movie with Metropolis at two extremes. Those people influenced by Gordon Crown will see the negative aspects of Superman's presence, while the others will see Superman as the heroic figure he is. The city's divided on how they feel. But, by the end of that movie, we'll swing more towards those extremes, with greater negative threats making themselves known. Still, positive attitudes get even more positive at the same time. And then...third movie.

Third theoretical film will cement Superman as a bastion of hope, but will also make one of the main villains against him Gordon Crown, as well as Metropolis itself in some ways. The journey of Superman over the course of these films is truly turning him into a beacon of hope for Metropolis, and for the world at large. It is, quite literally, the hero's journey.

And personally, I think that'd be interesting to watch.

...Look, if you've made it this far, I really genuinely hope you liked this long-ass essay series. Honestly, despite the rigor...I had a good time typing it all up. I feel like I always have these ideas, and I never have an outlet to dump them all into, so I appreciate this hellsite being that outlet, as well as appreciating anyone who somehow has the free time to read my word vomit.

So, yeah, now what? I mean, I think the next step in this crazy-ass journey of mine is pretty obvious...kinda. So when that time comes up...well, I'll see you there. Right, buddy?

Index: Superman

Part I: Why I Love Superman

Part II: On Lois Lane

Part III: The Kents

Part IV: The 'Rents

Part V: The...Frendts?

Part VI: Lex Luthor

Part VII: The Real Villains

Part VIII: Superman's Rogues Gallery

Part IX: The Story - Act One

Part X: The Story (Acts Two and Three)

Part XI: The Story - Climax

Part XII: Epilogue (Part One)

Part XIII: Epilogue (Part Two)

[ursaspecter]

Before I get into it I just want to give a disclaimer: this is not a personal attack on anyone or me trying to gatekeep Danny Phantom. I am simply just airing some frustrations. This is all my opinion based on what I've seen from the current state of the fandom.

Also I'm writing this at 1am.

Now that that's out of the way, I'm really frustrated with the way this fandom acts at times. I've been a fan of this show for around 10 years now and only relatively recently came back to the fandom after being away for a while. It's nothing like what it was when I first got into the show, and I think that comes from the fact that a lot of people in the fandom haven't actually seen the show and have only read fanfics. And that is where I think the problems start to come up.

Now, ok, the show isn't for everyone. It's loud, has flashing colors, and certain parts haven't aged particularly well since its run from 2004-2007, and that's perfectly understandable as to why someone wouldn't be able to watch the show. I'm not faulting anyone for that. I only take issue when someone has a popular headcanon and a majority of the fandom acts like everyone agrees that it's canon and then get all up in arms when someone says they don't like that particular piece of fanon. I know in the grand scheme of things it's not that big of a deal, but it really bothers me whenever I see something like "I love how we all agree that [fanon]" or "so we all know how [fanon]"

Little things like ghost cores, haunts, obsessions are whatever I don't care that much, but when it gets into the territory of replacing fundamental aspects of the source material is where I have a big problem. See, I got back into Danny Phantom because I wanted to explore a darker take on the story that's a little more grounded in reality, but when every other thing is angst or torture or just treating Danny like a punching bag (most of the time written out of character), the idea really started to lose its luster ans made me hesitant to share my ideas.

The biggest issue I have though is with Wes Weston. Gonna be honest: I never liked him. I thought he was unnecessary from the moment I saw him. Then someone (I'm so sorry I forgot who it was) pointed out that Valerie was the perfect character to fill the role of the skeptic that tries to expose Danny, but the fact that the fandom wanted to focus more on an unnamed background character who happens to look like Danny was very telling.

Obviously I'm not saying that if you like using Wes that it automatically means you're racist. There's more nuance than that. I think what Wes does reflect though is just how much of the fandom just rejects the show? How so many people probably didn't even know about Valerie because perhaps she just wasn't in the fanfics they've been reading? Hell, I see more focus put on Dash than Valerie sometimes. Another one-dimensional white boy minor antagonist instead of a complex black girl anti-hero who is probably the best antagonist Danny has in the show AND the best love interest.

Also the overabundance of DC crossovers where Danny gets adopted by Batman are really annoying. I blocked every possible tag that could've gone with the crossover, but still somehow whenever I go through the main tag one sneaks through. Seriously between Frostbite, Clockwork, and now Batman why are y'all so obsessed with giving him a new father figure when you can just give Jack a better personality. Oh right because then you won't be able to write him vivisecting his son if he actually cared about him. Silly me I almost forgot!

Anyway thats why I only follow like 5 dp blogs and like 2 of them dont even post about dp most of the time. And schnuffel-danny my partner in chaos and shitposting. Gonna start a petition for a Danny Phantom reboot on the CW and make it the most edgy cringy shit ever and it'll have blackjack and hookers and Wes Weston is not invited.

[kidflashimpulse]

the recent Dark Crisis issues have got Bart SO wrong in one specific way imo. Bart wants credit from his friends and family, but he doesn't really give two shits what anyone else thinks of him. the idea that all he's ever wanted is to be noticed? to have FANS? to be next in line as the Flash? that's literally his 00s era discount Wally West characterization all over again. Bart being changed from canonically HATING excessive attention to actively craving it? that was NEVER earned

THIS ☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️ THIS x 1000000000 omg u nailed exactly WHY as a bart fan his YJ DC characterisation infuriates me so much !!!

“that's literally his 00s era discount Wally West characterization all over again” like i felt this in my bones LOL

it’s the type of bad writing that is among the biggest bart crimes out there no joke like, no disrespect to Wally the guy has his own thing going on and it works for him but the whole thing that i’ve always found important to bart is that whilst they share similarities he is largely different from the three generations of Flash’s before him, like significantly and has his own thing going on with his own path and these differences are his strengths and what give him his own set of personal values and priorities (like what u mentioned with how he feels about getting attention) Sure, within his family he always had the pressure of following in all the other flash’s footsteps but that’s never stopped him to do his own thing.

The moment ppl treat him like wally jr (which is so crazy how recurring it has been in recent works, like WFA?? YJDC??) the series becomes garbage to me 😂 doesn’t mean there arnt parts of it i don’t enjoy like stuff regarding other characters or plot, but in terms of how it fares as a bart story i drop it like a hot potato lol and that also roughly summarises how my experience with his titans run is and a lot of his 00s issues onwards which is a shame and with how big social media is with fans, it’s ridiculous how it’s still happening today, like come on…

There are three generations of white guys before him, all great guys in their own way, all very similar especially in their values as heroes, it’s almost appallingly ridiculous to then treat him like another copy and paste when it’s a fact for literally any family out there that with each generation more differences arise that reflect the social consciousness, writing bart with the same values of guys who are essentially his grandparents/parents/uncles is absurd. It would make sense if they were a consistent role in his life since birth but they weren’t/aren’t, he also has a drastically different background to them too which just compounds to how dumb it is to write him as wally 2.0.

anyway, moment of self promo i kinda very superficially/roughly explore this whole thing of generational legacies in an upcoming chapter (it’s still in the drafts stage btw but it’s WIP which is smn lol) of my latest fic AAIT/it’s a lowkey underlying theme in it already. I knw ppl in DC social media have their mixed feelings regarding YJA but as a bart fan it’s a refreshing piece of media in how they treat him especially with how he ties in to the bigger picture of things, so I enjoy it and think about it a lot.

Also why despite peoples common grievances with Bendis’ YJ, i also enjoyed it a lot. Sure I get some of the criticism where they say it regressed some characters in a way, but I always felt like it was a very much needed soft reset of things that lent room to a lot of potential for all these characters to develop and grow in a fresh new way. The expansive cast of characters was also a good direction of comics YJ too that i think was needed. So YJ 19, I see u !!! lol and YJDC ur just the worst thing ever lol sorry !!

[glapplebloom]

Sorry Snyder fans...

So someone made an article about how Deadpool and Wolverine proved that the Snyderverse could come back. But considering most of the sources were their own website and seem to be very Pro-Snyder, I get the feeling there is strong bias for this article. Because the situation that made Deadpool and Wolverine possible is not anywhere near similar to how the Snyderverse could come back.

20 Years of Difference

The person believes the fact Snipes and Reynolds could get back together could mean Snyder and WB could get together, especially since he’s working on a Pre-300 Series. But this is ignoring the fact the Snipes/Reynolds feud was almost 20 years old compared to the 3 between Snyder’s two WB projects. So while Snyder may be okay with coming back for 300, that does not mean he would want to come back to the Snyderverse.

Time is a big thing this person really doesn’t seem to understand since another thing they point out is how Blade and Electra’s last outings were bad and this movie brought them back. Keep in mind, almost 20 years for Snipes’ last Blade movie and almost 19 for Electra’s. The last DCEU Movie, the movies part of the Snyderverse, wasn’t even a year old. They had 4 movies in 2023, this is not the same thing.

This is not the same Wolverine

They point out that Hugh Jackman would be playing Wolverine for the last time in Logan, a movie that came out in 2017. Ignoring the time difference, they pointed out that like how Hugh Jackman returned to the role that could mean others could return to their roles. But there are two things to point out. First, technically he never said he was retiring from playing Wolverine. When you tend to see brackets, the person taking notes makes assumptions on what they meant. 

So when they heard Logan would be his last X-Men movie, they presumed he is retiring from playing the character. In this same interview, he said he would continue to play Wolverine if the MCU was involved. And guess what movie now has MCU implications? Which leads to the next point: this is not the same Wolverine he played for years. Logan was indeed the end of that character. This Wolverine has a completely different story.

While it most likely was similar, this Wolverine wasn’t really a team player. He wanted to be, but just didn’t want to seem like he did. Until one day, the X-Men were no more. Their deaths weighed heavily on his mind and he now has the suit they were offering him as a memento that he failed them. Between this story and having more references to classic X-Men comics that Fox wouldn’t or couldn’t do, this is a completely different Logan than what he last played.

Which means there is no real incentive for the actors to come back because if the idea was to bring back the Snyderverse, they’re going back to the roles that they probably had a bad experience with. Between the online detractors, behind the scenes issues, or one of them being an actual criminal, I see no reason for them to want to come back.

Justice League is not a Multiverse Story

They really seem to bank on the idea that the Multiverse being a thing would help the Snyderverse return, but that is not a good idea. First, we’re getting a new DC Universe in movies led by Gunn and Warner Brothers would need to focus on making those successful before trying to do the multiverse angle again. Especially after how Flash Bombed the idea. But the other idea is that we know what Snyder planned for the sequels, and they are not that good.

As seen here, basically Superman becomes evil, Batman leads a resistance force, time travel to fix that, and Darkseid’s forces Vs Earth’s forces where in the future it ends with Superman’s Powerless son becoming Batman. Like honestly, I don’t think people would like this if it did happen. 

In the end, ironically, Ben Kenobi probably said it best... “Let the past die.” James Gunn’s movie hasn’t even come out yet. We should at least wait before asking for the old universe back. Maybe fans of Snyder would enjoy what Gunn brings to the table. I hope I will.

[highlordofkrypton]

Where would one go to read free comics?👀

And where would one start their comic journey? So many, I don't know where to start at😭

Very appreciated!

The most common place to read comics for free is here.

It's not super optimized for phones, but I just read off my laptop. Then, if I like the comic, I usually go and buy it. I'm pretty sure I even read that artists who work for the official publications are referred to that website as reference 😂

as for starting your comic journey...

Short answer: pick one comic/character and just go with it.

I know it's not very helpful, but there are so many comics that you kind of need to do a trial and error as to what you like.

This is how I did it:

Pick a comics character, team or plot you like.

I'm assuming that there's a reason you want to get into comics! It doesn't matter the reason why, or who you like, just pick a starting point. The trickiest part of comics is that there's so much, it's better to narrow down your options as much as possible. Don't worry about learning everything, you'll eventually learn about the other characters by osmosis.

Watch the animated movies.

I'm more of a DC fan, and the DC animated movies are freaking fantastic. They follow the comic plotlines pretty well, so those can be good starting points too. For example, the recent DCEU Flash movie was a weird frankenstein of Flashpoint, but the animated movie follows the comic 1:1 if I recall. The same thing with Zack Snyder's Batman vs. Superman where most people think these two heroes feud. It stems from The Dark Knight Returns which actually has a lot more history between Batman and Superman than the live action movies ever cared to build. The animated movie, again, does great to follow the comic story!

I don't... actually watch much of the animated movies because I just go and read them instead. So, you could do that. Check out trailers, then go read the comics.

Read 'self-contained' runs or AUs.

While I do believe you should get to know the 'essence' of the character to better appreciate the alternate universes, it's easier to get into a story that isn't ongoing or needs you to jump to different runs to follow one storyline.

Some examples of what I started reading: Superman Red Son, Kingdom Come, Flashpoint. They're not necessary good places to start if you're brand new; I felt like I had enough of a solid background to just jump into these. Going back to read them after I've read more comics made me appreciate these more.

How do I know what's a self-contained run? Or what to start with?

What you can do is find someone who is a fan of the character you like -- there are some pretty big blogs on here -- and see if they can recommend you a good place to start. For example, a lot of people recommended me All-Star Superman and it's highly rated. (Personally, it wasn't for me.)

What I did was go to my local bookstore, not comic books store, but actual bookstore. They don't sell-single issue. They sell comics in book format which means that they've collected the issues together in a single book. This usually means that there's enough of the story complete to put into a book. Then, what I did was go home and read it online. I'm pretty sure that the website updates the comics to complie the issues together if it's been turned into a book.

Find a reading guide online.

I think the most intimidating runs I ever read were Messiah Complex and The Mighty Thor before those were turned into books. There are some amazing people online who provide reading orders and tell you which issues to read, then you just search it up online.

Um... that's all the advice I can think of! You will run into some shitty runs, but that's all part of the experience.

Hope this helps!

[meara-eldestofthemall]

While the 1996 Nightwing solo is indeed a large part of Dick’s character growth and development, for me personally there are 2 key things about it that kind a bit deter me from purchasing it in full in comparison o say New Teen Titans (well 3 if you count the fact the main writer for the longest potion of ti was Chuck Dixon but I digress)

1) It’s major downplaying of Dick’s connection to the Titans, portraying his time with the team throughout his adolescence as merely a footnote or often times, acts as if they didn’t exist at all. Sure you might get appearances from Red Arrow, Troia and The Flash (Wally West) but not as the concrete connection that we had between them from an entire decade prior. Almost virtually nothing from Starfire. Speaking whom….

2) From the beat of my knowledge, this is the series that made Dick the Casanova/Womanizer of the Batfamily matched only but Bruce himself, the he is like that due to his playboy persona. Best I can tell the sole female character in this book who did not become a romantic interest and ironically one made by Devin Grayson of all people was Officer Amy Rohrbach. Heck that issue you mentioned, Issue #25, Tim points out all said potential true loves (which by the Donna was not a romantic interest for Dick) of course most prominent being Kory and Babs. Bear in mind, in NTT, Dick explicitly stated once that he’s monogamous, no matter the orientation, true love must be committed effort by two people. It was this character trait here that eventually paved the way for not just the DickKory vs DickBabs ship war amongst Nightwing fans (To note, I myself am a shameless DickKory shipper but I do respect DickBabs if that’s what you prefer, I have no ill against you for it) but it’ll culminate in not just retcons that degrade anything related to Kory in the Batbooks, but from there comes THAT Annual issue, the one that suggested Dick having a one night stand with Babs after what happened to her from the Killing Joke, only to invite her the next morning of his (attempted) wedding with Kory.

Now I can could be talking out of my butt here I freely admit and you have the right to call out and disproves my complaints but that’s just my feelings regarding the 1996 Nightwing solo book. I apologize in advance.

Never apologize for having your own point of view! You made a well thought out, detailed response to what I posted. This is the way adults are supposed to have a conversation.

Everything you’ve said is true. I have no disagreement with any of it. It’s not an excuse but I will say that comics of this period were still written primarily by (I’m looking at you, Chuck Dixon) and for males. Dick’s sex-capades were teenage/younger male adult wish fulfillment at it’s worst: excessively attractive male hero shags his way through the DC universe. 

The 1996 Nightwing series was Dick off on his own, instead of as part of an ensemble/team. As Robin, then as Nightwing, Dick hadn’t had a significant, long term solo series of his own. He had short stories within the various Bat-family books but no title that belong solely to him. 

Dick Grayson’s current popularity started with the epic Teen Titans run (drawn by the ultimate master, George Perez). There is no denying that, nor would I want to. There’s a reason that series is considered a classic. It gave him the exposure to gain enough popularity that DC was finally willing to give him his own title. While I still think that the 1996 Nightwing is where he finally got to shine on his own, it never could have happened without Teen Titans,

[hartrathaway]

Hii I'm interested in Hartley's story but I know literally nothing about him except that he was Wally's gay bestie in the 90s, what's his deal? Do you have any comic recs for him?

HI IM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG!!!!!!!!

Okay, so really brief, his dealio is: born to ‘incredibly rich’ parents (we never get a specified ballpark, but Hartley states that he was ‘born with two silver spoons in [his] mouth’ if that helps context wise), Hartley’s deaf!  His parents had him get cochlear implants when he was a child, which ‘medically healed him’.  (His deafness has been treated extremely ablest by writers who actually remember he’s deaf, I need to warn you of this now.)  He’s a music and sound waves guy, a former villain (it’s an on again off again relationship, but a lot of his character is defined by his time as a hero) and he’s very leftist.  Gay best friend in the AIDS crisis turned Wally West from a midwestern conservative to a leftie as well.  (Wally’s wife, Linda Park, was a major contributing factor, but we’re focusing on Hartley for this, so I’m gonna talk about him.)

I’ve got a mix of good reading from all over, so I’m gonna break this into sections, and do my best to describe which is which.  (all my screencaps are from this website right here, because i do not own all the back issues and it would have taken much, much longer to do this post, and as such, some of them are not sized or formatted correctly)  Click the read more if you’re interested!  Please note: I am not a 100% authority figure on Hartley, and I know there’s a few stories I have left out (the story with Bart Allen’s first appearance is a good one that Hartley is in), but these are the gist of who is he, what he’s been up to, and what is the family drama.

So for New Earth (otherwise known as post-Crisis on Infinite Earths), is where Hartley actually becomes Wally’s friend, and is a hero!  I’m going to focus on this section first.  Unfortunately, due to being a minor character, a lot of stuff is broken into small stories, or things that are happening behind the scenes, so there’s no real issue x - y that’s gonna help much.

The Flash Vol 2 #31, #32 Quick summary: In issue 31, supervillain here is killing homeless people, Hartley has been helping these same people get up on their feet by helping them get squatter’s rights.  They skip the fighting because a kid asks if they’re going to fight for a half hour and then team up, and go right to the team up.  They get Linda Park in, supervillain ends up backfiring his powers.  In issue 32, Wally, Hartley, and their pal Mason officially move to Keystone city.  Hartley’s folks are in trouble while the three of them are trying to freeload (off of Hartley’s parents, his and his parents’ relationship is better now than it had been, for a multitude of reasons), Wally and Hartley rescue Hartley’s parents, we also meet Jerrie, Hartley’s sister, and all is resolved there.  Yay, the family loves each other again!

(issue 31)

(issue 32)

The Flash Vol 2 #53 Special mention this is the issue where Hartley comes out and also has to inform Wally that Wally cannot tell who is a homosexual.  Also Wally’s an IRS agent here, for shame Wallace.  At least Hartley gets to cosplay Wally at the end, so that’s fun.  Content warning for this issue specifically is some casual homophobia, just so you know that going in.

(issue 53)

The Flash Vol 2 #170 In 170, Hartley’s being contacted by his father to call in ‘a favor’ that Hartley owes him.  The main plot line includes (one of) Wally’s ex(es) showing up, a former hero and teammate, Frances Kane, otherwise known as Magneta.  A person has been found murdered at Keystone Motors, and supervillain Goldface begins rallying union workers (which seems to just be a poorly timed coincidence).  The story itself (170 - 173) in and of itself is really fun, but I’m only going to talk about Hartley, or else I’ll be here all day.

(issue 170)

The Flash Vol 2 #174, #175, #178, #179 And here we get some drama! I’m grouping all of these together, since it’s all the same chunk of the story for Hartley, but since it’s the Flash, Wally’s center stage.  In 174, the people who were living with the Rathaway family aren’t exactly big fans of Hartley.  They know he’s changed his ways, he’s a hero now, but it’s just…  something feels off.  There’s loud music sounds, and bam!  Suddenly Hartley’s there and oh boy is this gonna be a hot mess.  In issue 175, we see some footage, and Hartley’s the lead suspect in his parents’ murder, considering that the footage has Hartley onscreen.  178 rolls up, and after Wally’s getting Gorilla Grodd taken care of (and that fight is a doozy), Wally gets to find out Hartley’s been arrested for the murder of his own parents, and Hartley confesses on-screen to his parents’ murder  (Also Hartley’s got a beard now, that’s how you know he’s depressed.) 179 opens with Hartley being processed.  Linda and Wally go to see him, and although Hartley confessed, he said “I think I did.”  (emphasis is mine; in the panel Hartley says “I think I did.”) Joker?  He’s got some Joker-fied people, and poor Hartley gets it too :(  Hartley straight up nearly kills Captain Boomerang (it’s okay, Wally stops him), and surprise!  Welcome back to Iron Heights Hartley.  Gonna have a fun time :)

(issue 174; this is the least messy part of the panel, but it was intended to be that way)

(issue 175)

(issue 178)

(issue 179)

The Flash: Iron Heights Brief interlude from the main comic line, we’ve got a one-shot that’s taking place in Iron Heights.  This takes place before Hartley gets arrested, presumably (since, y’know, they’re breaking in and all).  Fun one-shot honestly, keeps me on my toes the whole time.  Hartley’s a main character, and it’s less personal drama and very story driven.  You don’t need this to enjoy Hartley regardless, but I enjoy it!

(The Flash: Iron Heights, which you can read here.)

The Flash Volume 2 #189, #190 189! Now we find out how Hartley’s parents were actually murdered!  No spoilers, but we do get a prison breakout.  This is where we get some origin story! Don’t read this first though, because you’re going to be spoiling yourself the plot of his arrest.  In 190 we get more origin, including the way DC treated his deafness. (It’s ablest, and I’m still mentally grappling how you wouldn’t notice your child being deaf for two years, but okay Rachel and Osgood, you keep being bad.)  The story goes on for now, with Hartley on the run from… well, everyone.

(issue 189)

(issue 190)

This is pretty much it for New Earth Hartley up until Countdown.

I don’t like Countdown at all.  I’m much happier pretending that Countdown doesn’t exist (both because of how it treats Hartley for a multitude of reasons, and how Thad Thawne is treated leading up to Countdown).  More happens with Hartley’s storyline in Countdown, but I hate it with such a passion that I wouldn’t recommend it at all.  Countdown leads into Final Crisis, and I’m not a fan of either.  However, should you wish to read and make your own opinions, here’s Countdown and here’s Final Crisis.  Please note, Countdown’s issues are done in reverse order (so from issue 51 to 1, rather than 1 to 51)

And now I’m going to tell you the gospel truth:

I do like New 52 Hartley!  A lot. Unfortunately, he’s not as much in the n52 Flash run as I would like (but I’m biased, as obvious by my url).  What you need to know is that Hartley’s a musician now, like orchestra director, and he’s in a relationship with Barry’s boss, David Singh. (power move, honestly)  Unfortunately, we don’t get a whole lot in the main line.  Also at this point, the Wally West of New Earth hasn’t transitioned to the n52.  Wallace West of n52 is an entirely different character, and that’s a whole other issue for another discussion.  Wally West as we know him from New Earth doesn’t come back for a while.  Wally and Hartley haven’t talked since before Flashpoint, and that’s a shame. 

So read the Crimes of Passion Anthology he’s got please I’m begging you.  The only downside is that the artist gave him a haircut.

(Crimes of Passion: Secret Admirer)

I haven’t read anything DCeased related, and while I know Hartley gets his time to shine and kiss David, I can’t tell you much beyond that.  I’m pretty sure there’s other people who can tell you more, but it’s not me I’m afraid.  (This is me saying guys, please tell me about Hartley in DCeased, someone tell me about my fictional lavender marriage husband.)

[poisonousquinzel]

look i get enjoying the tragic and dark history with Harley and Joker, I love angst and I have no issue with the fact that it's there and part of her story. But there is a huge difference between appreciating the darkness of their story and relationship and actively shipping them and making content portraying them, their relationship and Joker in a positive light. And some of y’all being grown ass adults should be able to see that.

Abuse victims are allowed to speak up and say that it makes us uncomfortable or is flat out triggering to see them without being shamed or told to “just ignore it” or "we’re taking it too seriously”. (News Flash, Abuse Is Serious.) 

Abuse victims are allowed to express their discomfort and disgust seeing glamorized shit about their relationship because sometimes they do stuff together and that's what people wanna hyper focus on. 

We’re allowed to put down our boundaries in our circle and request that you do not interact with us if you ship them and we shouldn’t be pressured by “Fandom Guidelines” to be all accepting and SALS because at the end of the day

Some Ships Are Just Fucked.

And I, personally at least, am not going to put aside my moral compass to accommodate to the subsections in fandoms that want to be allowed to freely glamorize and ship abuse, incest and pedophilia. 

It's disturbing and it’s not welcome here. 

And saying that you are fully aware they’re abusive and only like the tragic, dark aspect of their relationship frankly doesn't mean shit if you turn around saying that you wouldn't have minded if Harley never got emancipated. That's not enjoying a tragic origin. That’s being okay with a woman being permanently tied to her abuser because you enjoy their twisted, fucked dynamic.

Like I'm sorry, but if you'd be okay with them never letting her move on from Joker with their extensive history of abuse because you enjoy the dark toxic intrigue of their relationship, then you don't like Harley. You don’t care about Harley Quinn.

If you liked someone, you'd never want them to be trapped in an abusive relationship. 

I do not care that she's fictional. 

“oh, well I don’t get why everyone focuses on Joker being an abuser so much, I mean he kills people and is a bad guy, c’mon.”

Yes. We focus on him being an abuser and will continue to do so because there is a difference between a comic book supervillain doing Bad Guy things like robbing, killing and overall being bad and actively abusing their partner. 

Sorry, some of us have lines. He’s fucking crossed them, hell, he’s vaulted over them. 

Personally, I don’t think him murdering and torturing Harley is excusable or somehow “not that bad” because he’s killed other people. She was his love interest. She was his girlfriend. And He’s Murdered Her before. 

I shall quote that one dude from Wreck it Ralph 

"You are bad guy, but this does not mean you're a 'bad guy'".

What he’s done goes beyond Bad Guy things. It’s Domestic Abuse. It’s Domestic Violence. And yeah, that’s fucking hard for a Lot of people to just “get over”. It’s called having morals. 

“Oh who cares, let people ship what they want, it’s fiction. It’s not hurting anyone”

You either have to be naive or downright stupid to think that the cultural impact of Joker/Harley and the glamorization of their relationship by fans, the media and DC has not had real world effects. With Suicide Squad (2016) alone they blew up again and become a common "couple goals" ship for a lot of young, impressionable teens and adults who weren't able to see the toxicity of their relationship. 

I was one of those teens. I fucking loved them. 

And turning around and looking them up would do nothing but continue to press the narrative that it's an okay relationship. Nearly Everything that comes up is romanticized, no matter where you look it up, 90% of the content will be positive content about them. It ingrained in your mind that if your SO treats you like that, it's okay, it's just a dark twisted love story, like Joker and Harley. That you two are just both fucked up and made for each other. 

There's thousands of people in the comments on old, popular Joker/Harley videos relaying similar stories. That they used to ship these two and it warped their perception of relationships. That it led to them getting stuck in toxic, abusive relationships that took even more to get out of because they were already so use to seeing shit like that glamorized and brushed over. It was just yet another mental hurdle they had to overcome.

And if you genuinely cannot understand how the glamorization done by the media, fans and DC in regards to their relationship did and does have active, real world consequences, then I'm sorry you're not paying attention.

You can ship whatever the hell you want, but that doesn’t mean that people aren’t allowed to judge you for it. 

And Yeah,, If You’re Out Here Shipping A Domestically Abusive Relationship, I Am Going To Judge You Based On That.

[sedge-yells-at-comics]

Reprinted below, in case the link implodes.

Flash #27 Reveals Why Reverse Flash Is a Truly Unique Villain                

The finale of "Running Scared" provides a gut-wrenching Rebirth update to one of DC's most complicated villains: Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash.

By Meg Downey Published Jul 27, 2017               

If you’re a fan of the Flash, you’re probably pretty familiar with the concept of the Reverse Flash, a man named Eobard Thawne who, like Barry, has super speed and wears a flashy costume. Of course, the “Reverse” might sound like he’s the literal opposite of the Flash -- maybe someone who slows things down instead of speeding himself up? Or maybe someone who runs backwards?

There are a lot of obvious and incorrect guesses pretty readily available for casual or newer fans to throw darts at. The reality of the Reverse Flash is, however, pretty complicated. Mostly because his “reverse” status is actually ideological at its core. Flash media, be it print, animated or live action, has traditionally made this apparent by painting Eobard as someone who is essentially pure evil -- a sort of manic, time traveling serial killer who is motivated solely by his endless need to destroy Barry Allen from the ground up.

At that point, the problem then becomes finding a way to make Thawne’s homicidal drive, well… unique in the scope of the DC Universe, a place that just so happens to be populated by enough over-the-top villains to populate a decent sized Midwestern town. Why is Reverse Flash someone that’s specific to The Flash? What differentiates him from any of DC’s other iconic arch rivals, like Lex Luthor or The Joker?

Well, The Flash #27 has the answer, and it's probably not the one you expected.

Running Scared

The rebirth of the “classic” Eobard Thawne (as opposed to his New 52 revamp) began in the Flash/Batman crossover mini-event “The Button” back in April, a four-part storyline which connected the original Thawne to the events of last year’s DC Universe: Rebirth one-shot.

Since, then, Thawne’s taken up residence as a perpetual thorn in Barry’s side in the hero's own ongoing series, stepping directly into the spotlight for the three-part “Running Scared” arc which served to highlight Thawne’s Rebirth status quo. For the most part, it’s a story that fans will be pretty familiar with, borrowing heavily from elements of stories like The Flash: Rebirth and Flashpoint. Thawne’s from the future, he time traveled to kill Barry’s parents, he’s connected to a negative form of the Speed-Force, and so on -- But that’s where things start to get their Rebirth-specific legs.

It’s not that creators Josh Williamson, Howard Porter and Paul Pelletier are trying to reinvent the proverbial wheel with “Running Scared” -- just unlock a different side of it by shining a light on one of the most unique aspect of Eobard and Barry’s relationship.

Reverse Flash doesn’t hate Flash the way Lex Luthor hates Superman, or Bane hates Batman. It’s actually (appropriately) quite the opposite. It’s the reverse. Eobard Thawne loves Barry Allen, obsessively and vengefully, which is where his endless, destructive need to ruin Barry’s life comes into play.

“Running Scared” highlights the fact that a young Eobard grew up alone (though Williamson was quick to confirm that that particular story element came out of an earlier Geoff Johns Flash issue) with only his idealized and imaginary version of Barry -- a character from his history books -- to keep him company. Barry was, for all intents and purposes, Thawne’s only friend, confidant, and emotional anchor, despite the fact that the two of them wouldn’t actually meet for years and years.

It was plenty of time for a very troubled and very lonely Thawne to fall in love with a version of The Scarlet Speedster that existed only in his imagination...and, well, it’s pretty obvious how that particular emotional endeavor actually went down. Actually meeting Barry and subsequently being forced to deal with the fact that he was just a guy and not the cartoon character Thawne had built in his head for years, proved to be too hard a stress test for Thawne’s fragile psyche.

Fatal Attraction

Meeting and being disappointed by a personal hero is a rough experience for just about anyone, but rather than allowing himself to move on -- or even allowing himself to simply decide to hate Barry instead, Thawne’s obsession only doubled down.

As issue #27 hurtles to its conclusion, Thawne’s real motivations become abundantly apparent. As Barry, infected with Thawne’s own inverted Negative Speed Force thrashes Thawne within an inch of his life, he presses him with a question - Why, if Thawne has always been so inspired by him, has he gone out of his way to ruin Barry’s life at every turn? Why has he done all of these terrible things, from killing Barry’s parents to beating Wally within an inch of his life, to kidnapping he and Iris and hauling them to the future?

Thawne’s answer is as unexpected as it is heartrendingly honest: because these horrible things are the only way Thawne understands how to make Barry spend time with him.

It’s that simple.

Thawne’s love for, and obsession with Barry Allen has permeated his life so deeply and completely that he is even willing to count his time spent being pummeled half to death by Flash as a win. He’s completely unable or unwilling to differentiate between Barry’s affection and Barry’s hatred, and he’s ready to do whatever it might take to put himself at the center of either emotion in Barry’s mind.

“A few years ago, it would have really hurt my feelings to hear you say that,” Thawne taunts after Barry threatens him, “but now to think that I caused you that anger? That I could get under your skin like this? It warms my heart.”

It’s deeply troubling, of course, and horrifyingly uncomfortable to get a look into the head of a villain who is, essentially, the personification of a fan gone terribly, terribly awry -- a theme that only gets more difficult to swallow when you begin to think about the increasingly complicated relationship between fans and their idols in actual, genuine, non-super heroic world around us.

This subtle reworking of the Reverse Flash has made him one of comic’s most poignant ruminations of the idea of toxicity in fan communities, idolization of strangers, and self destructive obsession, and it did so in a way that boldly allowed Thawne to win at the end of the day.

The issue closes, and the arc completes, with Barry exactly in the position Thawne wanted him in: completely alone, just like Thawne was as he built Barry into a hero of mythological perfection in his head. Now, where Barry will end up, and whether he’ll be forgiven by Iris, Wally and the roster of people he’s been manipulating as he leads his vigilante double life, is still largely a mystery.

It’s clear that Thawne didn’t expect, or even really want, Barry to come running into his arms to start their life together the second he succeeded in isolating him -- he makes that abundantly clear as he warns that he’ll just return again and again and again, de-powered, killed or otherwise hindered. Iris may have added an exclamation point to the end of the story arc by “vaporizing” Thawne with a Black Hole gun, but it hardly matters.

Reverse Flash will be back, somehow, at some point, and it’s doubtful that his love and obsession for Barry will have wavered in the slightest. We know now that’s just now how his mind is capable of working. It’s unlikely that Thawne will ever feel anything for Barry beyond his own supremely twisted adoration, no matter how many times the Flash pummels him into the ground. It’s just not the way Thawne’s brain is able to process information anymore.

It’s complicated, messy, and uncomfortable, but it’s also one of the clearest articulations of exactly what makes Reverse Flash such an interesting villain in the scope of not just the Flash family of books, but the DCU as a whole.

[rollflasher]

Another Sonic ramble

So once again I’m here with one of my rambles about my incredibly subjective view of how the Sonic series should be handled! *Beat*

...anyway.

So, one of the more recurring opinions on the fandom is that Sonic games should be written by Ian Flynn, I have talked before about the gripes I have with his writing and why I disagree with this but this post is not entirely about him, but rather a more general topic that has been bugging me for a long time.

The other day I was watching a video speculating about the upcoming Sonic Rangers, there’s not much to write home since it was pretty well made but there’s a particular part that inspired me to do this post and talk about it with other fans to discuss it.

See, at one point the video critisized the fact that Sonic Forces was written by a Japanese writer because they have to re-write the script in English and that can cause problems with localization, and that it would be better to have western writers from the get-go since Sonic’s main demographic comes from there, while making an off-hand suggestion that Ian Flynn could be a main choice. While I can see where they’re coming from, my response was a simple:

‘‘Absolutely, not’‘

See, I have a lot of issues with this to put it bluntly and I’ll try to break them down and explain them the best I can since they’re pretty subjective in nature, but I’m bringing this up because I want you guys to share your thoughts as well.

So, why does it bug me so much the idea of Sonic being handled by western creators?

In my case, the main reasons are because Sonic loses a core part of it’s appeal because of this, the fact that SEGA of Japan seems to have a better grasp of the franchise’s tone and characters and there’s the very subjective point that, in my eyes, American versions of Japanese franchises were always nothing more than dumbed down products of the source material.

To start with my first point, whenever someone talks about Sonic’s creation, a lot of people are quick to point out that our favorite blue hedgehog and his games were inspired by western pop culture and cartoons, and that is true, however oftenly they forget to mention a core thing that not only inspired, but also formed part of the core identity of this franchise.

Sonic is very inspired on anime, and at heart this franchise is a shonen.

(This image by The Great Lange expresses more clearly what I mean)

Generally, the most acknowledgement anime gets on it’s hand on Sonic is the mentions of Sonic being inspired by Dragon Ball, particularly the Super Saiyan, but there’s so much more than that, as Sonic blatantly takes inspiration from Studio Ghibli films specially in games like Sonic 3, which draws a lot of inspiration from Laputa: Castle in the Sky, this great post shows proof that this is not a coincidence.

And it doesn’t stop there, Shiro Maekawa himself has stated that SA2′s story (and in particular, the characters of Shadow and Maria) draw a lot of inspiration from the manga Please Save My Earth.

Even Sonic’s character design resembles shonen protagonists moreso than the main characters of silent cartoons, don’t believe me?

Sure, Sonic has a cartoony anatomy, no one can deny that, but he also exhibits a lot of traits from shonen characters such as spiky hair/quills (?), dynamic posing, a confident, courageous and energetic personality and most importantly, fighting spirit.

If you compare Sonic’s personality and more specifically, his abilities and moves to, say, cartoon speedy characters like the Road Runner, there’s a pretty big disconnection between him and western cartoon characters. Hell, this disconnection is even just as present if you compare him with a character like The Flash from DC.

Simply put, Sonic acts, moves and more importantly, fights like a shonen anime character. He doesn’t just go Super Saiyan and that’s it. Here’s even a quick comparison if necessary.

And this is important because this doesn’t apply just to him, but the whole franchise as a whole and when it takes a more western approach, all of these details are kinda lost or more downplayed, of course this depends on the artists and there’s YMMV at hand, but I think my point is clear.

My second point is...SoJ has consistently proven they have a much clearer grasp on how Sonic’s world and characters are compared to SoA.

Hear me out, yes, Sonic 06 and ShtH exist and yes, SoJ is not perfect by any means. But hear me out...when did the characters start to get flanderized and turned into parodies of themselves? In the 2010s...and when did SEGA move from Japanese to western writers in the games?

Of course it was more then that since there’s a whole tone shift that came with this decade and the new writers, but it’s not a coincidence that when writing in Sonic started to decay, western writers also happened to get on board with the games.

Besides that, SoA has a wide history of not getting Sonic’s tone and characters, from how they made media without much of Sonic Team’s input, to altering how characters are seen in the west. (Such as how they amped up Sonic’s attitude in their media or how the English scripts of the games featured things like Sonic seemingly barely tolerating Amy while the JP scripts portrayed this as Sonic just not understanding girls all that well instead, or for more recent examples, the addition of the ‘’torture’’ line in Forces). Not only that, but even ignoring obvious infamous writers like Ken Penders, even the ‘’best’’ writers from the western side of Sonic are still not above of giving us Pontaff-esque gems.

Like this one.

Or alternatively, I feel like sometimes western writers on Sonic rely a bit too much on their personal vision about Sonic which may or may not be a good thing, clear examples of this are Ian Flynn himself and Pontaff.

By contrast, while SoJ has it’s own share of notorious inconsistencies when dealing with writing (The 2000s era is a big offender), it seems that for them Sonic hasn’t changed much and this is visible not only on the JP scripts of the Modern games which are for the most part better than the ENG ones, but also things like the Sonic Channel comics and the recent one-shots they made with Sonic interacting with the cast show that for all intents and purposes, the Japanese’s staff vision of Sonic is much more clear and consistent compared to the west. Because of this, I’d rather have a good Japanese writer on Sonic games with the localization being focused on being faithful with the original script than have a more western writers dramatically changing the characters. (I don’t mention the tone since either way, SEGA is the one in charge of that and the writers have to follow that)

My last and very subjective point is that, at least for me, everything SoA does with Sonic involving the writing and canon feels like a dumbed down version of the source material. One of the reasons it bugs me so much that in the latest decade Sonic has taken a more western direction is because a lot of what I pointed out gets lost as a result, even if some of those elements are still there, you can tell they’re more downplayed with products like the Tyson Hesse shorts having a more predominant cartoon direction. If any of you have been following my blog for a long time, you should be aware that just because I prefer the Japanese Sonic content doesn’t mean I won’t give the western products a chance, my enjoyment for Mania, the Tyson Hesse shorts and the movie should be a testament of that, but at the same time I can’t help but being sour about the fact that because of these products, we don’t have stuff like a new anime for Sonic or even a serialized ‘’main’’ manga as an alternative for the comics, and my hype for these products is generally more subdued as a result since I’d wish SEGA rather spent that money and resources on more Japanese content than just merchandise.

In particular, because Sonic is a Japanese franchise with a notorious inspiration from anime, what I get from this is a pretty big contradiction. I know Sonic is much more popular on the west but...is it really necessary for his game or products to be handled by western creators to keep their appeal?

For instance, imagine if Dragon Ball’s manga and anime got replaced by western comics and animated series because of it’s world-wide appeal, would that really be the same?

Or imagine the same thing with Fullmetal Alchemist, a pretty aclaimed anime that has a lot of western influence. Would it really not matter at all if it’s Japanese products were replaced with western ones?

At least for me, it wouldn’t.

And what I said about American versions of Japanese franchises being nothing more than watered down versions of the source material? I have that view because of countless examples.

Mega Man and how the English manuals removed a lot of important information about the story of the Blue Bomber’s game and world, causing a lot of plot holes in the process.

American remakes like Godzilla 1998 or Dragon Ball Evolution being an in-name only version of the source material.

Or the many censored anime English dubs from the 2000s, for instance, whenever I see the Yu-Gi-Oh! dubs, I only see a very dumbed down and childish version of a show that was originally a shonen.

And I know that all of these things don’t have to necessarely get lost since every creator is different and there’s franchises like Avatar which are made on the west but draw a lot of inspiration from anime and I’m aware of that, and I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to say that American writers are not allowed to work on Sonic, what I’m trying to say is that inevitably there’s always gonna be some culture dissonance and clash when writers from another culture handle a foreign franchise. And even with examples like ATLA, I think being made by one culture while being inspired by the other is actually a big part of these franchises appeal and it’s something that can’t simply be replicated by handing it to creators from that specific culture they draw inspiration from.

I think James Rolfe’s quote about the same thing with the Godzilla franchise sums up how I feel about this.

‘‘It’s like champagne, anybody can make their own and call it champagne, but unless it’s from Champagne France, it’s not real champagne’‘

So, this last part was very subjective, but I think this post in general sums up why I dislike so much the idea of Sonic having western writers specifically in the games or just focusing more on that side in general.

But what do you guys think? I guess I am too biased so that’s why I wanted to ask for opinions and discuss this topic.

[dogmeatthedead]

Answering some commonly asked Deathstroke questions

When, can, how

This was a fun idea that I’d seen done in the past. Basiclly you go into Google type in a character then word like “what, when where and who” and answer the questions that pop up. In this case I answered “Is and What” questions. This was done around two years ago so it may not be updated. I kind of want to do it again with the new autofills. I’ll make a part two if I do.

So what makes me qualified to talk on Deathstroke? 

I’ve been a hardcore fan of Deathstroke for almost eight years, (now ten at the time of postingthis) which is impressive because I’m only 18 (now twenty). Admittedly, I really know the most about the individual Deathstroke solo runs, but that doesn’t mean that I never read other books that he’s in. Outside of all four of his solo books, I’ve read the NTT issues with DS in them, the shitty Johns run, outsiders, villains for hire, flashpoint, birds of prey, Team 7, futures end, and loads of other issues that he appeared in that would take to long to name here. 

What about other media?

Good question. I never finished the arkham game, injustice, MK.vs.DC, or pretty much any other video game he’s in. Not that I don’t want to play it’s that my computer can’t run them, so I need to wait till I get one that can. 

As for cartoons?

I’ve watched teen titans, crisis on two earths, flashpoint, parts of Arrow and I even suffered through the son of Batman but I couldn’t sit though that shitty Judas Contract movie, so I’ve never watched it.  There are probably others that I can’t think of right now. (Titans wasn’t out at the time of writing this. It’ll be in the part two)

FAQ 

Found by Google auto-fill

These are the questions found under “Is Deathstroke...”

Is Deathstroke Slade?

Yes, Slade from Teen Titans and Deathstroke from the comics are the same person. From what I’ve read the Cartoon network executives didn’t like the whole “Death” part, but personally I never bought that given that the Titans fought the Devil. I just think that didn’t want to make Slade a mercenary like he is in the comics so they made a “new” version of the character.

Is Deathstroke Deadpool?

No! They don’t even look alike. When Deadpool was first made by Liefeld (who is a deathstroke fan) editors noted that Deadpool acted like Deathstroke and hence their similar name was born. 

Is Deathstroke a Batman villain?

If I had my way? No, he wouldn’t be. But sadly DC get owns him so Deathstoke and Batman tend to fight. Still I wouldn’t call him a “Batman Villain,” I’d say he’s more of a everyone villain. He’s fought the Titans, Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Flash, Halkman, and loads of other people. So the answer would probably be no, they’re not, but this really could be debated either way.

Is Deathstroke in Arrow?

Yes. Love it or hate it, Deathstroke is in Arrow. While he isn’t at all the same character from the comics he does show up there. He first appears in season 1 but is the main villain in season 2 and goes on to reappear throughout later seasons. 

Is Deathstroke immortal?

Now this is a good question! And the answer is complicated. The short answer is yes, he was at one point. The the good old MarvStroke run, Slade gained immortality from Cheshire (long story) and this went on to be a big plot thing in the later issues of that run. To the best of my knowledge, he never lost that ability until the universe reset. He just stopped being so hot headed and getting himself killed. During N52 I think he lost it, he may have got it back in convergence and we have yet to see if he still has it in Rebirth. (rebirth hadn’t ended yet. But I’d say no. In the Rebirth Timeline, Slade is not immortal)

Is Deathstroke a metahuman?

Well, again yes and no. Yes, he has powers so if that’s what you mean by metahuman, then yes. However, I’ve always defined metahuman as having been born with your powers, so by that definition, no he would be. I think it’s how you want to define metahuman that will define the answer.

Is Deathstroke an anti-hero?

This is pretty dependant on what issue your asking about. He can go from Earth saving hero, to nuking Bludhaven, and back to mercenary so that’s a hard question. One could argue that Deathstroke first appeared as a “villain” but it was Clay Pigeons that launched his first solo run. In that he was most definitely an anti-hero, so I’d say that he is. (or at least he SHOULD be)

Is Deathstroke good?

Hell yeah! Sure, his character has had some hiccups *cough* PriestStroke *cough* but over all, his character is pretty great. If you mean alignment? That depends on issue again. The MarvStroke run is littered with Deathstroke being a straight up hero. He worked with Team Titans (at least I think) to save the world and at one point Cyborg considered him to be a hero. But since then it depends on the Author. (DC can’t seem to make up their minds and looks to be exploring the morality of his character in DS INC)

Is Deathstroke Robin? 

This is an interesting questions actually. I think it comes from a theory that Slade from Teen Titans is Robin from the future. In one episode Robin kicks off part of Slade’s mask and we see black hair, since Slade Wilson has white hair, people just kinda assumed this. I may address this later but the answer is no; the Slade from the Teen Titans cartoon is not Robin. However on Earth 5029 Dick Grayson went insane after losing his eye and became Deathstroke. So yes sorta if you really like this fan AU, but I don’t think that's what their asking about. 

Is Deathstroke in Gotham?

No, Slade Wilson or Deathstroke never appeared in Gotham the TV show. But if you’d like to see how I’d write him in, let me know and I’ll bump it up on my roster.

Let’s move on to the “What” questions

What’s Deathstroke’s real name?

Slade Joseph Wilson.

What does Deathstroke look like?

In classic comics Slade looks like a man in his 40’s with white hair, an eye patch, a goatee and almost no cheeks because his cheekbones are so strong; of course this isn’t always the case. In some issues/ runs, he is younger, being blond (end of the MarvStroke run) or brunette (DanielStroke) and sometimes he’ll have both eyes (most of DanielStroke). But outside of that, his look has stayed constant in comics.

What is Deathstroke’s armor made of?

In the classic comics (NTT/MarvStroke) it was made of a promethium mesh mix, in N52 it was made of promethium and nth metal, Convergance was promethium as well I believe and Rebirth he uses that SHITTY ikon armor. I can’t stress how much I hate the Ikon suit. I sorta want to do a highlight of the different feats of his different suits so I may do that.

What are Deathstroke’s weakness?

Good question. Well, Slade is human….so there's that. In the Marvstroke run when he was immortal nothing could kill him, however, this may have only been temporary I don’t think it was conformed in the books. Outside of that? We know that Barta was able to rip his head clean off so brute force is always possible if you're stronger. Let’s go over what killed him in the MarvStroke: being impaled on a sword, being shot, chemicals, bullet through the mouth, being shot by cops, heart attack (he is pushing 60 after all) and I’m probably forgetting things because he died a lot in the last few issues. Like a lot. So most things that could kill a human could kill him. Much to my chagrin, his family is probably the answer that you’d be looking for. He’d gladly die for them so that would be the easiest way to get to him. 

What is Deathstroke’s sword made of?

I have a feeling that these last two questions are being asked by debaters lol. Hi guys, sup? Anyway, so far as I know it’s always been made of promethium. It may have been mixed with Nth metal in n52 but I believe it’s always been made of promethium. Sadly if you are a debater I can’t give you a set list of ability as it changes pretty much every run. It goes from just being really solid to being able to cut Superman….. So sorry. No list of powers.

What are Deathstroke’s weapons?

Actually this is pretty run dependiant. I don’t have time to go through every single item he’s ever had so I’ll go over what he has most often. Sometimes he has guns sometimes not, but pretty constantly he has his sword, and an assortment of bombs and knives. Otherwise he makes good use of his surroundings. IE: taking other people's guns, or making a shield. I’m talking on average of course, so this can change depending on what you read, also keep in mind, he brings things as he needs them. (He very much retained the mind of a soldier. He bring things as the mission requires. Never bring extra to weigh him down.)

What does Deathstroke mean?

If you consider Rebirth cannon, then he was named after his sword. However, his name was never meant to be called Deathstroke. When he was first introduced everyone called him “Terminator” Deathstroke was just the part of his name that no one used. After the movie with Arine came out DC fazed this name out, and Deathstroke replaced it. I don’t think it was ever meant to have a deep meaning, just your typical 90’s funny faux hardcore name.

What is Deathstroke’s fighting style? 

Probably a mix of all of them if I had to guess, I know he trained with Richard Dragon so that seems likely. He went though advanced military training so he would likely fall back onto this kind of training heavely. 

What is Deathstroke’s mask made of?

A promethium aloy, I believe. I don’t think that this has ever changed, save for in rebirth.

What if Deathstroke was real?

This would be a cool post and I may make it sometime, but if we say that he survives his genetics being ripped apart, he would die of a heart attack. His power are derived from adrenaline, and his heart would give out if it was forced to process it 24/7. His body would shut down slowly and it would be unable to digest food; he would go spetic from rotting food in his stomach. He would also likely go quite mad as everything around him would be SUPER loud and everything he touched would have it’s texture enchanced. His powers are like being on a constant adrenaline high, however the artifical adrenaline that hisbody makes could come without the negative side effects.

[popculturebuffet]

Justice League: In Blackest Night Review: A Case Study in Why John Stewart is  Awesome

Hello my Green Lantern Corps and happy black history month! And happy 40th Anniversary Year to John Stewart. And let’s get this out of the way now not the one replaced by trevor noah who handed Tucker Carlson his ass on television and got his show canceled, please do it again John i’d be greatful, and has a weird obession with how Pizza should be. No i’m of course talking about the Green Lantern, the third from earth and the second to headline the book itself, John Stewart.  But to me.. he was my first Green Lantern and one that gave me a deep and abiding love of the Corps since all thanks to this very episode. It’s thanks to John I’m the green lantern loving nerd I am today and without him I probably wouldn’t of found Guy, Jessica, Simon, Alan, and Kyle not to mention got into the varoius other corps. It’s thanks to this episode I wanted to seek out these wonderful characters eventaully and in part why I got into JLI, one of my faviorite teams, among many ohter great things and books. 

So quite obviously both this episode, which I haven’t seen in probably a decade, and John have a great place in my heart. And thus it warms said heart to FINALLY see John getting the recogntion he deserves: he’s going to be one of the starring roles in the upcoming HBO Max series, he was on Scott Snyder’s justice league, and he’s now going to be headlniing the main Green Lantern book going forward under writer Geoffry Throne, who like me was VERY sick of the Hal Jordan show the Green Lantern franchise could become at times, and also like me gave out about it a LOT. The fact DC hired him despite a very public and easily accesable record of him slagging of their use of Hal instead of him ESPECAILLY in the new 52 reboot aka why Cyborg is in the Justice League movie as Geoff kinda shoved hal in there despite John being a more sensible pick and doing so not only shoving the Martain Manhunter, who this show also gave me a deep lasting love for, out of the team but forcing Cyborg onto the team despite fitting with the titans better and, AGAIN there being a black green lantern and given the New 52 kept the history of there being multiple lanterns, no reason Hal could’ve been SECOND instead other than DanDiDio’s bitchy habit of EVERYTHING WAS BETTER ON MY EARTH that poisoined the company for a good decade before recently. 

And yes I felt the need to rant about that, yes Green Lantern the animated series is still good mind you, I just got tired of bland white guy over “Really awesome, really layred especailly thanks to this series black guy”, “stubborn asshole white guy whose hilarious and has a heart underneath the layers of douchebag”, “creative and imaginative white guy who has as personality and really uses the ring in fun ways”, and more recently “A muslim superhero struggling with his past who’se also really energetic and fun and has an intresting family life” and “Latnix superheroine who struggles with anxiety and actually struggles with constructs and once she gets past that has very unique ones”. In other words, yeah I’m bitter because everyone else was more intresting than Hal, and it’s only in recent years with Jessica gaining promience and John regaining it that DC’s finally broke out of that and is actually using the intresting ones, and again without John I wouldn’t be a fan, so they had no real excuse to barely use him outside of the comics if at at all after a while. 

So yeah as you can tell by that rant and by how specific it got for each lantern, this is one of my faviorite franchises, as said this episode is responsible and so for Black History Month I felt i’d be a huge mistake on my part if I DIDN’T cover my boy John and this episode and see how it held up. The fact it’s his 40th anniversary wasn’t something I was aware of, but now I am, expect more Johncentric episodes from Justice League sprinkled throughout the year to celebrate one of my first and possibly best GL. 

Naturally before we get to the episode we have to get to the series itself. The series was launched as Batman Beyond was winding down. Bruce Timm wanted to keep the crew together, something I could empathize with since Owen Dennis and JG Quintel have ran into that same problem lately, with most of their crews drifting off during the gaps in production and Owen desperate to get the show renewed  before he lost everybody. A good crew isn’t had to find in animation but KEEPING them for multiple shows or seasons can be. And there was one project the fans wanted more than anything: The Justice League. After all BOTH Batman and Superman had had tons of guest stars, especailly the latter, with Batman having Zantana show up and Superman having the Flash (Wally West), Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) and Aquaman all show up. There were seeds there.. but Timm was relcutant as he had trouble ballancing 2 or 3 heroes in a fight scene, wanting to keep them al lin focus so fans didn’t wonder where they were and they didnt’ have to cut back and forth, the idea of juggling 7 was daunting.  So as Beyond was finishing production a few things happened: The first is that they did the episode The Call, focusing on a future version of the League, and while only a two parter, it showed Timm his crew might be able to juggle a team of heroes after all, and second was the pitches Timm made BEFORE justice league. Since Kids WB had been hteir partner for a while now they tried pitching both a batman anime, he did not provide many details, and in his own words a “Kidified” justice league, basically the justice leagued mashed with the titans including a female version of cyborg. It was the latter pitch, which was rejected by Kids WB, that finally convinced Timm they could do this, but if they did it couldn’t be half assed or having compromises. it had to be what it SHOULD be. So they went to somewhere new, if in the same family and asked cartoon network, who said...

And here we are. They took their time to work out the characters, apparently taking a lot of delbiration, mostly on which GL to go with, and if they were going to do a hawk wether to go for hawkman or hawkgirl. In the end the roster was the iconic big 7 one, in large part thanks to Grant Morrison taking that concept and reviving it in his run on the team, but shaking it up slightly: Barry was naturally replaced with Wally West flash as he was THE flash in the comics, gave a slightly younger member for the others to play off of, and was more popular.. something Dan DiDio plugged his ears and went LALALALALALAL about for a decade before FINALLY leaving the company so he could stop screwing with a character he hated for reasons that can be summed up as ‘MY FLASH IS BETTER. YOU’LL LIKE MY FLASH.. YOU’LL SEE I JUST HAVE TO MAKE THE OTHER ONE A MASS MURDERER.. THAT’LL SHOW YOU FOR NOT LIKING WHAT I LIKE”... I still have maybe a smidge of lingering issues over how wally was treated the last few years after his return. I do not apologize for htem or for doing a little dance when I found out Didio was gone. 

Point is it wasn’t the only subsitution as Hal Jordan was replaced by John, obviously and rather than use Aquaman, they went with Hawkgirl, though Arthur still got an episode focusing on him fairly early into the series which has the iconic moment of him cutting his hand off to save his son. I dare you to find something more badass. Bruce both liked her deisgn better and felt it helped with the gender ballance. 

So with all that set and with some growing pains to get through they had their show so join me under the cut to see how it turned out. Spoilers: It good. 

We open INNNNNN SPACCCEEEEEEE, as a coaltion of neat looking aliens wants justice and has gone to a space court lead by three weird alien faces, likely inspiried by the kryptoian tribunal in the donnerverse superman movies, with their prosecutor sending a group of mysterious robots known as the Manhunters to go fetch the accused for a trial: John Stewart. Given he’s voiced by Kurtwood “Red Forman” Smith, i’m very surpised he didn’t order them to also put their foots up his ass. Maybe he’s saving it for the trial.

After the titles we cut to John himself whose in shades and trenchant for reasons.. I mean it looks neat, but he’s in his old neighborhood not hunting down his exes killer or trying to hide the fact he’s a ninja turtle. Why is he all disguised. I mean sure WE know people are coming from him and given what he thinks he did he knows.. but he has no intention of running from what he did. It’s just a weird stylistic choice. That said we do get a cool sequence when while casually walking he notices a robbery, and stops it simply by first stopping the wheel then levitating the car.. and while he does get a little showy shaking the guy upside down to return the money.. it’s all very controlled. It shows off how John works. While we’ve seen him at work as Green Lantern before this this small sequence says volumes about john in the span of a few minutes, showing that shilw he HAS immense power, he only uses the amount he needs, knows when to hold back, and only shows off a tiny bit, and even then he’s likely still keeping the theif absolutely safe. It also provides excellent foreshadowing for later as to why the League takes his side even when he refuses to defend himself, as it shows that John really is a professional true and true.

He runs by a basketball court and fails to make a basket when throwing a ball back to a kid before meeting his old gym teacher, who turns out to be the kids uncle or something like that, and invites John to join them as they go to the barber shop. The kid wants John’s haircut, his granpa says the usual and i’m wondering why as John’s haircut isn’t that radical: it’s a miltiary style cut, belying the fact that for this series, while it dosen’t come up in the plot here, John was a former marine instead of an architect. Honestly.. this wasn’t a bad change, giving us the deciated and measured john we know, to the point the comics gladly retconned it in. Not that it’s really a huge deal given it meelrly adds shades to the guy and dosen’t prevent him from being an architect. It just adds lairs by giving a reaosn he’s so focused and driven. He had it drilled into him and carried it with him. 

Meanwhile on the watchtower The Flash clumisly tries to get to know Hawkgirl better and maunver into asking her out, though it’s clear sh’es not intrested. Still even if he can’t help flirting, and it sometimes gets creepily obnoxious, it’s still better than I expected remembering this running subplot, as he DOES try to get to know her and what she does in her off time, even if it’s to set up asking her out, and is trying to ask her out instead of just hitting on her or doing anything far more creeptacular. It’s still not great mind you and hasn’t aged well at all.. but for the time it’s not TERRIBLE and again it goes away pretty quickly in favor of the much more intresting John and Shierya relationship. 

Flash accidently shoots himself in the foot.. conversationally though given how Wally is at this point in the series I wouldn’t be suprised, by asking the Martian Manhunter, who gives Hakwgirl an easy exit if he’s ever felt alone.. you know the guy whose entire race including his wife and child died horribly. He quickly apologizes though and John understands he just stuck his foot in his mouth at lighting speed. And it’s not the MOST insensitive he’s been about Jonn’s dead wife. 

But things are soon interupted as Jonn notes “We have an incursion!” 

But the Avengers are dealing with all of that so they can instead focus on the Manhunters shooting toward earth. I really like this as the primary reason Batman set up this station was to monitor for alien threats, it just because the Leagues base because superman had the idea to stay as a team and it was a good un, and given earth JUST had an invasion, as this likely isn’t too long after that given it’s only the second set of episodes, it’s understandable they’d  be on high alert. 

So our heroes move to intercept. As the first episode after the pilot this one also sets up a recurring part of the show and a necessary one: only a handful of Leaguers would feature in each two-parter, as the episodes for the first two seasons were essentially one hourlong story split into two episodes. The only exceptions were the three part premire, the three part finales for each season, and the sole solo episode comfort and joy which is fucking awesome and my faviorite christmas episode period. But even with the extended run time the crew simply felt i’td be unwiedly to juggle 7 characters eveyr episode, feeling it’d eventually get to original series star trek leevels of having one just manning a console or something. So rather than try and cram them all into every episode, they choose who they needed and gave valid excuses for the rest when necessary. In this case Batman and Wonder Woman have solo missions their busy with , as does Superman whose adressing an earthquake.  Our heroes try talking to the Manhunters.. who refuse to talk to them and then also say their coming for John, and aren’t explaning why. So naturally a brawl breaks out as the League SHOCKINGLY dosen’t want their friend who as far as they know has done nothing wrong taken by a brutish paramilitary force who won’t actual talk to the citzens their policing or try and be coporative. More on this in a second. The fight itself is pretty awesome as our heroes fight as evenly as they can.. but it’s clear their outgunned outplanned outnumbered and outmanned, as while their you know the justice league and do their best and Jonn is in Superman’s weight class the battle makes it VERY clear their barely holding in there and that the blast from the manhunters rods are just too potent for them to stand up against. 

But help and hope arrives and things get a bit less lopsided when Superman shows up! Unfortunately it’s season 1 superman, and something a lot of fans noticed but I as a kid didn’t and the crew themslves did not until it was too late to course correct for the season, was that Superman came off as a bit of a wimp in this series. See they had the good intention of having him struck down to show a threat’s serious, something TV Tropes calls the “The Worf effect” after the fact that Worf on Star Trek TNG would get knocked on his ass a lot for the same reason, but it has the side effect of making a character look like their made of paper mache if done too often. To the crew’s credit they realized this and not only made sure this didn’t happen as much in season 2, but dedicated the first episode of Season 2, twilight, to showing Superman as a badass by having him try and cave Darkseid’s skull in. Granted they overcompensated in places in that episode, but that’s a story for another day. Point is he had a habit of getting knocked around and it varied between really effective and overselling it. Here it works as the manhunters had already knocked Jonn around a bit, knocking him into some poor kid’s apartment whose really wondering what the fuck just happened too much to enjoy meeting the martian manhunter, so him  not being too on top of them simply sells this threat is equal, and possibly past the League. 

Meanwhile John is talking to his former teacher who says the kid reminds him of John... it’s not only a nice bit of depth to show the restrained John used to be a bit of a hellraiser before the Marines.. but also shows John’s guilt as he hopes not.. but before he can unload, he notices the fight and suits up to his old mentors shock and the kids joy, I mean I would too if a guy suddenly because a green lantern in front of me, and dashes off.. to surrender and break up the fight, handing over his ring and going with them and telling the League not to interfere. Their response can be summed up thusly. 

To John, he’s peacefully surrendering for a crime he comitted to a bruitsh and unfair police force but one who is duly deputized and as an officer himself, for the unaware the Green Lanterns are space cops and given the reason rightfuly reconing on the police I will certainly be discussing this as we go, is trying to coparate and prevent any collateral. While LIKELY Bruce pays for any that happens, as beneath his batdick demanour at times he’s a very good man and if he has the pockets for a space station, space craft, commuincators and all the good stuff a superhero team has on hand, he probably has a dedicated fund set up to paying for collateral since insurance might not cover it, and not only that would likely give any impacted extra to do any upgrades they coudln’t before because he’s a philanorphist .. one who dresses up like a bat to punch people in the face, but that itself is still philathophy in a way. 

But to the League? Their friend was taken by a bunch of shady paramilitary robots who didn’t bother talking to them, is trying to keep them out of it and for all they know only surrendered to prevent a fight, and even if he had valid reasons, as his friends-ish and teammates, they have a right to answers. So while John sits in his cell completlating his apparent crimes.. the JL have taken off in the Javelin, the spaceship I mentioned batman funding. And of course Batman has both spaceship money and had a design for one so ready it likely took a month at most for him to get it up and running, if not less, and only didn’t have one in the batcave because he hadn’t neededed it yet and likely didn’t want to embezle more money than he has to from his company. Jonn uses the stars John saw, say that three times fast I dare you, to find a location and our heroes head there.  Our heroes arrive.. and are attacked by the local security despite Superman geninely trying to hail them, the Javelin not firing back and our heros only going out to intercpet personally so they don’t die, and even then making careful certainty not to attack. So we get another thrilling battle, with our three flying heroes all pitching in, and the flash realizing he dosen’t know how to fly the thing and me cursing out bruce in my head for you know, not either forcing flash to learn the stuff, or having the forsight to put a manual on board for any members who forgot something, aka so when Wally inteivibly goofs off and eats candy instead of reading it the first time, he can speed read it and at least retain it long enough to land the thing in a crisis. If it were anyone else i’d be understanding but this is the guy who again, either had spaceship plans lying around or could get one together in the span of a month or so and while not thinking of the ship in terms of a team, still also paid for and likely created the commuincators they used, so he’d know his team well enough to know he needs this. 

My nitpicking aside, our heroes land, make quick work of the locals, and then crash in on John’s trial after he’s escorted in, passing his fellow lanterns who rightfully treat him with disdain.. but for the wrong reasons as we’ll see. John gives  groaning “oh no” , like he’s embarassed. When REALLY..

Seriously John, again you were as far as they knew kidnapped, and the way the manhunters acted, they had no reason to think they were legitamate, and you didn’t take five minutes to tell them, “They have every reason to be takning me” or “I blew up a planet I deserve this” . They still would’ve came mind you, they just might of realized this wasn’t a traditional rescue mission and actually tried to use some subtly. You also COULD have told the manhunters they might show up so the security wouldn’t attack them. They probably woudln’t o LISTEND or attacked themselves, so i’ts a damned if you do damned if you don’t situation, but you still did absolutely nothing. It’s the one mistep with John here and even then it has the justification of his self loathing at the moment being so high, he assumed they’d rightfully write him off without question.. not to mention given the team is mostly white guys, two aliens and a princess who woudln’t know better, he probably assumed like most white dumbasses they’d assume the police were correct and not give him the benifit of a doubt. To their credit, especially since you know one of them’s superman and the other one’s a professional dumbass, they didn’t think that for a second. Some would not be such a good person. 

But Prosecutor Forman and the big giant heads aren’t much better than the manhunters, so Prosecutor Forman sends some orange guys to put foots up their asses.. and since unlike the manhunters their just... some ambigiously gendered aliens with no powers, they go down quick and before the manhunters enter, superman RIGHTFULLY calls them out, as he points out they just wanted to know what the hell was going on, didn’t throw the first punch, and have been under attack since, and the heads admit this IS a public trial, and they kinda overreacted so as long as the superfriends don’t do any other antics and watch like anyone else, their good. Superman has his team play it safe for now as they really don’t know what’s going on and given they could only stalemate the manhunters on even footing, they know they can’t take them on their home turf.  

The trial is soon underway, and Prosecutor Forman calls the witnsees.. Kanjar Ro, also voiced by Smith. This is neat little bit as Ro was one of the first foes the League fought in the comics, a space pirate, and while he originally was just going to be some random asshole, someone brought up the idea of him being Ro and the crew really loved it. It’s a nice nod to the comics and honestly if you have a vast superhero universe with decades of continuity to draw from for your show, why NOT make the secondary villian of the episode be someone from the comics. 

Ro is, like the comics, a pirate and seemingly came forward because what John did was so bad even he can’t stomach it and has to say something. So we FINALLY find out what John did.. well okay the audience as a whole does I remember this from being a kid. He and Ro had a routine cop and robber interaction, Ro was smuggling shit, and John was doing his job as GL of Sector 2814 and stopping him and cut out his engine.. but seemingly said engine drifted off, and destroyed a planet as  result via chain reaction, and thus the debris right outside the planet John’s being tried on are apparently thsoe of the planet he accidently killed. The court takes a break and while the League, understandably, assume that the obviously shady man was lying John ends part one by confirming that no he did it. And this is why I put a pin in things... because the episode being about a space cop being arrested by worse space cops and dealing with his friends in the badge turning on him while some of his other friends try to prove he’s innocent, and the man in question being an african american... tackles some very loaded issues that, givent he writer and most of the staff, Dwayne McDuffie accepted, were very much white, i’m thinking they just kind of fell backward into and it only came out as good as it did either do to McDuffie or just blind luck that it didn’t turn out entirely awful in hindsight.

And if anyone is complaning: “Wait you dont’ need to get political leave politics out of this”.. please leave my fucking blog. For one, the recknoing with the police was long overdue, I feel ashamed for not having it sink in how fundementally broken the police were and not realizing it for my whole fucking life, I knew some cops were bad but I hadn’t realized the institution was inherently racist and bad  and feel so much deep and lasting shame for that, and for another again it’s a story that at it’s core is a black police officer being arrested for doing something wrong, taking full responsiblity for his actions like a police officer SHOULD, and having friends of his try and prove he didn’t really do it, while his fellow officers, rather than find the act itself abohhrent, come out as either being loyal to john no matter what (kilowog) because fellow officer, or assholes who ONLY are upset because it makes them look bad, and are ONLY distancing themselves because of that, and not because you know JOHN MAY OF CAUSED A GENOCIDE BY INCOMPETNECE. So yeah, i’m not ignoring the real world implications, I couldn’t and wouldn’t if I wanted to, and i feel if done right ANY medium, animation, comics, what have you, for kids or not, can tackle such issues and should be able to. 

So i’m not ignoring the elephant in the room, and as we get into part 2 we get the good and bad of this in full: Superman feels something’s off about this whole thing, a hunch admitely but given an engine falling in a crater seems a bit too convinent, he has a right to investigate and takes MM to do so, while he leaves Flash and Hakwgirl to stall. Both take diffrent approaches: Flash signs on as GL’s lawyer.. and it’s an awesome scene as we find out, in your standard evil lawyer joke, that the tribunal of faces solved this by simply having the lawyer share the punishment.. but it also shows Flash’s loyalty and faith that his friend did not do this and something worse is at work, as he still agrees after learning he’ll probably die if his other friends don’t fix this. 

And now we have full context i can get into where this episode really does the issue justice for the most part: John is presented as the model of both what the GL Corps and what police should be: He’s professional, uses minimal force despite having a weapon that can do anything, and when he THINKS he did something horrible, he dosen’t run from his crime: the most he does is go back home to see it once last time, simply waiting for someone to come and get him for what it did wether it be his own brothers in arms or as we saw the manhunters and he doesn’t defend himself because he dosen’t feel he should as he screwed up, got an entire planet killed, and rightly thinks he should pay for it. He’s likely, as a black man in the early 2000′s, been falsely accused, pulueld over and fucked over by police and seen people in his community he knewe and care about die because of shit like this so when given the chance to take responsibility, even from a clearly broken system, he does. Because in the same situation a lot of officers back at home would not and would walk away clean and that’s not who John Stewart is, how he was raised, or what he or the corps stands for. 

But the episode gets to have it’s cake and eat it too, as the League does belivie John didn’t do this on purpose.. and the blind faith they especially superman did come off as wince inducing.. until I realized it’s not because of some “brotherhood of the badge” bullshit.. but because it’s Superman. He belivies in the good of most people. In this very series despite Lex Luthor having tried to kill him dozens of times at this point, he STILL shows the guy empathy when he finds out Lex is dying of cancer. Lex spits at the notion of course and dosen’t take it seroiusly.. but Superman is just that good a person, so if he has a hunch somethings’ wrong.. it probably is. And even if he and Jonn found nothing... it’s the right thing to do. A crime should ALWAYS be properly investigated to make sure someone dosen’t hang for something they did not do. This is what I meant by have it’s cake and eat it too: the episode tackles police brutality.. but the accused is also the victim, and it thus tackles the unfairness in the us courts, how black people are often assumed guilty when that’s horribly racist and biased as fuck and how Police are assumed correct. Our heroes are assuming john is right based on optisim but are not wrong for wanting him to at LEAST get a fair trial and full investigation that clearly was not done. It also covers, again probably intetioanlly, how some are often not able to get proper representatin, with this court outright getting rid of it, which is wrong and bad, and the flash being the best John can do and not very good at it, mostly stalling for time. It shows the system’s brokena nd soemtimes you have to directly fight iht and can’t just take it , and even if your convinced your guilty and want to rightfuly take the blame for something your sure you did... you still deserve a fair trial and a compitent one. 

It’s not all good: as said the gl’s are portrayed as bad for not wanting anything to do with john, and in order to make them unsympathetic they care more about their rep than the fact a friend may of comited genocide and kilowog showing up and providing character witness is seen as a good thing, even if he provides no actual character evidence other than “Johnny’s a good guy” and that’s not ideal. It’s not perfect and again it was writtne by an old white guy so of course it isn’t but the fact it gets so much right the more you dig in despitei t’s awwkardness and being written and aired 20 years ago... that is nothing to sneeze at. 

We have more to dig into here too with the manhunters but first moreof the plot: While the other stuff mentioned happens, Superman and Jonn investigate as said.. and we find out WHY superman was supscious: while it was part hunch.. he did in fact have valid reason to suspect something was off, and as we saw actually heard the case against his friend first, and only went against it because the evidence was off.. in that the MOON of the planet is still there and should’ve flown off. He and Jonn soon find a MASSIVE device that John identifies as a bigger version of a toy he had as a kid, something that created images... and again shows whya  PROPER investigation was needed. Had the court actually looked into it instead of presuming John guilty, they would’ve found this thing too. Naturally though Kanjar Ro has followed them and wants to kill them.. but with her subplot wrapped up Hawkgirl went to seei f they needed backup, stealing one of the guard ships which given they attacked people on ap lanet iwth a PUBLIC TRIAL going on without haling them yeah don’t blame her, and kicks his ass. Our heroes find out the truth as I mentioned earlier: Ro was paid to lie and be in on things for an assload of money.. byt he Manhutners.. who at the moment are plotting to strike while Oa, the home of the green lanterns is weak, as the Guardians who created them and monitor them mostly left to go to the trial.

As we catch up with them, THe guardians speak on each lantern being trusted with the ring and given little oversight.. because they pick wisely. The prosecutor just wants John to hang, calls for a sentence, which is death and John and Flash nearly die, in case you thought I was pulling those parallels out of my ass. But Superman rushes in, and in a small, subtle gag he and Jonn do so thorugh a small pain of glass put over where they enterted last time, fight off security and save them, and before prosecutor foot in the ass can harumph about it more.. Superman claims jonn’s innocent..a nd has Shiera smash the generator, showing he indeed is, getting John aquitted. John also attacks Ro, who they brought along as a witness, rightfully so, but the League get him to stop as they don’t have time for that: the Guardians are strangely leaving after that, the manhunters are clearly doing something given their asbent, so John retakes his ring, restored to who he was now knowing he truly WAS innocent and was simply set up.. and he wants to find out why. 

We soon get the why as the Guardians explain the manhunters after the League won’t let them just.. brush by after they aburbtly tried to leave. They AREN’T behind the current attack.. but did create them, feeling robots would be better policeman. They were wrong, with the manhunters lacking empathy, being far too military in their job, and generally not being up for it so they simply gave them smaller jobs as bounty hunters, court balifs that sort of thing ans assumed they were fine because they didn’t say anything. As John puts it perfectly “Not outloud. “ And this itself is the other thing that makes the episode work as an allegory, if a very unteitonal one: The Manhunters are the police as they are now, violent brutes with way too much power, no restraint in using it and no ounce of mercy or sympathy for those they protect. And the Guardians rightfully removed this system, and replaced it with the corps. And while the Corps STILL have a lot of leway and power, being free to investigate on their own provided OA dosen’t call them to do someting specific, and given a ring that can do anything within corps guidelines, which basically means “don’t kill” and “don’t be a dick with it”, the guardians still watch them, do not interfere in trials and choose very wisely. not only that ther’es only one officer per sector, each sector being galaxies wide.. but that’s because that’s only what’s NEEDED. One Lantern with the power to take on entire fleets if needed, which is a fair amount of power given the scope of the job, and come in as requested by the people themselves, honestly isn’t a bad system. Granted the corps is wonky from time to time in the comics as are the guaridans depending on the writer, but at it’s core the corps really sounds like a more responsible versoin of the police: given just the gear necessary, the men necessary, and only called in when truly needed or if they spot a crime in process. THat’s what the people protecting us should be like and that’s why this episode still works. 

Obviously though I was aware of none of this as a kid, and the real reason I loved this episode is this climax. The League arrives on Oa just in time to provide backup. Presumibly the guardians there and incoming with the league simply dont have the power to spare to call for reinforcments. Which is weird but fair enough drama wise and our heroes storm the planet , with the corpsmen from before all showing up to pitch in. But John gets there too late as the head manhunter drains the central power battery, the source of the lantern’s powers, and declares I AM THE POWER, refusing to accept he’s out of date.

 And this, folks is the moment that made me love the lanterns for life. John is outgunned, the wise old wrinkled blue men who gave him his powers drained of there, starring down a massive monster planning to subjigate the universe... and he does not blink. See lanterns are picked for their willpower, their abliity to stare down things like this, and fight anyway, their very rings controlled by this, by their own force of personhood. It’s another reason besides logistics why theires only one per sector: it’s that hard to find one. Earth is so remarkable because , even if it’s simply so we could have more stars in the books over time in real world, we produced not ONE person capable of this.. but 7.. Alan Scott whose not in the corps but whose powers stll work on will and could probably use a regular corps ring very much included. John was chosen because he simply won’t give up. He gave up before.. but it was the right thing to do and ultimately biding his timea nd accepting his trial.. gave his friends time to aquit him and prove he was framed. 

But now is not the time to back down.. now’s the time to stand.. so how does John win? By USING his will, by using the reason he was chosen coupled with ihs own personal dedication and concentration, he grabs his ring as it floats toward the guy, takes it back.. and starts reciting the lantern oath. And since the Manhunter is indeed “The power”.. it means he too can be controlled like any lantern energy. and thus with every bit of willpower he has, struggling all the while but not moving a damn inch, John recites his oath and shoves the monster that framed him, and the power he stole, back into the battery, all while saying an oath so badass it has been etched into my head since thanks to this episode. Say it with me now..

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night No Evil Shall Escape My Sight Let Those Who Worship Evil’s Might BEWARE MY POWER, GREEN LANTERN’S LIGHT!

And the credit goes to phil lamarr, who delivers the oath with all the gravitas and awesomeness it’s first delivery in this continuty it deserves. It was this that made me a lifelong fan: one man with the power of anytihng using PURE MENTAL STRENGTH AND DETERMiINATION TO SHOVE AN EVIL ENERGY BEING IN A GIANT LANTERN WHILE RECITING A BADASS AND AWE INSPIRING OATH. And if that dosen’t sell you on the Green Lantern’s being awesome I can’t help you and don’t know why your here. 

So wrapup time: The Guardians genuinely thank john, saying they choose well, and John brushes off his fellows corpspersons as they should’ve belivied him and thanks the League for having faith in him even when he didn’t. And while the former part has some.. bad implications we’ve gotten into already, I also can’t entirely blame him given they did it not because he might’ve killed someone but again, because 

Precisley. So our heroes prepare to head home, cue the credits. 

Final Thoughts:

So how does this episode hold up 20 years later? As should be obvious, damn well. It’s a good introduction for the corps, if showing them to be kinda assholes in places, and a good spotlight episdoe for John showing who he is what he stands for and again how TRULY MONUMENTALLY BADASS the man is. And lest you think the comics versoin is any LESS badass, he once got into a sniper duel in with Bedovian, a member of the Sinestro Corps and a crab person.. who was as I forgot till looking it up, THREE SECTORS, which i’ll remind you can comprise entire galaxies, away, with a ring made sniper rifle. In one shot no less. Point is even with some.. wonkier aspects, and ones that aren’t intetnional, it still works and is a shockingly relevant episode 19 years later and the fight scenes, as are standard for the series, are overwhelmingly awesome. Check this one out, and the series as a whole. With its great animation, character work and general badassery this one’s worth a few watches. And obviously given my love of this seires, and it’s 20th anniversay next year, and my love of John, check back here for more John-centric episodes throughout the year as we celebrate the guy. And I will also celebrate the green lantern NAMED guy eventually too, and jessica.. and all of them ebcause I love them all. Yes.. even Hal.  As for which John episode i’m doing next? Easy, one that intorduces me to a character I love who dosen’t get used near enough, Metamorphisis. The when I can’t say QUITE yet as my March schedule is full and most of my ongoing projects are on the backburner so I can tackle two arcs of ducktales, which coincidentally happened to be in time for the finale. That wasn’t planned AT ALL mind you, it just ended up working out really well that way.  For now though tommorow I begin my coverage of the final 4 episodes of ducktales with “Beaks in the Shell” and later this week finish up black history month with blacksad, continue my Lena retrospective with a money shark and some pr work, cover the second season of close enough, celebrate Tex Avery’s birthday and also celebrate the new Tom and Jerry movie.. with the OLD tom and jerry movie. Until then, see you next rainbow.