#so he allowed him to go to the DC dimension as long as he returned to the Realms frequently

[nelkcats]

Help is just a click away

Danny was bored, it's not something new, the Infinite Realms were not the epitome of fun and the portals had been closed after the fight he had with his parents. It was safer that way, no one could get hurt, humans or ghosts.

That didn't mean the halfa couldn't miss them: his family, his friends, or the life he had before. All he had left were the ghosts, which was fine, but it wasn't enough. He felt unbalanced, unwell.

Clockwork told him it was because of his obsession, his obsession to help and protect was being fulfilled but only halfway. He had enough ectoplasm to last a lifetime but Danny was a human too, he needed to see the stars, to help people. He needed it desperately.

Clockwork noticed this and seeing that the boy could not return to his original dimension, he gave him permission to travel to the DC universe as long as he was careful. It was unlikely that they would attack the halfa there, they were all "special" and Danny would go unnoticed. But the boy still wanted to help.

So he formed a small business. He created a simple app and granted help to anyone who made a request. From saving a kitten from the trees to transporting very heavy packages.

It worked wonders and lowered his stress levels greatly. Danny thought he could get used to it, until people started making stranger requests and before he knew it, the so-called "Justice League" was at his door. Of course, he escaped, although that probably didn't help sell his innocence.

[letoasai]

dp x dc Chronos

An idea that’s probably been touched on before but well.. once more! 

~

It had begun with a meltdown. Being a fifteen year old was tough. High school was the time in your life where you were picking up life skills without even knowing it. Social skills, study habits, responsibilities stacked on responsibilities. It all seemed rather unfair when their brains weren’t done developing yet or… whatever Jazz had been telling him one afternoon. 

The point was, being a teenager wasn’t all making memories and messing around. It was hard. Add on dying to that work load and things got complicated. Add on a ghost portal that allowed ghosts to come and go as they pleased when you were the only one that could safely stop them and things got stressful. 

Parents that were trying to kill you…went without saying. 

Become a king of a realm by fifteen, and see how you handle the sudden workload. Danny had been holding up fine, until he wasn’t. Until a particularly loud boom in his parents lab from whatever their latest torture invention was cause a tremor of fear to shoot up his spine. In an instant, panic was sparked. He wanted to leave, he thought about it often, but how could he just leave Amity Park behind? Would it be better outside of his parents house? Could he live alone?

The fear latched onto his core, and not being able to relax in his own haunt was apparently counterproductive to a healthy, happy halfa. 

Before dying, Danny hadn’t been familiar with panic attacks, now, they weren’t entirely uncommon. One moment he would be overthinking in his bedroom, the next he’d be on his bed or the floor curled up in a ball. Tears flowing and throat clogged, he would sob under the weight of his responsibilities in silence. He doubted his parents would notice, but he hated to worry his sister. Being quiet was a must.

It was one of these episodes that had led to Clockwork appearing in his room, lifting Danny up into his arms like a child without even a weak protest. A post-it was left for Jazz so she wouldn’t worry and the king was returned to the Infinite Realm for a night. 

That was the start of Danny spending time in Clockwork’s citadel any time he was feeling overwhelmed. Being outside of time, he was given the time to relax, sleep, or study. It lessened the burdens of trying to be a normal high school student, hero, and king all at once, or at least gave him a safe place to crash. 

At least once a week, Danny made his way into Clockwork’s lair, long since allowed to enter on a whim unless expressly told otherwise for a day or two. For all Danny was king, he did his best not to interrupt Clockwork’s work and he knew beings from other dimensions popped in from time to time. 

If Clockwork didn’t want him meeting them, he was going to take his opinion to heart and make himself scarce. 

Danny wasn’t sure why he got the privilege to hide behind the ghost of time but he didn’t shun the offer. Any chance to get some sleep was a good one when he had ghosts like Skulker or Johnny waking him up at three in the morning with their bullshit. 

Danny floated over a sofa, backpack forgotten on the floor and books hovering around him. The crown that hovered above his head kept going back and forth between being covered by ice or green flame. It seemed to do what it wanted like a living creature. 

Danny had his own room in the citadel now but he was positive the sofa was put in Clockwork’s viewing room just for him. 

He slept there more often than not. 

“Hey Clockwork.” Danny called. He’d be ignored if Clockwork was deep into peering into the past for future, but would otherwise get an answer. “Can i ask you a question?” 

In the time it took Clockwork to turn to face Danny, his age had altered subtly, five or ten years younger than middle aged. 

Danny had always thought Clockwork had three ages he shifted between. His child form, middle aged adult, and old man. The longer Danny stayed in the citadel though, he learned that wasn’t the case. 

He’d seen Clockwork go from an old man, to a man about twenty. He’d slowly shift younger and younger through his teens until he stopped in his child form. Danny had seen the opposite too. Clockwork as a young preteen growing into an adult in the span of a breath. Dark circles would appear under his eyes and laugh lines etched into his face of a much older man but Danny wouldn’t have called that form elderly. 

It was fascinating. 

“What can i do for you, Majesty?” Clockwork asked, a hint of a smile already curing his lips. He likely already had the conversation they were about to have memorized. 

Danny groaned. “Can’t you just call me Danny? Majesty is so… so…” 

“Accurate?” 

“Bleh…” Danny muttered, slowly floating until he was upside, but his book turned with him so he could continue to look at it. 

Clockwork only laughed at him, that soft noise that said he was amused at Danny’s plight, but Danny was far from offended by it. 

“You’re the master of time, right, but were you the god of time too?” He pointed at his textbook, crown on top of his head doing slow flips. “Chronos?” 

“Ah,” Clockwork chuckled, arms crossing over his chest. His de-aging had abruptly stopped and he instead started growing older again. “Indeed. We are the same.” 

“Really?” Danny perked up and went back to skimming his book while rotating in the air. The edges of his wispy hair were looking like smoke. “So you were an ancient Greek god? That’s cool.” 

“Yes and no.” Clockwork said with a shrug. “Time is a funny thing. I was there, of course but more in the capacity of their stories. I predate the Greeks.” 

“Huh,” Danny hummed, growing quiet again as he read a little more but Clockwork didn’t return to his parade viewing. He instead waited for Danny to continue. “So wait, you were one of the first… titans.” he read. “Cool.” 

“Yes.” Clockwork agreed, “That was a very long time ago now.” 

Danny quirked a brow at a line in the book and glanced back at Clockwork. “‘Destructive and all-devouring’, huh?” 

“I was young.” Clockwork agreed, not bothering to deny it. “We all have that phase.” 

“Uh huh… How did this rule of yours coincide with Pariah Dark?” 

Clockwork grew older still, his beard starting to grow. He also relaxed into a floating/sitting position. “They didn’t really. Much of what you are reading is a mortal human interpretation. If you think stories in your high school become exaggerated, you should hear the true origin stories of the ancients sometime.” 

Danny was snickering. “I’d actually like that but none of them like talking about stuff like that. Did you really eat your kids?”

“Something to that effect. I’m afraid i was not a very good father. I was at a very different place in my life then.” Clockwork said. He didn’t sound particularly proud of it, but he didn’t look broken- hearted either. 

Danny didn’t quite get it. Clockwork had basically been his ghost guardian long before he’d even known that was a thing. He probably would have just assumed Clockwork would make a good dad. Then again, being a ‘present’ dad was probably tough for the god of ‘time’. 

“Hm,” Danny hummed and flipped the page while floating right side up again. He rubbed at his face, the constellation freckles across his cheeks twinkling. “Wait. Wait, wait, wait.” Danny muttered, clearly reading through a paragraph. 

Clockwork’s shoulders were shaking with quiet laughter. It wasn’t usually this easy to coax Danny into doing his homework. 

“You died. Zeus kills you. Did Zeus kill you? Your son?” 

“Yes.” 

There was a moment where Danny’s face warped into something like grief before it disappeared, suspicion forming in it’s place. “Did you know that was gonna happen? Did you let Zeus kill you to maintain a good time line? Did you know you’d just be the ghost master of time?” 

Clockwork just smiled and shrugged. 

“Ancients!” Danny cursed. “Are you serious? You were looking that far ahead already? Even then? That’s insane.” 

“I have not confirmed or denied anything. On the other hand, we all have our talents.” Clockwork mused. “Does this knowledge entertain you?” 

“I mean, it’s cool.” Danny muttered again. Clockwork wasn’t usually so chatty but he was more likely to tell him past things opposed to future things.

He went back to reading and Clockwork went back to his viewing clocks. It was only a few minutes before Danny spoke again. 

“The Elysian Islands. Are those in the Infinity Realm?” Danny asked, “They sound familiar.” 

“Yes.” Clockwork mused. “And before you ask, Zeus didn’t actually have anything to do with them and Pandora would get huffy at the mere mention of it.” 

“Are other gods in the infinite Realm?” 

“Some, but not many of the ones in your book there.” Clockwork said, twirling the staff in his hand. Danny could tell he was doing something along the time stream but Danny had no idea what and he didn’t ask. He was not looking to get sent on another timeline errand. “There are other places where they reside. Some even living. Those in the realm however, are your subjects.” 

“Oh.” Danny muttered, getting the same sour look he got when he was reminded he was king. 

Clockwork lowered his staff, done with his chore. He hovered closer to Danny now, ruffling his hair and dislodging his crown which spun around of its own accord on top of Danny’s head. The sentient accessory very much attached to its new wearer. “If there are any in the Infinite Realm who find you lacking, you need not pay them any mind. Pandora, Fright Knight, or Frostbite would be more than happy to deal with them. You have every right to be here.” 

Danny just grunted. Peer pressure was hard enough at school. It was worse in the Infinite Realm. “I’m not looking for fights.” 

“You do not need to prove yourself. You’ve done that enough. You must merely be you to succeed. You are balance, and balance in life will find you soon enough.” 

“Awe, you haven’t said anything cryptic to me all day. I was starting to get worried.” Danny muttered, a smile tugging. 

“I would never make you go without.” Clockwork said with a fond roll of his eyes. He was so old now that his beard nearly touched the floor. 

“Ancients forbid.” Danny muttered, snagging his book out of the air. “Wait, did you say there were some living? Wait.” His mind whirled to a previous school assignment. “Isn’t Wonder Woman’s dad supposed to be Zeus. Is Wonder Woman your granddaughter?” 

Clockwork just smiled and ruffled his hair again. “Don’t you have homework to finish?” 

“Oh Ancients! She is. Classic deflecting. Holy crap.” 

He let himself drop onto the sofa, over dramatic with his realization. “You have ties to the Justice League!” 

Clockwork did sigh that time. “A charming notion, i suppose.” 

“You’ve as good as admitted it!” Danny grinned, pleased to have learned something new. Had it been anyone else, he might have thought he learned something Clockwork didn’t want him to know. Clockwork knew everything though and only let slip what he wanted to. 

“You are a hero yourself, Danny. No need to be enamored with the League.” Clockwork turned to go back to work, eyes scanning screens before him. 

“Yeah but they’re real heroes.” Danny grumbled, opening his book again. Clockwork’s lack of response meant he wasn’t going to answer that line of thinking. “Fine…” 

The two of them were left in a comfortable silence for a few minutes more until Danny broke it himself. Even though Clockwork knew it was coming, he still jumped when Danny gasped harshly from excitement. 

“Saturn! You’re Saturn! Saturn is like, one of my top three favorite planets!” It was the pure joy on Danny’s face that had Clockwork laughing this time. 

“You would have a top three.” 

“Of course i do!” 

The door had been flung open for him to now talk about space and precisely why he had so many favorite planets specifically. Clockwork let him, happy to let one of his obsessions take its course. Talks about space banished all thoughts of the Justice League and ‘real heroes’. 

Danny knew he’d have to take his history books with a grain of salt. Eaten children or no...Clockwork had always been a good guardian to him. ~~ I might add on to this...  It’s almost like Danny was reading the same wiki page on Chronos that i was... lol 

Part 2  and Part 3 

[pluckyredhead]

No one asked for this, but I felt like writing up how I generally work out DC character ages and the sort of mini-generations I group them into. Canon is super contradictory on this, so this is a combination of cherrypicking what works for my purposes, ignoring what doesn’t, and Vibes.

(Which is to say, please don’t Um Actually this, even though I know people will. It’s just how I think of the characters. You can make Dick a hundred and three in your head if you want, I can’t stop you.)

I’m focusing on “the kids” (roughly Dick’s cohort on down) because quite frankly it’s a lot harder to pin down anyone older. Also let’s be honest, Bruce has got to be pushing 50 by now and DC will never allow that.

32: Babs. I’m pretty sure she’s supposed to be younger than Dick these days, but for decades she was older than him - like, definitely a grownup with a job when he was still in high school - and I stand by that. Honestly by that logic she should probably be even older, but...vibes.

28: Dick, Roy, Donna, Wally, Garth. I have arrived at this number thusly: Dick was stated to be 20 right around the time Jason died at 15, making him 5 years older than Jason. Jason returned to Gotham at 19 (we’re ignoring the 6 months he was dead because I don’t know how to count that), right before Damian debuted at 10. This makes Jason 9 years older than Damian and Dick 14 years older than Damian. Damian is currently canonically 14, thus Dick is 28. YES this is ignoring that the age difference between Dick and Jason was bigger when Jason debuted at 12, YES this is ignoring that Dick had been in college for like a decade by the time Wally started looking at schools so they might not be the same age, YES this is ignoring the time Garth spent aging in another dimension. I do what I want, Thor.

27: Vic, Kori, Raven, Joey. There’s no real indication that they are younger than the OG Titans just because they show up later, but...vibes.

25: Gar, Kyle, the Infinity Inc kids (Jen, Todd, Al, etc.). Gar is canonically 2-3 years younger than the rest of the team during NTT, and Kyle is canonically an unspecified few years younger than Donna but still old enough to have gone to college. (We’re ignoring the issue with his 10 year high school reunion.)

I put the Infinitors here because Jen and Kyle dated for a long time, which doesn’t mean they’re the exact same age - I am not troubled by age gaps - but I had to put them somewhere, and at least when they were still on Earth 2 they were younger than Dick. They’re tricky because most of their parents have been around since WWII, but...we’re just gonna ignore that because I don’t know how to fix it. (Even Al’s Golden Age grandfather is pushing things quite a bit.) Like yeah, you could make the case that they’re all actually in their 70s, but I can’t imagine they’re much older than 25 because of the whole Al/Courtney plotline. This one is entirely vibes, just go with it.

23: Jason, Connor, Koryak. Jason’s math is above. Connor was 19 when Tim was 16 which is the same age difference as Jason and Tim, meaning Connor is Jason’s age. Koryak too, mostly because I feel like it.

21: Tommy. Tommy is old enough to drink beer without any adults protesting, but young enough to be lumped in with the kids who are canonically in high school. So.

19: Grant, Toni. Grant is old enough to be out of high school, but young enough to have been roughly a peer to Tim and Bart (he was canonically 16 when Bart was canonically 14), so I generally place him here. Toni was the other “kid” on the 1999 Titans team so let’s make her the same age as Grant, why not.

18???: Ohhh, Tim. Timothy Jackson Drake, what am I going to do with you? By the math I laid out before, he should actually be 20 if he aged at the same rate as Jason and Damian. He has in fact nudged up against the edge of graduating high school multiple times in canon, only to get bumped back down to Generically Sixteenish. So where do we put him? Do we age him in accordance with everyone else, or do we treat him as Nonspecifically Teen-Shaped the way canon does? I have decided to unhappily split the difference here and make him 18, but I reserve the right to ignore that in specific fics. (Let! Tim! Go! To! College!) Anyway needless to say this thus also applies to Kon, Bart, Cassie, Cissie, Mia, Courtney, Lorena, and like a dozen others. (I mean, Kon is like 4 and Bart is like -996, but...physically.)

17: Jon. Canon as of the most recent issue of his solo book.

16: Wallace, Emiko, Jackson, most of the rest of their Titans lineup. See, this is the mini-generation that should get to be Generically Sixteenish right now! Stop being so selfish, Tim!

14: Damian. Canon as of his current solo series.

8: Lian was introduced right before Jason’s death (she wasn’t born then, but figuring out how old she is at her debut is a nightmare of Men Don’t Understand Childbirth Recovery Periods Or How To Draw Babies, so we’re ignoring that), when Roy was 20, and he’s 28 now. Of course, Lian was aged up by Infinite Frontier, but we’re also ignoring that, except for fics where I want her to be on Damian’s Titans team. Same goes roughly for the West twins, who canonically are all over the place age-wise so I can do whatever I want.

???: Rose. She was in Tim’s peer group from her debut until the New 52 and now she seems to ricochet between Jason and Damian’s ages at will, so...who the hell knows? If I had to pick, I’d put her closer to Jason so that she can be on his imaginary Titans lineup that never was, but...shrug??? ROSE YOU ARE A WOMAN OF MYSTERY.

[night-wilf]

I posted 224 times in 2022

That's 164 more posts than 2021!

48 posts created (21%)

176 posts reblogged (79%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@stealingyourbones

@phantom-things

@jgvfhl

@tourettesdog

@impyssadobsessions

I tagged 65 of my posts in 2022

#dc comics - 34 posts

#danny phantom - 31 posts

#dc - 28 posts

#writing prompt - 26 posts

#fan fic writing - 26 posts

#writing - 24 posts

#writers on tumblr - 19 posts

#prompt - 19 posts

#dc x dp - 18 posts

#night wilf prompts - 18 posts

Longest Tag: 57 characters

#momma harley gonna fight some bitches for harmin her kids

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Writing prompt 04:

Reformed Dan who protects dimensions under the watch of ClockWork. He ends up in DC and ends up staying there for a long time, enjoying the peace and quiet compared to his home.

Walking through fights while dancing to music and confusing everyone as they slowly lose their animosity to each other. This results in less injuries and the Justice League are just.....

Confused.

They have no clue who this guy is but he seems to have no bad days and makes them all relaxed and happy when in a serious fight. They can't tell if darkside would be effected. However it's possible.

The younger heroes have latched onto this guy as they like his good vibes and can talk for a few hour about their day to him if they had a rough one.

268 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

#4

Writing prompt 09:

Nightwing is close to dead when he suddenly stands on his own, his injuries healing as his voice become much deeper than it should be as he speaks. "You fools are disrupting the timeline. And you will be eliminated for these actions."

Dick can only watch from inside his head as fire flares from his hands and the people he is fighting turn white as his eyes glow scarlet. Trying to run but pulled back in by an unknown force.

A brutal fight ensures as he slaughters them all cold blood with superhuman ability only a Kryptonian can rival with good training.

Dick collapses when all have been sucked of their life force and M'gann braves venturing close to help him. They don't know who that was, but they don't want to get in their bad side.

The guardian returns to his watch tower and stares at the screen as Dick is taken away to recover, looking to his left to see the timeline where he doesn't intervene beginning to collapse like that. He sighs and gives the mercy of a painless to those he can.

Hoping to not have to do that again as it is dangerous to expose himself to his "children".

304 notes - Posted November 19, 2022

#3

Writing prompt 19:

The Fentons are on holiday, traveling across the US to places Danny has always wanted to visit in an effort to repair their relationship.

Due to the distance he has asked Dan and Dani/Ellie escort them so there is more ghosts than humans in the camper. He doesn't feel comfortable around his parents so they don't stop him from bringing them. Though he does appreciate they turned off everything and locked the lab when they learned of what they had done to him. The key in Jazz's possession at all times so they can't do anything else to her poor brother.

They arrive in Gotham to see the heroes from their hotel that night before moving on. Danny doesn't go with them to get supplies and ends up captured by the Talen thinking he his Tim Drake.

Dan is first back and now raging, Jazz allowing her parents their weapons to storm the gates of the court to destroy everything.

And that they do. Very quickly. Too quickly.

Bruce doesn't bother stopping them because he ain't about to stop them.

344 notes - Posted December 3, 2022

#2

Green Lantern Jazz design? Sort of.

Her hair is up so it doesn't get in her face and she covers her whole lower face as she doesn't want to count on people being oblivious idiots for her identity. Her ring is "worn" in her hair so there is no clear source to her power. Or maybe she made it invisible? Who knows. All I know is she can punch away and not be suddenly powered down if someone takes it from her hand.

Not that she would be in trouble if that did happen.

Her suit is mostly dark green and black to not look like a green highlighter and the brighter bits can be turned down she blends into the darkness of space around her. Not going invisible but definitely camouflaging.

Also since she's ecto contaminanted she has some extra abilities no others have.

Situation: Guy isn't best pleased at the new lantern on earth being more powerful than him and she just got her ring. Hal is "quietly" shutting him up best he can. It doesn't seem to be working.

814 notes - Posted November 22, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Writing prompt 06:

A few of the bat kids have discovered a favourite private bar that doesn't care for their names or ages, just that they pay for everything. They don't even try to hide their identities or masked name as no one cares. Given one of the regulars is a human sized plant thing that Ivy likes to kick around with, they shouldn't be surprised.

The name of that bar? Phantom's room.

Edit: Phantom's room: the halfway point between dimensions (some really good ideas in the comments!)

The rules are fairly simple to follow:

- Just pay for whatever you get or things will be personal

- Do not bother anyone

- Do not be overly loud

- Pets are permitted and must be cleaned up after, some warning is appreciated

- If injured, don't bleed all over the floor

- Do not ask for alcohol if under 18

- Do not approach alternate/different timeline versions of yourself as they can't see you

- Parking is free unless you are intoxicated trying to go home alone

- State allergies when ordering and something will be made

- No fighting

- Do not ask questions

Jason seems to like the tall ginger bar tender who enjoys his antics and they share scar stories to pass the time. Her dark haired partner sometimes breaks the magic for fun.

Damian likes the large security guy always on duty, nice guy with a rough past and it's nice to talk out stuff with someone willing to listen. Has he become a minor father role to him? Maybe. Does he help with his homework? Yes.

Tim likes to play chess with the blue skinned guy who sits in the corner reading, he's a good talker when not more confusing like the riddler.

Everyone has their favourite and usually visit after a patrol for some water and food before going home. If they come in injured a mysterious gel is slathered over it and they are healed 10 minutes later. Asking to take a sample home is answered with a firm no, as the stuff to can become addicting to humans.

Fair enough.

Though there is nothing online and the "owner"/cook is a boy who died at 14 and somehow still kicking around town. Some family who worked for the criminals of Gotham and got their son killed when he turned on a device, Jason's love interest seems to be the same situation.

Despite that, it takes them a while to tell Bruce as they don't want him ruining it for him. Alfred coming along one day after overhead a conversation between Dick and Jason. Only to find his favourite brand of whiskey already poured for him and an old friend who died long ago waiting to chat with him over a bottle.

He was... gone for some time with that one.

1,734 notes - Posted November 18, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[lady-literature]

Accidental Crime Boss Marinette

Okay so,, I have this AU in my head, right? (not surprised) and I’m lacking any real direction for it (still not surprised) but it basically goes like this:

Marinette moves to Gotham.

She’s drawn there for whatever reason and the kwami are saying something about balance and being a Guardian and her sacred duty and something but Marinette isn’t really listening. She’s too busy trying to find a shop front where she can open a bakery without having to worry about getting mugged every time she steps outside.

Chloé comes with her, obviously, because they’re friends and Chloé has a business degree she puts to good use actually running Mari’s bakery and online boutique while Mari gets to bake and fuck around basically. Adrien, Luka and Kagami are not there, but that’s mostly because they travel too much to settle down and keeping an empty apartment in Gotham is just asking for trouble.

Kagami is a world-renowned fencer and Luka travels the world for his music company. Not touring, but soaking up cultures and ways of life so he can make soundtracks to movies and tv shows. Providing the background and life to a film is more his style than touring the world ala his father, Jagged Stone.

Adrien is having the time of his life being Kagami’s trophy husband. He has no pressing responsibilities he doesn’t take on for himself and he gets to fuck with the world’s elite with little to no consequences. He spends most of his days donating far too much money to charities and orphanages and then causing minor scandals that land him on the cover of magazines.

He has much the same kind of ‘dumbass with a heart of gold’ persona to the media as Bruce Wayne does, only without the playboy bits.

(There is a wall in the back of the bakery, where Chloé and Mari carefully cut out and frame every headline and ridiculous picture Adrien has. He is very much delighted when he learns about his ‘wall of fame’.)

Anyway, Marinette finds herself with a bakery not overly far from crime alley, much to Chloé’s chagrin.

(“What do you mean it ‘just felt right’?! I swear to kwami, DC, you’re going to get us robbed and sold into slavery.”)

They do not get sold into salvery.

In fact, despite their less than stellar choice of locale, they do pretty well for themselves. The only problems they have (according to Chloé) is the army of children Marinette accidentally attracted.

When asked, Marinette tells everyone that it was an accident. Meanwhile, Chloé, standing behind her, will shake her head and insist there was literally never any other option for them the moment that first kid came in looking to nab some cash and a few pastries.

Mari lives by the phrases, ‘kindness breeds more kindness’ and ‘do unto others’ and all that other nice person shit. Chloé just lets Mari pseudo-adopt her strays and makes sure that they don’t steal anything too important in the time it takes her to gain their loyalty.

The kwami stay staunchly out of any arguments involving the kids (and eventually the homeless all along their street and every working girl in a five-block radius). They do so with a special brand of amusement that never means good things for either of them. (After all, the last time the kwami looked that amused, they moved to Gotham.)

The first kid is named Serrure, as Marinette comes to learn over the next month after he returns again and again, getting closer and closer like a feral cat. Other kids come during that time, all of them too small and too thin and too guarded for Mari's tastes. She wants to wrap them all up and tuck them into bed but she can’t. She has to be patient, has to be gentle. These kids are just as likely to bite her hand as they are to accept help.

Serrure becomes an almost permanent fixture at the bakery after that first month. Mari’s not quite sure what she did to get through to him, but she did, she supposes. He can’t be much older than eleven and looks nine, but after getting settled, she and Chloé discover this little slip of a boy is just as mischievous as Trixx and has all the dramatics of their favorite black cat.

The kwami, when talking about him, only refer to Serrure as Loki, even after Marinette scolds them for it. She eventually gives up trying to correct them, it’s not like Serrure talks to them anyway(yet)((that she knows of)).

There’s an apartment above the bakery, which is where Chloé and Mari and all her strays that grow to trust her enough live. It’s three bedrooms, and at first, Mari just buys as many bunk beds as she can fit into the spare room and calls it a day. The kids feel safe in her home, which isn’t too surprising. Everyone thinks the bakery feels safe, feels like home or comfort or whatever else eases their minds.

And Marinette should hopes so. She certainly put enough time and effort and magic and energy into the wards around this place for that to happen. To protect her and the children and all her strays that no one else will help.

But, she eventually amasses too many kids to fit into the one room. Chloé throws a fit about having to share with Mari again—“I had enough of that in university thank you very much”—but she relinquishes easily enough.

Mari buys more bunk beds, and Serrure has taken to sneaking into her room to curl up in her bed anyway, and sometimes the smaller kids who have nightmares will come in and pile on as well.

(There are only a few that Chloé will allow to do the same with her. It is considered a high honor and breeds a playful kind of jealousy that Chloé finds amusing. Mari scolds her for pitting the kids against each other.)

That only lasts them another two months.

“This is getting ridiculous,” Chloé tells her one day before the kids wake up. Mari is at the stove, cooking and baking for a small army while Chloé balances the books. “There’s not enough room for us all, DC, and the only reason someone hasn’t come barrelling down on us about the abundance of children is by the grace of your absurd amount of luck.”

“Well I can’t just kick them out, Queenie! What do you want from me?”

“Either we need to buy more real estate in this city—which I’d rather not do—or you open up the grimoire and start building pocket dimensions. I know you can. I’ve read the chapter.”

Marinette looks at her. “That is such a bad idea.”

They do the idea.

And then Mari adds about a thousand more wards to the bakery, carved into the wood and counter and anything that’s a permanent fixture. Doorways become particularly ward heavy, what with them being the entrances and exits to the hidden realms and children’s’ rooms.

The apartment above the bakery isn’t quite infinite but it gets pretty damn close some days.

This also means, of course, that all the kids definitely know about magic now. Some of them—Serrure—have known about it for a while she knows, but it’s different now. The kwami followed her around most of the time and she doesn’t keep them trapped in the Miracle Box like Fu did, but now that the kids know, they don’t bother staying hidden.

The children, at least, love them and the kwami adore them with all the ferocity a god can give. After Chloé gets over her ‘ew children’ phase, she throws herself into their education (on top of actually running the businesses Mari keeps, mind you). She has the help of the kwami, who act as personal tutors to the children, and it’s not long before the kids start to joke about her being the Principal.

(Some tried to call her Warden, but that joke didn’t last long.)

Marinette has also been telling the kids bedtime stories ever since this started. Old stories of the Guardian and Chosens who fought back the darkness, she shares all she knows of the Orders history with these kids and it’s not until Wayzz points it out to her does she realize what she’s doing.

“Ladybugs are known for renewal. It is no surprise that you are rebuilding what was lost.”

Rebuilding the Order using children was certainly not her intention but, well. She supposes there’s no place safer for her kids than what is shaping up to be the new Miracle Temple. It’s the only haven where they can learn to harness their Gifts and powers, it’s the only place where they can be surrounded by others like them without being thrust into superhero-dom.

Context: about a month into this whole circus, Marinette had realized there was a significant—almost all of them really—amount of metas and Gifted in her little hoard of strays. Which is… odd. Especially with how few metas there are in Gotham.

She had asked the kwami about it, and they have that amused look again. “You are their guardian.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re their guardian. True, you are the Guardian of us, of the ancient ways, but you are a guardian at your soul too. You protect what is yours, and they are yours whether you realise it or not. The children can sense that, so they flock to you.”

And, huh. She supposes that makes sense but that’s also really kind of strange and weird and she doesn't want to think about that anymore actually.

So things are… fine, Marinette supposes. The bakery is doing well, and she has about two dozen-plus helpers running around underfoot to help tend to the customers or run to the store or help in the back with the baking. And every kid of hers has new clothes, their street things thrown out for being too ragged and replaced with something fresh made by Marinette’s own hands.

She embroiders little fairy wings into the clothes normally, because that’s what her cloaked wards look like most times and the kids like it and its technically the logo for the bakery and there’s a million reasons she does it.

It is, perhaps, her first mistake.

(“It was certainly not your first,” Chloé will snark one dayin the future.)

Because now Marinette has an army of magical children learning to wield their powers and not fear them and they’re all wearing what can be considered her insignia and uh oh, it looks a lot like Mari is some sort of up and coming mob boss who uses kids and prostitutes and the homeless as runners. People on the street start calling her the Pixie, start referring to Chloé—her second in all things just as Chat had been her equal—as Wasp, as Yellowjacket, as the Unseelie.

(They cannot seem to pick a name for her, but Pixie is all but engraved in stone. Mari is not sure who coined it, and she doesn't think she wants to know.)

The first time the whole situation is brought to her attention, she punches the idiot who dared even imply such a thing so hard she knocks him out.

Because look. The kids are hers right? And she watches out for the people near her, makes sure the working girls are treated as well as they can be and offers the homeless extra food and a dry place to wait out the storm. She offers her hand and gives them all a place to rest, to eat, to exist without expectations or consequences.

She does that because she’s kind, because it hurts her to see people in need, to see them suffer, not because she’s hoping to gain something from it.

The fact that most of them repay her in gossip or information or bend her ear about the newest goings on in the corrupt elite or filthy underworld is strange, yes, but it’s nice to know what’s going on in the city, she supposes. And one time, Kathy, who works on the corner of Brookes and Gilmore, warned her of a drug raid that saved her an unnecessary trip to the police station so it’s not like it doesn't have it’s uses.

But mostly, Mari doesn't really think about all the information that’s unintentionally or otherwise passed onto her. She remembers it all, because it’s rude not to listen when people talk to her, but nothing comes of normally.

Not until Serrure—now twelve and well versed in the magic of illusions and glamors and knows almost as much about this city as her or the Bats—bursts into the bakery one day and grabs Mari away from the front counter right in the middle of a customer ordering. She should, perhaps, be a little angry at that but Tony, one of the older boys and just shy of sixteen, steps into her place almost immediately, so.

And then Serrure speaks and everything is pushed aside in favour of the next words to fall from his lips.

“Someone took Sophie,” he says and she nearly sees red.

After Serrure, Sophie has been here the longest. She is the youngest of them all, only seven, but oh so clever and kind and while she looks nothing like her, everyone calls her Mini-Mari. If Serrure is her beloved first son, Sophie is her treasured daughter.

She’s out the door in the next moment, storming her way to their base. She has Sophie and a handful of extra kids back by sunset, a little frightened, but no worse for wear. She doesn’t make a big deal out of it, besides making sure that the idiots who dared cross her never do so again, but word gets out.

Soon, her kids and teens and adults begin giving her more than just information, they begin giving her problems. Ones she’s meant to fix because she’s Pixie. She’s safety, she’s protection, she’s the one the people start to turn to for help.

And enter stage left, one Jason Todd who’s all snark and charm and smiles wrapped up in a nice leather bow and tall enough that Mari likely could climb him like a tree. If that was something she wanted, she guesses.

(She wants. She just won’t admit.)

He becomes a regular at the bakery and befriends most of her kids.

Mari’s wary when he first takes an interest in them. They’ve been hurt and a lot of them are still adjusting to being safe and it doesn't matter that this man is hot enough to burn, if he steps even a toe out of line with her kids she’ll make him wish he was never even born.

But, she stops worrying eventually. The kwami like him well enough, but seem to think something’s odd about him—but its Gotham, who isn’t strange?—and both Serrure and Sophie take to him like ducks to water and they’re both good judges of character.

There’s a certain intuition they both have that reminds Marinette just a bit too much about herself and pure magic. Not for the first time does she wonder if they got such strong magic from their parents or if it cropped up in them randomly, fostered by fortune and chance and the magic that’s so deeply seeped into the bones of her bakery it’ll be here long after she’s gone.

And, okay, so she was a little right to be wary because Jason was mostly there to investigate her. Far too many people respect her and are loyal to her and she has a veritable orphanage in her pocket and also Harley and Ivy like her and it just- it doesn’t look good right?

But Jason’s a good detective and it doesn't take him long at all to see that Mari is just as sweet and kind and loving as she appears to be. Not long after that, Red Hood declares Pixie and all of hers, under his protection. She, of course, is more than capable of taking care of her and hers, and the underworld knows this, has seen it, but he does it anyway.

The news, of course, gets back to Mari and she is… confused. Why would the Red Hood do something like that? She’s heard talk of him being sweet on kids, but to claim her? They’ve never even met.

Bonus points for Jason being there when she’s told about it. He kind of raises his eyebrow at her because, huh, that was fast, and then spends the next few minutes talking up the Red Hood to her much to her utter bafflement.

He actually keeps doing that too, talking up the Red Hood. Mari thinks he has a crush on the man for the longest time because of it. Until he reveals he is Red Hood, then she just wants to punch his stupidly handsome face for being such an idiot.

Shit happens from there and things go down and the two spend a couple of months dancing around each other and intentionally and unintentionally ruling the criminal underworld and at one point Marinette definitely punches Bruce and Batman in the face—separately, much to Jason’s unending joy—and she also definitely adopts Duke/Signal as well because that poor boy needs to know he’s not alone.

And it’s just them being domestic and badass and lowkey raising an army of children and falling in love while the kwami and the kids and Chloé are all in the background just yelling at them to get together already!

Which, they do. Eventually. After all the secrets come out and Jason knows about the magic and Order and meets Mari’s other friends, ie Kagami, Luka and Adrien who are all intimidating for wildly different reasons. And Mari finds out that Jason died and came back (which earns him the nickname firebird btw) and that he was a Robin once upon a time but is now Red Hood and oh my kwami it all makes sense now.

Jason confesses like three times via classic Victorian romance novel quotes because he’s a fucking literature nerd but it’s not until he basically spells it out for Mari does she really understand. it’s all very sweet and heartwarming and then the pair duck into one of the empty pocket dimensions they have lying around and aren’t seen for three days.

(No one really goes to look for them tbh)

Chloé definitely teases them about early honeymoons and things but besides the two being even more ridiculously lovey-dovey than usual, life goes back to normal. Or as normal as it gets for them. 

And they all live happily ever after the end.

[kiragecko]

DC Sidekick Age References

Here’s a dump of all the references I’ve found. Know I’m missing a lot, and quite a few were found on other sites that didn’t give me the most precise info.

If you know of anything else, can correct a mistake you see, or want to discuss comic book aging - please send me an ask, message, or reblog!

?? - means I don’t know where the info is from, “quotes” are direct copies of the wording in the comic

-

?? Parents died when Bruce was 8

Detective Comics #27 (May 1939) – Batman introduced

Detective Comics #38 (Apr 1940)  – Dick is (8 when parents killed/9 when Robin) 12 when he becomes Robin, it's Bruce's 3rd year as Batman

More Fun Comics 73 (Nov 1941) – Green Arrow Introduced

1962 - JLA formed

1964 – Dick teams up with Wally and Garth

Teen Titans 1 (Jan-Feb 1966) – Teen Titans form, Donna is introduced (all 5 are 14ish?)

Detective 359 (Jan 1967) – Babs introduced, has PhD, has graduated

Batman #217 (Dec 1969) – Dick graduates high school, enrolls in University (starts 3 months later)

1971 - Roy discovered using drugs by Ollie and Hal in a drug den (he was trading arrows for drugs), retcon has Wally and Dick discovering him at tower and making him promise to get help

Justice League 116 (Mar-Apr 1975) Charley Parker is 16

Batman Family 10 (Mar-Apr 1977) – Dick is teenager, Babs is 25

Teen Titans 53 (Feb 1978) – Dick, Wally, Donna, Vic all started college at same time

DC Special Series: The Flash Spectacular (May 1978) – Wally graduates high school

New Teen Titans 1 (Nov 1980) – Raven forms New Titans, Gar is 16 during run

New Teen Titans 2 (Dec 1980) – Slade meets team, Grant dies

1981 - Dick drops out of university after 1 semester, he never really was interested

New Teen Titans 20 (June 1982) – Vic turns 19, Donna already is

Tales of the New Teen Titans 2 (July 1982) – Raven turned 18 just before forming Titans

Batman #357 (Mar 1983) – Jason’s first appearance

Detective Comics #526 (May 1983) – Bruce adopts Jason, Dick is there and approving

New Teen Titans 34 (Aug 1983) – Terra turns 16

Batman #368 (Feb 1984) – Dick gives Jason the Robin costume, Jason becomes Robin

Blue Devil(84) – Eddie is 11/12

Tales of the Teen Titans (May 1984) – Joey introduced, Author describes him as 17?

New Teen Titans #39 (Feb 1984) – Dick stops being Robin, Wally quits being a superhero/the team

Tales of the Teen Titans 50 (Feb 1985) – Terry and Donna's wedding (she got married while 19)

New Teen Titans 10 (July 1985) – Kole says she's at least 18

Crisis on Infinite Earths 7 (Oct 1985) – Supergirl dies in Superman’s arms after mostly destroying the Anti-Monitor, who has to flee reality

New Teen Titans 18 (Mar 1986) – Dick turns 20 (“Dick Grayson celebrates his birthday away from home with a traditional Tamaranean feast.” (While sulking because Kory got space-married))

New Teen Titans 20 (May 1986) – Roy locates baby Lian, Terry Long is 29

?? Roy is 22(when he gets Lian)

Batman #404 - Batman Year One (Feb 1987) – Bruce is 25, spent 12 years training, became Batman at 26, Barbara Gordon is pregnant, her and Jim move to Gotham

Detective Comics #571 (Feb 1987) – we see Bruce’s fear gas induced vision of Jason’s tombstone (birth: 1974 – death: 1986, so he’d be 12)

Secret Origins 13 (April 87) – 15 years ago, it was Dick’s 5th birthday. Soon after tenth birthday, parents are killed. [Set during New TT 18])

Batman #409 (July 1987) – Jason becomes Robin (In Detective Comics, Jason has been Robin the whole time, but is still being wwritten with Pre-Crisis personality)

Flash 1 (June 1987) – Wally turns 20

New Teen Titans Ann 3 (Nov 1987) – Danny Chase is 13 and introduced

Batman #416 (Feb 1988) – Dick in Gotham, meets the new Robin on patrol. Confronts Bruce later, says he was ‘fired’ less than a year ago (since then he was briefly in college), makes Bruce admit he missed him. Dick finds Jason again, expose the drug dealers, and Dick gives Jason his old costume (symbolically, since Jason already has one) and a phone number, Dick was Robin for 6 years

Batman #427 (Winter 1988) – Jason dies

Batman #436, Batman: Year Three (Aug 1989) – 2 years since Dick stopped being Bruce’s sidekick (When he became Nightwing? Or when he quit?), parents died 10 years earlier

Batman #441, A Lonely Place of Dying (Nov 1989) – Tim 13, was 7 when Dick’s parents died

Robin #1 (Jan 1991) – Tim debuts as Robin

New Titans 84 (March 1992) – Joey dies

Deathstroke, the Terminator #15 (Oct 1992) – Rose introduced

Team Titans 3 (Nov 1992) – Robert Long is born

Adventures of Superman 500 (June 1993) – Kon appears and escapes from Cadmus with Newboy Legion, John Henry Irons first appearance, Eradicator and Cyborg Superman also appear for first time

Batman: BTAS: Robin’s Reckoning (1993) - 'Richard 'Dick' Grayson: Age 10'

Detective Comics 668 (Nov 1993) – Tim gets license (because dad is disabled) even though he hasn’t turned 16 yet, gets beat up by Jean-Paul

Flash 92 (July 1994) – Bart aged to 14

?? Shortly after Knight’s End – Tim is 15 and in the 10th grade

Flash 0 (Oct 1994) – Wally is 23

Damage 1(94) – Grant is 16

Deathstroke, The Terminator Annual 4 (Aug 1995) – Rose is 14, “What would that do to a kid? A fourteen-year-old girl whose father is an assassin she’s never met?”

Wonder Woman 105(95) – Cassie is 14

Tempest 1(96) – Garth spends many months in other dimension

Aquaman 20 (May 1996) – Garth aged 3-4 years in other dimension, now older than other Titans

Teen Titans 1 (Oct 1996) – Argent, Risk, Joto, Prysm all turn 16(they were conceived by seed things on same day)

Superboy Annual 2 – to Kon: “Happy birthday, Kid - - number one in a long successful series, we hope.” “He will effectively remain sixteen years old - - forever!”

Green Lantern 82(97) – Robert Long is 3

Wonder Woman 121(97) – Terry and Robert die

Secret Origins Giant 1(98) – Bart is “Three. Fifteen. Depends.”, “you’re almost 15, Tim.”

Titans 5(99) – Donna is 23

Titans(99) – Lian is 4

Sins of Youth(99) – Kon 16, aging normally again

Aquaman 63 (Jan 2000) – Future Garth tells granddaughter Donna about Cerdian being born (think this is his weird birth issue)

Wonder Woman Secret Files (2002) – „Wonder Girl is a precocious outgoing 15-year-old named Cassandra „Cassie“ Sandsmark.“

Bruce Wayne: Murderer (2002) – Oracle says Tim is 15

Batgirl #37 (April 2003) – “Cain said ... today was ... my birthday.”

Batgirl #39 (June 2003) – “I see an eighteen-year-old girl, who’s out of her depth.” (Babs about Cass)

Robin #116 (Sept 2003) – Dana: “Oh, I’m so glad we’ll all be together on Thursday ... !” Tim: “Why? What’s Thursday?” Jack: “Yeah. What’s Thursday?” Dana: “Wait a minute – seriously? Tim: “Yeah. Tell. Us.” Dana: “It’s nothing – never mind. Just leave your schedules open for a nice family dinner.”| Jack: “Dana, what’s – “ Dana: “Shh! Thursday ...  the 19th of July ... ?” Jack: “Um ... oh! Right!” | Steph: “So – Thursday!! Are you excited? Got any ideas for it, yet? ... Tim ... ?” [Tim is asleep.] | [Ives and Steph come over, with pizza that says “Happy B-Day Tim.”] Ives: “Sixteen spankings – get that boy up!!” | Dana says: “I remember when I was in 11th grade.” | he also gets the first ‘clue’ for Bruce’s ‘birthday present.’

Teen Titans 1 (Nov 2003) – Gar is 19, Is this Joey’s return?? (He’s puppeting Slade)

Teen Titans ½ (2004) – Rose’s early years, with a ‘6 years ago’ flashback, she was raised in a brothel her mom ran, tutored, never allowed the outside world, but had relationships with kids her age

Detective Comics #790 (Mar 2004) – Jason’s 18th birthday “he would have been 18 today”

Teen Titans 8 (April 2004) – Raven looks 'barely older' than Cassie

TEEN TITANS #1/2 [2004]: The flashback panels totally sync up with my age theories; Flash to 10 years ago: Dick Grayson’s parents die. Flash to 6 years ago: Rose Wilson is schooled at home by her mother, Lili. Flash to 5 years ago: Ravager I is killed. Flash to 3 years ago: Slade is forced to kill Jericho. Flash to 2 years ago: Cadmus attempts to clone Superman. Flash to 18 months ago: Rose deals with the death of her mother. Flash to one week ago: Bart Allen is shot by Slade.

Identity Crisis 4 (Dec 2004) –(Tim still 16)

Green Arrow 47(05) – Mia is 17

Return of Donna Troy 3(05) – Cassie barely 16

Nightwing: Year One(05) – Dick is 26

Batgirl #65 (Aug 2005) – Cass decides to figure out if Shiva is her mom, Jason and Cass roughly the same age

Flash(05/06) – Wally is 26

?? Robin #136 – Tim still 16 ???

Detective Comics #868 (Oct 2010)– Kate is 32 years old??

One Year Later(Mar 06)

Flash 1(06) – Bart 4 years older(20?)

Blue Beetle 2 (June 2006) – Find out Jaime was in space/a pocket dimension for One Year Later

?? Just prior to 52 (July 2006-July 2007)– told Tim is 17 (long before he’s also  17 in Red Robin, 52 is 1 year long)

Teen Titans 42 (Feb 2007) – Eddie is 17

Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds 3-4 (Apr-June 2009) – Bart and Kon back, same as when died

Batman 677 (July 2008) – Batman over 30

Batman: Battle for the Cowl (May-July 2009) – Damian is 10, Ends with Dick and Damian becoming Batman and Robin

Brave & The Bold 2 (May 2007) – Kara is 17, “You have food in the refrigerator older than her, Hal. Who are you, Ollie? No bad thoughts. She’s seventeen.”

Batgirl #1 (Oct 2009) – Steph starting college

Batgirl #7 (Apr 2010) - Damian is "what happens when you work with a 10-year-old."

Red Robin #12 (July 2010) – Tim spent “a few months” looking for evidence before returning to Gotham, becomes emancipated minor

Detective Comics #871 (Jan 2011)– Mention that Dick and Babs went to prom together

Red Robin #25 (Sept 2011) – Tim “and you are only 17”

The Batman Files (Oct 2014) – Jason was 15 at death (seen on death certificate)

?? Rebirth Young Justice series – Cassie: “didn’t mean to end up back in high school feeling - - like I did back when I went to high school.” Later, she says she’s in Metropolis “Working. Going to school in the fall.” So she’s probably starting college.

?? Bart in some Rebirth comic: “Am I six? Am I nineteen? That’s a really freaky thing, right?”

?? At some point: Donna says shes a little older than Kyle

[the-friday-knight]

Fuck it

Ben 10 OC Time

Name: Jake Mars

Age: 17 (During OS)

Species: Human

Nationality: American

Eye Colour: Bright Blue

Hair Colour: Brown Black

Appearance: Jake wears a red and black hoodie as his common attire, under which he has a range of different t-shirts with various logos or statements on them, usually related to mechanics or rock music in some way. He wears thick blue jeans and brown steel toed boots. His version of the Omnitrix is on his left wrist. It is nearly an exact replica of the Omnitrix designed by Azmuth, but it won’t stay that way for long.

Personality: Jake is kind. Whenever he comes across an Alien, or some situation that seems odd, he gives the Alien the benefit of the doubt first, for all he knows they could just be scared being on a different world. Of course this isn’t always the case and has landed Jake in a few close calls that he quickly had to get his way out of. Jake is also well versed in mechanical engineering, owning a dark red Plymouth Superbird that he uses to travel the country. Jake decided to leave his home after acquiring the Omnitrix, at the start of the Summer after he had just received his drivers license. This is because he discovered that his Omnitrix was not the only one out there, though he still is not sure who has the others. He left because he wanted to find others with a device like his, and maybe they could work together and help each other figure out the strange Alien watch. He likes to consider himself mature, though that isn’t to say he isn’t reckless at times when it comes to people in danger our people he cares about getting hurt.

Likes: Driving, cars, finding and taking apart Alien tech, rock music, country music, apple pie, black coffee, meeting new people/Aliens.

Dislikes: Prisons, discrimination, Dean, people who question his mechanical knowledge.

Flaws: Jake feels like he has something to prove. This is shown most obviously when he is fighting against an Alien that he is also able to transform into. Even if there is an Alien he has that would be better suited to the fight, he will often transform into the same Alien in an attempt to prove that he can beat them at his own game. He also has a bad habit of antagonising those he is fighting against, to the point where it seems less like hero-villain banter and more just straight up arguing or insulting them.

Strengths: His mechanical knowledge helps him in his fights surprisingly often, especially when going against certain robotic drones that might be out to get him. He is usually quite adaptable to his transformations, and situations where he isn’t the Alien that would be best suited. He has a friendly aura about him, making him easily able to hold a conversation or befriend others, even if they are of a different species.

Jake’s Omnitrix: Jake’s Omnitrix is similar to the one built by Azmuth, however there is one key difference. It’s AI.

Omni: Omni is the AI within Jake’s Omnitrix. She has the appearance of an human female with twin green ponytails, a strange black and green shirt and skirt combo and bright green eyes. When she first met Jake, she requested him to call her Omni-chan. Jake promptly refused. Despite the term AI, Omni was actually a member of a once powerful and prosperous race, who transferred her entire mind into a satellite before her races downfall. She remained in that satellite for an unknown amount of time in deep space, but somehow was able to pick up earth transmissions of a form of entertainment called ‘Anime’. Hence her appearance and name choice. While out there, she also discovered encrypted messages of a design for a piece of technology that would allow someone to transform into a different Alien species. Omni realised this device might be a chance for her to bring her race back. So she immediately started constructing it, following the blueprints to almost a t. However, she was unable to connect with the Codon Stream on Primus, as she needed space to put her mind in. Once completed, she locked the Omnitrix and herself in a pod, and shot it towards Earth.

Omni’s Personality: Omni is a very energetic and intelligent girl. She helped Jake understand the Omnitrix when it first attached itself to him, though she may have also gave him a heart attack when she first revealed herself. If there is something Jake does not know, he will almost always ask Omni for help. She is happy to oblige. However, being cooped up inside a watch does tend to make her a bit bored, and sometimes she will either jump out of the watch or transform Jake at inopportune moments for laughs. She will also rarely change Jake into a different Alien than he requested, if she feels like he has been that Alien too much lately. As she has knowledge of what Anime is, she could be considered a weeb. This proves detrimental when Jake ends up fighting a magic user that imbibes origami creatures with magic to make them life sized and attack. She is a big fan of this Villain and often tries to talk to them in the middle of a fight.

Enemies: Canon Villains Dean: Another wielder of a different kind of Omnitrix that seems to only turn him into Aliens from the Anur system. His watch was dubbed the ‘Anurtrix’ and he uses it to commit petty crime. Jake has fought and defeated Dean several times, foiling his thefts. However, every time Dean manages to slip away some how. (Enemy level: Hands. On sight.) Kitsune: A magic user that uses magic to transform her Origami creations into life sized counterparts. She seems to be after magical artifacts, specifically those of Japanese make. However, she seems to be younger than Jake, making him think she is going through her weeb phase. (Enemy level: Why are you doing this crime it makes no sense? I’m still gonna stop you though.) Colonel Rozum: Jake accidentally staged a breakout at Area 51. Freeing wrongly imprisoned Aliens and helping them return home via the theft of an experimental aircraft capable of space travel. Jake did not join the Aliens in leaving Earth, instead trusting them to make it home without him. Colonel Rozum does not know it was Jake who enabled the breakout, as he was transformed at the time. But as far as he is concerned it only confirmed the danger of Aliens. (Enemy level: You’re a government official so I can’t actually attack you but one day I’m going to punch that stupid moustache off your face.)

Allies: The Tennysons. Detective Arnold Mason: A detective in a large city close to Jake’s hometown. It was where he preformed his first act of heroism in front of people. Unfortunately due to a misunderstanding Mason thought Jake was a part of a rival gang. Jake attempted to clear it up. Mason and two other officers are now aware of a supposedly heroic car. (Ally level: Vigilantism is illegal, but you’re literally fighting Aliens so you do you I guess.)

Trouble Gear: Three Planchaküle that were stranded on Earth. Jake brought them to a junkyard and aided them in returning home. The trio were gifted a CD of AC/DC’s greatest hits by Jake. They consider it their favourite item. Having returned to their home planet, they are not currently available to Jake, but would immediately spring into action to help if he requested it. (Ally level: You helped us get home and introduced us to rock and roll. We will die for you.)

Trivia:

Jake is voiced by Dante Basco.

Omni is voiced by Samantha Ireland.

The first Alien Jake turned into was a Planchaküle. He has named this transformation ‘Ratchet’.

It doesn’t matter if you’re human, Alien, or intergalactic war criminal. If you are being driven somewhere by Jake, you wear. your. seatbelt.

The DNA of Omni’s race is available for Jake to turn into. But Jake doesn’t know that, and Omni actively tries to keep that hidden.

Jake’s Omnitrix has access to the Life Form Lock mode and the Scanner mode.

This theme is red and black, which is usually associated with villains but I thought it’d be funny if Jake had it because of association.

His ethnicity is half-Polynesian on his mothers side.

He isn’t sure if there are alternate counterparts in different dimensions. Though he is pretty sure if there were he would immediately throw hands.

Jake currently has no love interest, though I am considering an eventual redemption of Kitsune that might lead to that.

His Omnitrix will go through a serious design change. I shall share it in another post.

[longitudinalwaveme]

Longitduinalwaveme Reviews Old Comics, Part 3

Next up is a comic that isn’t actually part of the main DC Universe: The Super Friends #17 (1979): “SOS From Nowhere”. Written by E. Nelson Bridwell, drawn by Ramona Fradon, and inked by Bob Smith, the main reason I bought this comic is because it had the Mirror Master on the cover. 

The comic stars a wide variety of heroes, including Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Aquaman, but its focus is on the Super Friends-exclusive heroes the Wonder Twins. 

The story begins with the Wonder Twins, whose cover story is apparently that they’re foreign exchange students, eating with some of their classmates. They’re apparently living with Professor Nichols (a long-time supporting Batman character of the era) and use studying as an excuse to leave to answer their Justice League signal. Apparently, someone is robbing the Gotham Plaza Hotel. Jayna turns into a crow, while Zan turns into a block of ice that she flies off with. (Poor Zan-he always got the short end of the stick.) They fly to the hotel, Zan changes into costume, and then go inside to see that...nothing appears to be wrong! Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman are equally puzzled by the fact that the Wonder Twins never showed up at the hotel. Clearly, something strange is going on...especially since the mystery thief seems to be able to teleport (though the giant reflective surfaces would be a pretty good hint as to the mystery thief’s identity even if he wasn’t on the cover.) 

We then cut to the Mirror Master (who is, of course, Sam Scudder, as Evan McCulloch wouldn’t be created for another ten years). He’s used his tech to trap the big-name superheroes in another dimension, leaving him with only the Wonder Twins to fight. Since they haven’t met him, he’ll have a distinct advantage....which he plans to use to steal their powers for himself! 

The people in the hotel seem unfamiliar with the Justice League, puzzling them, and things get even weirder when the Flash shows up....and starts stealing from the hotel’s safe! (He’s probably a mirror duplicate created by the Mirror Master, but it’s also possible that this is an alternate universe Flash.)

Meanwhile, the real Flash calls the Wonder Twins, asking them why they aren’t helping the other Super Friends. They explain the fact that nothing seemed to be wrong at the hotel and that the other superheroes weren’t there. They have, however, found a trouble alert telling them to go to the Hall of Mirrors...and this, combined with the fact that the Gotham Plaza Hotel has a lot of mirrors, allows Barry to deduce that the thief is the Mirror Master. The computer gives them the lowdown on the Mirror Master’s powers (and his full name, Samuel Joseph Scudder), and Barry warns the kids to be careful, since the Mirror Master will probably come after them now that he’s trapped the Super Friends in what appears to be an alternate dimension. 

In the Mirror Universe, the Super Friends have worked out that they’re in an alternate universe where the Flash is a supervillain. (This seems to be a reference to the Flash #174 (1967), where the Mirror Master and Flash both traveled to a mirror world with a heroic Mirror Master and a villainous Flash.) The heroes escape by vibrating enough to follow the energy trails they created to get into the mirror, allowing them to return to the real world. Barry tells the other heroes that he thinks that this was all an elaborate plan by Mirror Master to capture the Wonder Twins, and that both the twins and the Mirror Master are at the House of Mirrors. 

The twins, for their part, traveled to the amusement park as a sparrow covered in dew, then sneak into the House of Mirrors as a stream and a tadpole. Unfortunately, Mirror Master’s sensors detect the water and start using heat rays to evaporate it, forcing them to return to their true forms. Then we see a reference to the cover of Flash #105 (1959), with Mirror Masters in every mirror....which are then revealed to be mirror images created by the Mirror Masters, who of course are planning to capture the twins so Sam can steal their powers. Luckily for the twins, the Super Friends arrive, beat up the mirror duplicates, and break the mirrors they emerged from. Sam decides that this means it’s time to head for the hills and straps on his mirror jetpack (another nice reference to an actual device used by the Mirror Master in the canonical Flash comics)...only for the Wonder Twins to prevent his escape by turning into a bug and frost, respectively; using the intense cold to crack the mirror. 

As goofy as the Super Friends is, this was a surprisingly good story. The writers had clearly done their research on the Mirror Master, and I loved all the references to older Flash comics. It’s actually almost too bad that this isn’t canon, because Sam and the Flash are on point in this story. Even the Wonder Twins are surprisingly good here, and the idea of Sam wanting to steal their shape-shifting powers makes a lot of sense for a master of illusions like him.

[vavandeveresfan]

“Ben Affleck To Return As Batman In Upcoming ‘Flash’ Movie That Also Will Feature Michael Keaton As Dark Knight.”

From DEADLINE:

Sources have confirmed that Ben Affleck is returning as Batman in the upcoming Flash movie which Warner Bros. is putting into production.  It is to be a cameo role. And, yes, Affleck will be playing the Dark Knight alongside Michael Keaton’s Batman from the 1989 Tim Burton film, in what is billed by Flash director Andy Muscietti as a “substantial” part. The Flash is scheduled for release on June 3, 2022. Ezra Miller, who played Flash in Justice League, plays the title role.

Despite being involved in early development on Matt Reeves’ The Batman, Affleck stepped away from reprising the role in that movie in January 2019, as we first told you. In regards to the new Batman franchise moving forward, sources say it’s Robert Pattinson who is the face of Bruce Wayne.

Affleck reportedly got the script for The Flash at the end of last week and agreed to board the project.

“He’s a very substantial part of the emotional impact of the movie. The interaction and relationship between Barry and Affleck’s Wayne will bring an emotional level that we haven’t seen before,” Muschietti tells Vanity Fair who broke the news. “It’s Barry’s movie, it’s Barry’s story, but their characters are more related than we think. They both lost their mothers to murder, and that’s one of the emotional vessels of the movie. That’s where the Affleck Batman kicks in.”

Another reason feature mythology-wise why Affleck’s Batman is coming back to The Flash, and that’s that Miller’s Flash considers him to be the original Dark Knight, the guy he fought alongside in Justice League. Hence, per Muschietti, it was necessary to have Affleck’s Batman as a starting point: “He’s the baseline. He’s part of that unaltered state before we jump into Barry’s adventure…There’s a familiarity there,” he further tells Vanity Fair.

Warner Bros. is hosting a DC Fandome virtual confab for its superhero movies this Saturday with panels for the new Flash movie, Wonder Woman 1984, Aquaman, Shazam!, The Batman, Black Adam, Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman 1984.

From Vanity Fair:

Ben Affleck Will Return as Batman in The Flash.  His Caped Crusader will appear along with Michael Keaton’s in the upcoming movie, which explores a multiverse of DC Comics heroes. 

Batman forever strives for a chance to set things right. That may finally happen with Ben Affleck’s version of the crimefighter.

The Argo director’s brooding Dark Knight is coming back for one more movie, with Affleck agreeing to return as Bruce Wayne in the upcoming big-screen version of The Flash, Vanity Fair has learned.

Portrayals of Batman always ignite furious debate among fans, and Affleck’s selection for the part continues to provoke intense discussion, even years after he first donned the cowl. Some love him; some disparage him. Some refused to see him in the role from the very beginning, while others consider him an underrated favorite who deserved more chances to play the role onscreen.

This does not disrupt The Batman film starring Robert Pattinson, who remains the future of the franchise.

The Flash movie, which is planned for release in summer 2022, will feature fast-moving hyper-hero Barry Allen, played by Ezra Miller, breaking the bonds of physics to crash into various parallel dimensions, where he’ll encounter slightly different versions of DC’s classic heroes. It’s an adaptation of DC’s 2011 Flashpoint series of comic book crossovers, directed by Andy Muschietti, the filmmaker behind the recent adaptations of Stephen King’s It and It Chapter Two.

“His Batman has a dichotomy that is very strong, which is his masculinity—because of the way he looks, and the imposing figure that he has, and his jawline —but he’s also very vulnerable,” Muschietti said in an interview. “He knows how to deliver from the inside out, that vulnerability. He just needs a story that allows him to bring that contrast, that balance.”

Affleck got the script at the end of last week and agreed this week to join the project.

“He’s a very substantial part of the emotional impact of the movie. The interaction and relationship between Barry and Affleck’s Wayne will bring an emotional level that we haven’t seen before,” the director added. "It’s Barry’s movie, it’s Barry’s story, but their characters are more related than we think. They both lost their mothers to murder, and that’s one of the emotional vessels of the movie. That’s where the Affleck Batman kicks in.”

“I’m glad to be collaborating with someone who has been on both sides of the camera, too,” Muschietti said. “He understands.”

Affleck won’t be the only Batman making a comeback; a few more of the alternate-dimension heroes who turn up in the Flash movie will be figures we’ve seen before. Michael Keaton’s Batman from the 1989 Tim Burton film is also set to appear in what Muschietti said was a “substantial” part.

There's another reason The Flash needed the character affectionately known as Batfleck. In DC’s movie universe, Affleck’s gray-templed Bruce Wayne is the one Ezra's Flash would consider “the original Batman,” the one he has already fought alongside in the previous Zack Snyder films.

Muschietti said it wouldn’t work as well for him to venture into the company of other Batmen without having Affleck as the starting point. “He’s the baseline. He’s part of that unaltered state before we jump into Barry’s adventure,” the director said. “There's a familiarity there.”

DC has still other motivations for exploring this story. Batman is too valuable a character to leave fallow for long, and new actors will forever be stepping into the role. By threading the concept of a multiverse into its DC storyline, Warner Bros. is attempting to create a way for all the competing factions of its fandom to coexist together.

Unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Star Wars, in which everything is designed to be part of the same canon, the multiverse approach can allow projects to vary greatly in tone, or feature different actors, while still being threaded together. Keeping a broad coalition of fans from battling over what is “legitimate” is one of the biggest challenges for studios managing franchises with vast appeal and decades of history. Sony’s animated Into the Spider-Verse also helped popularize the alternate-dimension concept, introducing the Miles Morales character to a host of differing Spider–folk.

So far, the multiverse approach has helped DC both differentiate itself and revisit the same characters without being accused of rebooting or erasing recent favorites. DC TV shows such as Arrow, Batwoman, Black Lightning, and Supergirl have done crossover events, and a few months ago the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline laid the groundwork for the multiverse concept, with Miller’s movie Flash making an appearance in that story by coming face-to-face with the TV Flash played by Grant Gustin.

“This movie is a bit of a hinge in the sense that it presents a story that implies a unified universe where all the cinematic iterations that we’ve seen before are valid,” Muschietti said. “It’s inclusive in the sense that it is saying all that you’ve seen exists, and everything that you will see exists, in the same unified multiverse.”

That doesn’t mean there aren’t still intense disagreements in the fandom, and the return of Batfleck is sure to launch countless takes.

Affleck was cast as Batman in late August of 2013, and the debate over his presence hasn’t let up even after two movies with Snyder—Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League—and one cameo in Suicide Squad. His take will also get a new approach in the famed “Snyder Cut” of Justice League, which will appear on HBO Max, restoring the original director’s vision before the film was handed off to Joss Whedon to complete—a version of the film that seems to have left no one happy.

Affleck had previously signed to direct and star in a standalone film called The Batman, but ultimately left the project after saying that its demands were taking too much of a personal toll. At the time he parted ways with the film, he was also dealing with the end of his marriage to Jennifer Garner and struggling with alcoholism. “I showed somebody The Batman script,” Affleck told the New York Times. “They said, ‘I think the script is good. I also think you’ll drink yourself to death if you go through what you just went through again.’”

Barbara Muschietti, the producer of The Flash (and sister and longtime collaborator of the director), told Vanity Fair she had worried this might make him reluctant to return at all. “There have been some all sorts of stories and things he said himself about having a very hard time playing Batman, and it had been difficult for him,” she said. “I think it was more about a difficult time in his life. When we approached him, he’s now in a very different time in his life. He was very open to it, which was a bit of a surprise to us. It was a question mark.”

“We are all human and go through great times in our lives and terrible times in our lives,” she added. “Right now he’s in a place where he can actually enjoy being Batman.” Plus, he doesn't have to carry the entire movie. “It's a pivotal role, but at the same time it’s a fun part,” she said.

Filmmaker Matt Reeves (The Planet of the Apes movies) is now making The Batman with Pattinson as the lead. That film was in the midst of shooting when the coronavirus lockdown hit, and production is set to resume in the fall.

Although a standalone film for Batfleck didn’t happen, his admirers continue to champion Affleck’s take on the character.

With The Flash, they’ll get to see him answer the Bat-Signal at least once more.

I fucking hate muliverse films.  But I’ll be happy to see Keaton on the big screen again.

[westallen-world]

Eric Wallace Talks ‘The Flash’ Season 6B: Iris Entering The Mirror Dimension, Crisis Changes, Gorilla Grodd and The Return of Wally West

Eric Wallace has previously written for DC Comics on titles such as ‘Mister Terrific’ and ‘Titans’, as well as several episodes across Seasons 4 and 5 of ‘The Flash’ TV Series. Heading into Season 6 of ‘The Flash’, Eric Wallace was promoted to showrunner after Todd Helbing exited the show to helm ‘Superman and Lois’. Our interviewer Michael Slavin talked to Eric Wallace about what has come so far this season on ‘The Flash’, what to expect following ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’, and what to expect in the remainder of the season.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: To begin the interview, what has your thoughts been on the reactions from fans to The Flash Season 6 so far?

ERIC WALLACE: Uh, what are the reactions to The Flash Season 6 so far? (laughs) I actually really don’t go on the internet.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: Oh really?

ERIC WALLACE: I’m the kinda guy who y’know does the work and I hope folks dig it, and if they don’t that’s okay too. I do believe everybody has the right to their own opinion, and I tell the staff “Don’t tell me anything unless it’s somebody who liked it” as a joke.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: I mean everything I’ve seen has been positive so that’s a good sign I’d say.

ERIC WALLACE: Oh good! I know everybody thought Episode 6×07 “The Last Temptation of Barry Allen Pt 1” was freaky (laughs), y’know with the black goo coming out of their mouths, kind of a very different episode for us. And I think that what was great for me was talking to Grant about that episode in particular and how much he said to me he enjoyed acting in that one and making it, y’know how it challenged him in the best possible way and I think that’s what you see on screen, you just see an actor going for it. The director, Chad Lowe, I thought did a terrific job and I thought Sendhil did such a great job as Barry’s adversary, we got really lucky and blessed with someone as wonderfully talented as Sendhil Ramamurthy in Graphic Novel #1, which people I guess don’t know because we use the graphic novel format for our seasons now but every graphic novel does have a name, I just can’t tell folks until the season’s over because the titles are so spoilery. But that last season, Graphic Novel #1, was titled “Blood and Truth”. That’s the actual name of Graphic Novel #1 and we’re starting now with “Marathon” in 6×10, we’re starting Graphic Novel #2 which also has a name that I cannot reveal because it’s so super spoilery, and very metaphorical, because I loved English and English class when I was in High School a little too much. And very often in the writers room I’m the one calling the “theme police” on us to keep us on it.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: Right, Perfect. So now I just want to pick up from the last episode at the moment. So we saw Iris enter the mirror dimension and I was wondering how this affects her character in the second half of this season?

ERIC WALLACE: Iris will grow in ways she didn’t know she could, and I mean that emotionally. Being sucked into that mirror will push her to the edge and a little bit beyond. It will literally test her sanity, which is really great because it’s given Candice as a performer a wonderful opportunity to just give some of the greatest performances she’s ever given on the show in my opinion and just knock it out of the park. One of the things that was important to me as a storyteller was, we spent a lot of time with Barry’s emotional state leading up to Crisis, while in Graphic Novel #2, which is the second half of this long season, it’s not necessarily all about Barry, we wanted to focus equally on Iris in the back half. And that’s what getting sucked into that mirror believe it or not, is going to allow us to do. Who knows what lies behind that mirror but I guarantee you it’s a different place. It’s a place that will affect her in a way that she will have to examine who she is and what makes up Iris Allen-West in all of it’s different facets and if that’s a good or bad thing.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: It was interesting when I was watching Crisis on Infinite Earths the scenes with Iris were always really interesting because she was tying our perspective back into these superhero characters so it’ll be really interesting to see where you take her next. Obviously you mentioned Crisis on Infinite Earths and it’s still a huge discussion point with the multiverse reset allowing for a blank canvas per se, how has that experience been for a writer in terms of being able to introduce and change major parts of the show and kind of do whatever you want going forward?

ERIC WALLACE: Liberating. That’s the perfect description. The best thing that ever happened to this show was Crisis on Infinite Earths, the crossover, and moving past the end of our pilot. Way back at the end of the pilot of Season 1, we see that newspaper and it’s telling us what we’re driving towards, so in a sense, the first six and a half seasons of this series have been driving towards a predetermined point, and that can be a little limiting from a story point of view, especially from a writing point of view. Now, we fast forward to Graphic Novel 2, our six and a half way point, who knows what’s going to happen now? and that’s the fun part. We can take all of the best of the past, keep it, but we can add in ways. I said to our writers in the writers room, I said “Who are the villains from the past? From previous seasons, 1, 2, 3, 4, whomever. We have the opportunity to tweak them now, just a little bit” and put on a fresh coat of paint. I use that term a lot now to describe our methodology. And you’re going to see that with several villains from past seasons, you might also see that with some heroes too, maybe one or two, who are from the past. And that’s great, it’s very liberating, very exciting, it keeps it fresh for us as writers, and I think when we’re feeling the excitement for the freshness of the stories we’re telling, hopefully that’s translating into what you, the audience, sees. It feels like the best of all worlds, it feels like the show you know and love, that feels familiar, but also maybe it just has a new coat of paint. Specifically it’s painted with a new main title credits. That is something I planned from Day 1 when I took over on the show. I said “When we get to post-crisis, it’s a brand new world. What’s the best way to visualize that for the audience and send them a literal message that says this is the line of demarcation between the previous seasons of the show and the show from this point on going forward? Well… it’s just a card that comes up with some lightning, what happens if we do 15 seconds of awesomeness” which the composer got excited about, Warner Brothers got excited about, who did just a terrific, bang up job on the title for us. And now that is one reaction that might be one of the only times where I was actually curious as to what people thought and thank goodness there seems to have been a real positive response to that and, I know this sounds kind of strange, but in a sense it’s kind of the message that sort of opens the door for everything else, so I’m glad people are kind of seeing that. And they should look for more changes, in the characters growing in ways we haven’t seen them grow before, in the story this season in the back half, not just Iris’ story but Barry’s story too, Killer Frost’s, everybodies kind of on a really wild journey that takes them to new places, and that’s on purpose. There are no rules like there used to be, pre-crisis, for stories.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: So that leads perfectly into my next question, which is what characters and locations can we expect to appear in the back half of the season that have changed or came about following Crisis?

ERIC WALLACE: Oooh, how do I answer that without spoiling anything? That’s a good question… I gotta think about that one because there is one set that goes to crazy town but that’s a spoiler, I cannot say that.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: Can you hint towards it at all or?

ERIC WALLACE: Uh, no. It’s so huge of a spoiler. I will say there is an episode where the West house, not the loft, but the house that Barry and Iris grew up in, there is a scene where that house undergoes a, shall we say transformation of sorts that’s really exciting. Our DP did something really special with that episode in general. The director did something special, it’s actually quite a special episode. That’s an example of how we can look at the same set and they’re a little bit different. Other than that though, other than this one obvious way which I can’t tell you about it because it’s so spoilery, the sets don’t really change. It’s more the characters changing, the villains changing, the scenarios that happen being a little weirder and as an example of that I use, at Comic Con I pitched out to the world what Season 6 was really all about, it was the season of Thrills and Chills. Well, Part 1 ~ Graphic Novel #1, was the chills. Literally we made a horror movie. Now, in the “new” season, Graphic Novel #2, the back-half, this is the Thrills section of the season. This is the section of the season that, and this is great because you’re DiscussingFilm, I’m a film buff. I watched a whole bunch of 1970’s paranoid thrillers to get in the mood to prepare for the back half.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: Is there any one film from that genre you’d say that has directly influenced the rest of the season?

ERIC WALLACE: Ooh, I can give you three. Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor, and All the President’s Men. Those are three examples of literally if someone were to watch those three movies and then go watch all 12 episodes in Graphic Novel #2, they would see some similarities. They are hard to find unless you really study those films, but they’re there. The tone of it, that’s really what we introduce. You guys saw we introduced Joseph Carver, and what’s he up to, right? Well, I can tell you right now it ain’t good, and somebody’s gotta investigate it. And Iris in investigating it has already gotten into a lot of trouble because she got sucked into a mirror. What does that mean for her? So that’s the investigation, I’ll use thee words “paranoid conspiracy”, that’s the kind of world that’s going to be opened up here in this back-half. So it’s The Flash’s version of a sci-fi thriller. Does that make sense?

MICHAEL SLAVIN: Yeah, yeah absolutely. So sort of jumping ahead a little bit, we know that Wally West is going to be returning this season, and it’s obviously highly anticipated, we’re wondering what you can reveal about what his return will bring to this season?

ERIC WALLACE: When Wally comes back it’s not the same old Wally. Being in Tibet will change you if you embrace the tenets of tibet (laughs), he’s going to come back a little older and a little wiser, and this is a spoiler I don’t mind saying, he might just have a new ability or two, and that’s part of the fun. Sometimes abilities don’t have to be crazy and intense, sometimes they can just be darn fun. That’s another thing that Keiynan said to me when we were talking, I don’t know last week or the other week, I was chatting with him and I said “Well you know, how are you feeling?” and he just said “Wow. This is the place I always wanted the character to go, I’m so happy with what we’re doing here, It almost feels like I’m a rebirth a little bit.” And that’s exciting for him, and I literally think this is the best performance of Keiynan on this show. I think when people see this episode they are gonna love it. There’s specifically a truly great Barry and Kid Flash scene, where they really get their act together in a way they haven’t been able to do since I think Keiynan’s first appearance on the show way back in Season 2. So it was really kind of an honor to bring back that special magic between the two of them and explore how their relationship has been changed because y’know Kid Flash… his name might still be Kid Flash but maybe he’s a man now. Maybe he’s grown up a bit, and that’s what’s exciting. So look for that in that episode, I think it comes out in a really unique way that I don’t think the audience is quite going to see coming because it works into the plot and the villain of the week, so it’s really fun but it does bode very well for I think the future of Kid Flash and I’m very hopeful that this isn’t the last time we see Kid Flash. I’m anxious to see what the audience thinks, I hope they enjoy it, we enjoyed writing it and making it.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: Yeah. So you mentioned how Kid Flash sort of ties into the latter half of the season, so what storylines are you excited to explore in the back half of the season?

ERIC WALLACE: Well the main ones I think would be Iris’, you know? What happens to Iris in the mirror? We wanted very specifically to get that out of the way in the opener and I’m not one of those people who like to tortue the audience, I don’t think that’s fair, I like to play fair with them, so you will find out next [episode] what is on the other side of that mirror. We’ll get exploring, you will not have to wait eight episodes and all that stuff. The first three episodes very quickly get into what’s up with Iris and what happened and what will be her journey this season. I’m extremely excited about that. I’m also excited to go exploring more of Team Citizen, which we introduced at the end of last year. It was very important not to just have Team Flash, because that investigates meta crimes and whatnot, it was very important to also have Team Citizen be an equal part of the storytelling. Allegra, Camilla, and Iris as human beings investigating real truths in the world. Let’s face it, I think we live in a time where truth and journalism has never been more important and I want to make sure that gets left even in the smallest way in our fantastical stories.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: Yeah so obviously All the President’s Men that’s a clear influence from what you were saying earlier.

ERIC WALLACE: Correct. Correct. Those thrillers that I mentioned had a influence on me when I watched them in college and I hadn’t seen them in 15 years or something like that and kind of “poach the best” or “pay homage” right? (laughs) So yeah I’m very much looking forward to that, I’m looking forward to Kid Flash’s return and what that’ll mean going forward for the show. I’m very excited about exploring new facets of old villains, I’m kind of obsessed with that. So you will see at least two, I’ll give you a number, at least two old villains from the past in the back half who maybe have changed in the post-crisis world. And that’s gonna be really exciting I think for people.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: So yeah obviously a synopsis was actually released for “Grodd Friended Me”, an old villain, and what can you tell us about that coming episode and what it means having Gorilla City on Earth-Prime?

ERIC WALLACE: How can I answer that without spoiling?

MICHAEL SLAVIN: Ah don’t worry about that just say whatever you want

ERIC WALLACE: Right, sure you want me to do that. Well first of all, not a ton of people know this, everyone around here does, but Gorilla Grodd is my favorite flash villain. And I don’t mean that just in the show, even from the comic books. I am obsessed with Gorilla Grodd and have been since I was probably, y’know, eight years old. I just think that a talking psychic gorilla might just be the coolest thing ever invented. OR maybe I watched too many Planet of the Apes movies. I remember, I think subsciously, there’s an influence of Beneath the Planet of the Apes running through that Grodd story. It’s hard to see, but now that I’m thinking about it, I think that must’ve been in the back of my mind a little bit. I take the movies that I loved as a kid or in college and they go into this crazy mill of The Flash and weird things come out, so they’re not always recognizable. I was a huge planet of the apes fanatic as a kid. So I think for this “Grodd Friended Me”, I’d tell the audience without spoiling anything, look at the title. Look at what it means, I think you should take that title literally. And if we do that, you might see something in Grodd you’ve never seen before. And that’s exciting. So yes you’ve got that old villain coming back but obviously he’s not the only one.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: In Episode 1, there was a slight feature of Godspeed and we were wondering if we’ll see a payoff of that in this season? You’ve been mentioning old villains quite a lot is that what you’re perhaps hinting to or?    

ERIC WALLACE: Let’s just say there will be more Godspeed coming. Who knows when or where but it will come.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: Can we expect any more Barry and Iris team-ups in regards to going on missions and solving mysteries together? You’ve obviously mentioned quite a few times All the President’s Men and will that feature into them sort of sleuthing together?

ERIC WALLACE: Yes, you will literally see that in the very next episode. Without giving any plot stuff away. And it’s one of my favorite episodes. It’s so great getting to see Grant and Candice working together to solve a mystery, it’s one of the joys of this season. I hope the audience enjoys it as much as we do.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: Final question, and thank you so much for your time today by the way

ERIC WALLACE: Sure, sure.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: This question comes from sort of the audience members of DiscussingFilm have asked this quite a lot and most notably asked by sort of a friend of the show named Anthony, who just keeps asking us to ask you, will The Flash’s gold boots from the comics ever make an appearance in the future?

ERIC WALLACE: Yes. They will. Eventually. But not this season. I too am a fan of the gold boots, Grant is a fan of the gold boots, but not this season. We will eventually get there, I would ask for patience.

MICHAEL SLAVIN: Right, so that’s us done, would you like to shout anything out in regards to The Flash or anything else you have going on?

ERIC WALLACE: Ah nah I’m too busy doing this man (laughs) this is sort of an all encompassing hobby as it were, but I do just want to thank all of the fans for their support, for continuing to come back every week, with whatever platform you’re watching on, it’s still greatly appreciated, and we have you in our minds and hearts when we write this episode, we might write them in a vacuum, but literally I tell my writers all the time “If you were watching this show, what would be cool to see this week.” And I hope folks enjoy the cool factor because this is the season of thrills and there will be a few, I think big surprises, that thrilled us and we hope you are thrilled too. So thank you for watching and keep watching.

https://discussingfilm.net/2020/02/11/eric-wallace-talks-the-flash-and-what-to-expect-in-season-6b-workingtitle/

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

Crisis on Infinite Earths - a Primer

So, maybe you’ve never read Crisis, and wanna know what all the fuss is about...or maybe you have read Crisis, but it’s been a while, and you could use a refresher...or maybe you’re avoiding that thing you gotta do and you’re looking for a convenient distraction. Whatever the case may be, this post aims to provide a relatively quick* and painless breakdown of the crossover comic to end all crossover comics (literally), CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.

*It will not be quick.

Crisis on Infinite Earths is a twelve-issue crossover event comic that came out in 1985, written by Marv Wolfman, with pencils by George Perez (and inks and colors by a whole bunch of guys.) The thing most folks know about COIE is that it took the then-current DC multiverse, and merged it into a single earth/continuity. (That, and the deaths. OH, the deaths.)

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS--THE MAJOR PLAYERS:

THE MONITOR: The Monitor is a cosmic being comprised of positive energies, who starts gathering a bunch of heroes and villains together in order to save the multiverse. He also recruits... HARBINGER/LYLA MICHAELS: Lyla Michaels was orphaned at a young age and saved by the Monitor. He raised her, and gave her the powers that would make her HARBINGER. She helps the Monitor, but also kind of screws him over. PARIAH: Forced to watch worlds die as penance for three terrible sins--he’s drawn to earths just before they perish, but can’t really do anything about it. As such, he almost always looks like Munch’s The Scream. ALEXANDER LUTHOR JR. OF EARTH-3: Son of Lex Luthor and Lois Lane of Earth-3 (the earth where the bad guys are good, and the good guys are bad.) Lex sends his son away in a pod to escape the anti-matter wave destroying their universe, and as such, Alexander has both positive and negative energies within him, making him a kind of conduit, and vital component for the Monitor’s plan.

On the flip side, we have...

THE ANTI-MONITOR: The negative entity to the Monitor’s positive entity. He uses anti-matter to destroy universes and feed off their positive energies. He’s also got his own posse... PSYCHO PIRATE: Anti-Monitor steals him from Team Monitor and uses his emotion-manipulating powers to control people on various earths, forcing heroes to fight other heroes, as well as rush towards their doom in the anti-matter waves. HARBINGER: Yes! Harbinger is briefly controlled by the Anti-Monitor, and is used to betray the Monitor and kill him.

The Anti-Monitor also has RED TORNADO and THE FLASH imprisoned on his ship.

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS--THE EARTHS: Earth-1: The main DC continuity earth. It’s got the Justice League, the Trinity, etc. etc. Earth-2: Justice Society of America earth, home to folks like Jay Garrick Flash, Alan Scott Green Lantern, Power Girl, and Old Superman (Kal-L). Earth-3: Crime Syndicate Earth. The Justice League, but evil. Earth-4: Home of the Charlton Comics heroes. (The Question, Blue Beetle, etc.) Earth-6: Technologically advanced earth ruled by superheroes, home of Lady Quark. Earth-X: Earth where WWII has lasted for 40 years; home of the Freedom Fighters. (Uncle Sam, The Ray, Dollman, etc.) Earth-S: Home of the Fawcett Comics characters, AKA, the Marvel Family. Earth Prime: Home of Superboy.

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS--THE PLOT: (oh boy, here we go)

- So, earths are being destroyed by a mysterious anti-matter wave. One of the first earths to perish is Earth-3, home of the Crime Syndicate (evil Justice League.) Lex Luthor, hero of Earth-3, sends his son to a different universe so as not to be killed. His pod is found by the Monitor, and Alex is taken aboard the Monitor’s satellite. - The Monitor starts to summon various heroes and villains; he sends Harbinger to get them. Harbinger splits into multiple versions of herself to go to the various time periods/universes. One of the Harbingers comes under the control of the Anti-Monitor, unbeknownst to the other characters! - Various heroes are brought to the Monitor’s spaceship, but before the Monitor can explain anything, they are all attacked by stranger creatures known as Shadow Demons. This makes all of the heroes and villains a bit mistrustful of the Monitor. - Still, the Monitor tells them that the multiverse is in peril, and that he’s set up some machines (‘vibrational forks’, I believe is the technical term) to stop the destruction. He’s going to dispatch teams of heroes and villains to protect the machines (which are placed in different universes and time periods) and activate them when ready. - There’s a whole portion here of the various heroes going to each machine, and really, it’s just an excuse to get These Characters to hang out with These Other Characters, and visit all of the various earths/time periods DC has going on. (i.e. Old West, WWII, Kamandi future, etc.) Shadow Demons arrive and attack the machines. - Meanwhile! Evil Harbinger brings Psycho Pirate to the Anti-Monitor! Alexander Jr. rapidly ages from infant to adult! And the Monitor creates a new Dr. Light! - And thus it seems like all of the pieces are in place for the Monitor’s plan to save the multiverse...BUT! Evil Harbinger KILLS the Monitor! GASP. - It’s okay, though, because the Monitor totally saw this coming, and prepared accordingly; he brought Earths 1 and 2 into a kind of pocket dimension to save them from the anti-matter wave, but now there’s a NEW problem--the vibrational frequencies separating the earths are slowing down. Soon, the Earths will occupy the same space, and when that happens, they’ll be DESTROYED! - This slowing of vibrations manifests as not only the earths merging in certain spots, but also all of time collapsing on itself--dinosaurs and cavemen run into WWII pilots and Batman. - And it only gets crazier--Harbinger, no longer under the Anti-Monitor’s control, uses the last of her powers to bring Earth-4, Earth-X, and Earth-S into the pocket dimension. So now FIVE Earths are gonna potentially merge together. - Six representatives are called before Pariah, Alexander, and Lyla. Five of them are from the remaining five earths, and one from the now-dead Earth-6. A lot of exposition follows! - In short: Long ago, the multiverse was formed, and along with it, the ANTI-MATTER UNIVERSE. That dark universe in turn gave birth to the ANTI-MONITOR, who sought to conquer all! He was kept in check by the MONITOR, his positive-universe counterpart! And then, one day, Pariah opened a portal to the anti-matter universe which allowed the Anti-Monitor to grow strong enough to attempt to conquer the positive-matter universe. This also gave Pariah his powers--being drawn to the Anti-Monitor’s destruction--which the Monitor used as a way to kind of track him. - STILL WITH ME????? - So the plan is to take the fight to the Anti-Monitor, by using Pariah to lead the way to his ship, and using Alexander as a way to transport all the heroes there. (Because, you know, comic book science.) - So the heroes arrive on the Anti-Monitor’s ship! They fight creatures which appear to be made of living stone, while Superman and Dr. Light discover a machine that the Anti-Monitor is using to speed up the merging of the Earths. Anti-Monitor finds Superman and Dr. Light, and attacks them both. Supergirl hears the fight, and intervenes. She very nearly destroys the Anti-Monitor’s outer shell/armor, but is ultimately killed. The Anti-Monitor escapes, the heroes return from the anti-matter universe, and Earth-1 mourns Supergirl. - While the Anti-Monitor is healing, Psycho Pirate contemplates killing The Flash, who is still imprisoned in the anti-matter universe. The Flash escapes, and uses Psycho Pirate to turn the Anti-Monitor’s forces against him, inciting an uprising. As the Anti-Monitor’s warriors riot, Flash finds an anti-matter cannon. He destroys it, and is killed in the process. - The earths seem safe for the moment, however, Brainiac has been collecting all of the villains previously recruited by the Monitor. They attack and conquer Earths 4, X, and S, issuing an ultimatum to Earths 1 & 2 to surrender, or they’ll destroy the other three earths. -The heroes travel to the other three earths via the Flash’s cosmic treadmill-- operated by Wally West and Jay Garrick--and fight the villains stationed there. Both sides sustain losses, and only cease fighting when the Spectre intervenes! He tells them they all have to join forces in order to stop the greater threat of the Anti-Monitor, who plans to travel to the beginning of time and destroy all life. - The heroes and villains agree to work together; the heroes travel to the dawn of time to distract the Anti-Monitor, while the villains travel to the birth of the anti-matter universe and multiverse, which occurred billions of years after the dawn of time but billions of years before the present, when a proud Oan named Krona opened a gateway to the dawn of time. - (Yeah.) - The heroes are succeeding in distracting and weakening the Anti-Monitor, however the villains fail to stop Krona from opening the gateway. Just when all seems lost, the Spectre appears once more. Using the combined powers of the various earths’ mightiest magicians and sorcerers, he fights the Anti-Monitor, and seems to win, BUT IN SO DOING, prevents the formation of the multiverse! - (Two more issues to go, y’all.) - Kal-L of Earth-2 awakes the next morning, thinking the whole ordeal has been a dream. He goes to the Daily Star, only to discover that it’s not the Daily Star, but the Daily Planet! He’s not on Earth-2--He’s on Earth-1!!!! - Except, not quite. Earth-1 has been changed, and only those heroes present at the dawn of time for the fight with the Anti-Monitor seem to remember the Crisis, and know that something is amiss! - Kal-L is anxious to return home; he, along with Clark of Earth-1, go to Jay and Wally to use the cosmic treadmill to get back to Earth-2. When they do, however...they discover that Earth-2...IS NO MORE! - All the heroes gather together again, THIS time to try and determine what’s going on. They all realize that there’s only one earth, meaning that the residents of the other earths have had their lives erased! Harbinger appears, her powers returned to her in the rebirth of the universe, and explains further. The various histories of the different earths have merged; some heroes are remembered, like Power Girl, but others are forgotten, like Helena Wayne, and Kal-L. - If that’s not bad enough...THE ANTI-MONITOR RETURNS! The skies over the new singular earth go dark, and not just any dark! A complete and total darkness that causes a panic, and turns out to be...SHADOW DEMONS! - Harbinger gathers the heroes (again) to stop the Crisis and the Anti-Monitor (again) while the Shadow Demons run rampant around the globe. Those who are caught by the Shadow Demons are erased from existence! - Meanwhile, another group of heroes, separate from the ones fighting Shadow Demons and the ones with Harbinger, stumble upon Brainiac, who agrees to take them to someone who will be able to help with this Crisis business. - Namely, Darkseid. - Harbinger takes some heroes back to the anti-matter universe to face the Anti-Monitor, while the mystic-powered heroes concentrate on the Shadow Demon problem. Those heroes in the anti-matter universe discover Psycho Pirate--and the Flash’s costume and ring, finally learning of his heroic sacrifice. - They attack the Anti-Monitor (again) who appears to be defeated (again) and Alexander serves as a portal back to the positive matter universe (again). - BUT THEN...the Shadow Demons--which had been imprisoned by the mystical superheroes--are absorbed into the Anti-Monitor’s corpse! And he lives! AGAIN AGAIN. - Alexander can’t hold the portal open much longer, though; all the heroes need to get through, or be FOREVER TRAPPED IN THE ANTI-MATTER UNIVERSE! - (We’re getting close to the end, thank goodness) - Kal-L and Superboy (the sole survivor of Earth Prime) stay behind to fight the monitor, as they no longer have earths and loved ones to return to. They’re losing, but Darkseid has science on Apokolips that allows him to not only observe the battle via Alexander’s eyes, but also launch a (seemingly) fatal blow against the Anti-Monitor! - Darkseid sends the heroes away, their tenuous truce done for now. - And then it’s over! YAAAAY!!!! - Except it’s NOT. Because GUESS WHO’S BACK, NOT EVEN A PAGE AFTER HIS APPARENT DEATH? THAT’S RIGHT. ANTI. MONITOR. - Kal-L’s had enough of this, though. He punches the Anti-Monitor so hard that the guy explodes. - And then it’s over. - Kal-L, Superboy, Alexander, and Lois Lane of Earth-2 (who was saved from destruction by Alexander, kept in a kind of pocket realm) retreat to said pocket realm, happy to live out the rest of their existence in a kind of nebulous afterlife. - Harbinger records the entire account for posterity, and conveniently ties up some lose ends while dictating the story; heroes mourned the fallen, Wally West became the Flash, etc. etc. - Lyla, Pariah, and Lady Quark decide to explore the new, singular Earth, looking to the future, rather than dwelling on the past. - EPILOGUE: Psycho Pirate is in Arkham Asylum, ranting about Infinite Earths...Worlds that lived, and Worlds that died...

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS--THE DEATH TOLL (PARTIAL): -Dove -Flash (Earth-1) -Kole -The Losers -Solovar -Nighthawk -Supergirl -Loir Lemaris -Aquagirl -Green Arrow -Huntress (Earth-2) -Robin (Earth-2) -Hawkman (Earth-2) -Rising Son -Wonder Woman (Earth-1)*

END NOTES: - In the interest of brevity, I’ve forgone mentioning which specific heroes go where, who fights who, and so on and so forth. If you’re really curious as to what, for instance, Halo’s up to during the Shadow Demon attack in issue #12, I recommend just reading the comic. It will probably be quicker. - I’ve done my best to specifically name the ‘main’ characters; characters that play a significant role within the story, or characters that have an ‘arc’. - Also in the interest of brevity! I’ve tried to simplify various concepts where possible; for instance, I refer to the Anti-Monitor’s base of operations ‘his ship’ when in actuality, it is three separate locations within the anti-matter universe; a fortress, a ship, and the planet Qward. (Qward is the anti-matter universe equivalent of Oa, which the Anti-Monitor conquered shortly after his creation.) As the specific location within the anti-matter universe is not terribly significant to the main plot, a generic term was used. - Like any comic crossover worth its salt, Crisis had lead-ups and tie-ins. There are characters and plots introduced in Crisis that show up briefly, and then are never mentioned again, presumably to be picked up or referenced in other titles. As this post is primarily concerned with the main crossover event, they’ve not been included. - The cosmic origins of various characters, universes, and anti-universes are perhaps only slightly less confusing and vague as the summaries in this post. - Lastly: I’d treat this a bit like a translation--it’s one person’s view of the important bits of a written work, and as such, the source is always going to be the best place to look if you want to accurately judge the plot, characters, etc. If you have the time and the means, I recommend checking it out. (If only for those INSANE George Perez group shots...my god, so many characters on any given page.)

[violetsystems]

Batman forever strives for a chance to set things right. That may finally happen with Ben Affleck’s version of the crimefighter.

The Argo director’s brooding Dark Knight is coming back for one more movie, with Affleck agreeing to return as Bruce Wayne in the upcoming big-screen version of The Flash, Vanity Fair has learned.

Portrayals of Batman always ignite furious debate among fans, and Affleck’s selection for the part continues to provoke intense discussion, even years after he first donned the cowl. Some love him; some disparage him. Some refused to see him in the role from the very beginning, while others consider him an underrated favorite who deserved more chances to play the role onscreen.

This does not disrupt The Batman film starring Robert Pattinson, who remains the future of the franchise.

The Flash movie, which is planned for release in summer 2022, will feature fast-moving hyper-hero Barry Allen, played by Ezra Miller, breaking the bonds of physics to crash into various parallel dimensions, where he’ll encounter slightly different versions of DC’s classic heroes. It’s an adaptation of DC’s 2011 Flashpoint series of comic book crossovers, directed by Andy Muschietti, the filmmaker behind the recent adaptations of Stephen King’s It and It Chapter Two.

“His Batman has a dichotomy that is very strong, which is his masculinity—because of the way he looks, and the imposing figure that he has, and his jawline —but he’s also very vulnerable,” Muschietti said in an interview. “He knows how to deliver from the inside out, that vulnerability. He just needs a story that allows him to bring that contrast, that balance.”

Affleck got the script at the end of last week and agreed this week to join the project.

“He’s a very substantial part of the emotional impact of the movie. The interaction and relationship between Barry and Affleck’s Wayne will bring an emotional level that we haven’t seen before,” the director added. "It’s Barry’s movie, it’s Barry’s story, but their characters are more related than we think. They both lost their mothers to murder, and that’s one of the emotional vessels of the movie. That’s where the Affleck Batman kicks in.”

“I’m glad to be collaborating with someone who has been on both sides of the camera, too,” Muschietti said. “He understands.”

Affleck won’t be the only Batman making a comeback; a few more of the alternate-dimension heroes who turn up in the Flash movie will be figures we’ve seen before. Michael Keaton’s Batman from the 1989 Tim Burton film is also set to appear in what Muschietti said was a “substantial” part.

Michael Keaton as Batman.

The Flash needed the character affectionately known as Batfleck. In DC’s movie universe, Affleck’s gray-templed Bruce Wayne is the one Ezra's Flash would consider “the original Batman,” the one he has already fought alongside in the previous Zack Snyder films.

Muschietti said it wouldn’t work as well for him to venture into the company of other Batmen without having Affleck as the starting point. “He’s the baseline. He’s part of that unaltered state before we jump into Barry’s adventure,” the director said. “There's a familiarity there.”

DC has still other motivations for exploring this story. Batman is too valuable a character to leave fallow for long, and new actors will forever be stepping into the role. By threading the concept of a multiverse into its DC storyline, Warner Bros. is attempting to create a way for all the competing factions of its fandom to coexist together.

Unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Star Wars, in which everything is designed to be part of the same canon, the multiverse approach can allow projects to vary greatly in tone, or feature different actors, while still being threaded together. Keeping a broad coalition of fans from battling over what is “legitimate” is one of the biggest challenges for studios managing franchises with vast appeal and decades of history. Sony’s animated Into the Spider-Verse also helped popularize the alternate-dimension concept, introducing the Miles Morales character to a host of differing Spider–folk.

So far, the multiverse approach has helped DC both differentiate itself and revisit the same characters without being accused of rebooting or erasing recent favorites. DC TV shows such as Arrow, Batwoman, Black Lightning, and Supergirl have done crossover events, and a few months ago the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline laid the groundwork for the multiverse concept, with Miller’s movie Flash making an appearance in that story by coming face-to-face with the TV Flash played by Grant Gustin.

“This movie is a bit of a hinge in the sense that it presents a story that implies a unified universe where all the cinematic iterations that we’ve seen before are valid,” Muschietti said. “It’s inclusive in the sense that it is saying all that you’ve seen exists, and everything that you will see exists, in the same unified multiverse.”

That doesn’t mean there aren’t still intense disagreements in the fandom, and the return of Batfleck is sure to launch countless takes.

Affleck was cast as Batman in late August of 2013, and the debate over his presence hasn’t let up even after two movies with Snyder—Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League—and one cameo in Suicide Squad. His take will also get a new approach in the famed “Snyder Cut” of Justice League, which will appear on HBO Max, restoring the original director’s vision before the film was handed off to Joss Whedon to complete—a version of the film that seems to have left no one happy.

Affleck had previously signed to direct and star in a standalone film called The Batman, but ultimately left the project after saying that its demands were taking too much of a personal toll. At the time he parted ways with the film, he was also dealing with the end of his marriage to Jennifer Garner and struggling with alcoholism. “I showed somebody The Batman script,” Affleck told the New York Times. “They said, ‘I think the script is good. I also think you’ll drink yourself to death if you go through what you just went through again.’”

[thecomicsnexus]

NEW TEEN TITANS #1-6 AUGUST 1984 - MARCH 1985 BY MARV WOLFMAN, GEORGE PEREZ, ROMEO TANGHAL, DAN JURGENS AND ADRIENNE ROY

SYNOPSIS (FROM DC DATABASE)

The Titans enjoy a training exercise on Titans Island. The game is tag and their objective is to capture their newest member, Jericho. Jericho keeps the Titans on their toes by alternately taking possession of each of their bodies and using their unique talents against each other. In the middle of the exercise, Raven appears on the scene. In the spirit of fun, Jericho tries to enter Raven's body. Raven, suffering from her own secret inner turmoil, panics and teleports away, forcing Jericho out of her body. Jericho's eyes are wide with terror and he signals to the others about a great darkness that he senses inside of Raven.

Everyone returns to the Tower to discuss the matter. They want to help Raven, but unless she elects to confide in them, they don't know what to do. Raven enters the meeting room and tells them that she is leaving the team. She is dealing with matters of the soul that the others could not hope to understand. The Titans plead with her to let them help, but Raven is adamant. She announces that she will depart the following morning.

Meanwhile, the citizens of Tamaran celebrate the end of the Citadel War. The Royal family sends a special envoy towards Earth to recover Starfire and return her home.

That evening, Jericho visits Raven's room. Raven thanks him for her concern, but tells him that there is nothing anyone can do for her. The journey that she must take is one that she must take alone. After Raven falls asleep, Joey decides to enter her mind in the hopes of learning the exact nature of her problem. He finds his spirit displaced to a nightmarish dreamscape made up of bones and tortured souls. At the center of Raven's soul is the essence of that which has been corrupting her – her demonic father Trigon. The essence of Trigon unleashes a psionic attack that forcibly expels Joey from Raven's body. When he comes to his senses, Raven is gone. The Titans go to Raven's room and Joey tries his best to describe what he experienced (using sign language). The sky outside Titans Tower grows immensely dark and peals of thunder accompanied by an omnipresent sinister laughter echoes all around them.

An impenetrable darkness blankets the Earth, and an unnatural thunderstorm assails New York and Titans Tower, all of which are manifestations of the imminent return of Trigon.

Lilith rejoins the Titans to help them search for the vanished Raven, but first insists they also recruit Wally West, the former Kid Flash, because of his former close relationship with the empath. She then leads the young heroes in a seance, using Raven's rings as a focus. Raven's image appears, but rejects their help, after which the Titans are mystically transported to an Azarath in the throes of destruction. Despite their efforts, Azarath and all its inhabitants are apparently destroyed. 

Back in New York, Raven returns to Earth in a terrifyingly transformed state, with red skin and four eyes like her demonic father, and announces his coming. 

Then Titans Tower is transformed into a solid mass of rock and a gigantic Trigon appears atop it.

Lilith taps the power of Raven's rings to return herself, the Teen Titans, and Arella to Earth, which has been totally taken over by Trigon. The demon himself appears to be asleep atop Titans Tower, while the Titans encounter the transformed Raven in the streets of a hellish version of New York. They attempt to reason with her, then fight her, to no avail.

Jericho is thrown into shock by his attempt to possess her, and Wally West and the other Titans are banished into the realm of their own nightmares. There, each confronts an evil version of him/herself: Nightwing's double shows him a murdered Batman whose death the new Robin, Jason Todd, was unable to prevent, and demands that he return to the role of a twelve-year-old sidekick: Cyborg finds himself regarded as a monster by Sarah Simms and her students, who look to a normal Victor Stone for protection; Wonder Girl watches as her counterpart uses her Amazon strength to kill her husband, Terry Long; Changeling sees himself as a scavenger feeding on the bodies of his deceased loved ones and terrorizing his living friends; Starfire's duplicate taunts her with an image of her homeworld enslaved by the Gordanians, and claims that she can only save the planet by returning to slavery herself; and Wally is witness to his own doppelganger and the transformed Raven making love, after which the evil Kid Flash invites Wally to take his place. On Earth, Raven, Lilith, and Arella see the Titans as a stone column of lost souls.

Raven attacks Lilith and Arella, but finds herself unable to destroy them. Each of the Titans trapped in nightmares of their own worst fears is taunted by his or her evil double until, one by one, they turn on their tormenting duplicates and kill them.

The column they made up on Earth is shaken apart, and the Titans reappear as their own dark sides. Raven believes they are now Trigon's slaves, but Lilith tells her that by forcing the heroes to kill, she has instead sealed her own doom. Raven orders the transformed Titans to destroy Lilith, but instead they unite against Raven herself and slay her. With her death, the Titans return to normal and to their right minds, just as Trigon awakens to take vengeance for the death of his daughter.

Trigon awakens at full strength, possessing the souls of everyone on Earth except the Titans and Arella, and grown to an even more gigantic stature, many times the size of the former Titans Tower.

Maddened beyond endurance, Wally West launches a hopeless attack on the demon with his super-speed, and the other Titans follow him into battle. With minimal effort, Trigon levitates the stone mass that was once their headquarters and sends it hurtling down on all the Titans except Nightwing, whom he then disposes of with a single blow of his staff.

Only Lilith and Arella remain, but Lilith senses the Titans are still alive. Starfire had used her starbolt powers to protect them from the falling tower and now uses them to free them from the rubble. She then locates and revives Nightwing.

In despair, Wally is ready to give up, but the other Titans decide to fight on, even in a seemingly hopeless cause. As they rush to confront their foe, Lilith tries to rouse Arella to action, but fails until Raven's mother suddenly hears the clairvoyant Titan speaking in the voice of the deceased Azar, former spiritual leader of Temple Azarath.

As the Titans approach, Trigon begins to open a gateway to his ravaged home universe, intending to recreate it by allowing it to absorb the dimension containing Earth. While the Titans fight a delaying action, Arella and Lilith, who is being controlled by Azar, replace Raven's rings on her body. Raven's soul-self, now an angelic pure-white entity serving as a conduit for the power of Azar, rises from her still form and grows to envelop Trigon, ultimately destroying him. The form of Raven rises from the battle site and is lost to view, the darkness which had covered the world vanishes, and the Earth returns to normal.

Although the memories of most ordinary people are hazy in the aftermath of Trigon's destruction, the people of New York recognize that the Teen Titans have saved the Earth from the demon, and give them a heroes' reception and a huge parade. Depressed over what has happened to Raven, most of the Titans are in no mood for the festivities, and some are wary of the sudden wave of publicity. Wally West, meanwhile, has returned home to Blue Valley, not telling his parents of his involvement in the battle. Following the parade, the Titans make plans to rebuild their demolished headquarters, Arella leaves to search for her vanished daughter, and Cyborg visits Jericho in the hospital. 

All of the young heroes are haunted by the nightmares induced by Trigon, and finally, at Terry Long's suggestion, they take a second camping trip to the Grand Canyon together to talk things over. Each tells the others about his or her nightmare experience, and Terry offers his advice to the group, as well.

REVIEW

I am not gonna lie to you. This is the Titans’ finest adventure, and they have been struggling since then to repeat their greatest hit. Proof of this is how this story plays into the “Titans Hunt” story. And of course, how often this plot resurfaces around Raven.

Artistically, the story also has a lot of creative spins. Issue #2 was delayed so the penciled pages could look good. The result is pretty good, and the Baxter format helped a lot. In fact, they would have probably not taken that risk with newsprint format.

I don’t like Wolfman and Perez handling Wally West. They struggled a lot with him during their run, and here he looks very weak as a character (beyond his health issue). He has his heroic moments, but in the climax, he stays behind, defeated. It made sense at the time, but a year from this issue he was going to become The Flash (they didn’t know this at the time), so it feels like a very low point for Wally. Sure, not as bad as Heroes in Crisis.

This was also one of my first Titans comics. Not a bad start!

The Jurgens issue is a relaxing issue where the characters can cope with everything that happened during the Terror of Trigon arc.

I give this story a score of 10

[villains4hire]

Metaknight, the lone swordsman.

Do I want them to die: Possibly, but it depends. I’d need a plot to consider it. Will I have/get icons: I have them, but his expressions are extremely limited along with animated-esque icons that I actually like/are a decent quality. Tag: the lone swordsman Age: Possibly ancient. Sex: Does not apply to his species. Gender: Goes by he/him pronouns. Race: The Kirby Race. Sexuality: Justice. Personality traits: Calm, caring, can be rash. Kind, honorable, just. Has incredible restraint and wisdom. Has a deep, foreboding voice. Serious. Can be brutal and cruel though with reason or to teach harsher lessons. Mental traits: Has a somewhat alien mindset but is still relatable. Physical traits: Is only about three foot tall, has four hidden wings (Yes I like what Smash Ultimate did with him, so sue me) via under his dimensional cloak. Looks extremely similar to Kirby without his mask, merely blue and with glowing yellow eyes. I am using the voice they use from Smash and Smash Ultimate for VA. Powers: Extreme, supernatural swordskills and can deliver several strikes at a time, along with intense speed. Wields a golden sword known as Galaxia and was created by a race of light and a firegod named Photron. It is a divine blade and capable of affecting all that is evil and undead with massive harm. Has abilities such as going so fast as stirring up a tornado, capable of instant transmission through his own means of speed (not to be confused with his warping and short teleportation abilities from the cloak) and even healing abilities. Though his healing abilities are only reserved verse those truly evil or corrupt, likewise, he uses his healing abilities on those who are injured if he is to fight them or if to save them from the brink of death. It is powerful but I am keeping it at a limited use and that he can only do that when having absorbed enough energy from using his blade’s kinetic and absorption properties. The sword can return to him and also even shoot beams of energy, along with his dimensional cloak and of the like. And on a short note: while simplistic, his dimensional cloak is a powerful tool capable of allowing him to warp mid-fight and use teleportation which is extremely deadly combined with his own abilities. However, the pinnacle of his ability is using his second hidden pair of wings with great exertion of being capable of creating a secondary copy of himself that isn’t merely one of his usual images, he’s literally going that fast to where it acts as another copy when in this state of extreme exertion. (If you’re familiar with DC? That’s literally what ‘Godflash’ used against The Flash but this is a more of a version where it doesn’t weaken him) It isn’t infinite but it’s certainly one of his his signature moves. The other being where he throws his cloak over his opponent, shrouding them in darkness of another dimension to deliver a devastating strike of light. Combining his own inherent strengths along with his dimensional cape and divine blade? Metaknight while not a planetary threat in terms of destructive power? Certainly is capable of fighting one as he has in the games alongside Kirby against the forces of Dark Matter. Metaknight however uses restraint when fighting his foes, his goal is usually not to kill unless he deems it needed, as he is a kind warrior. Though he is susceptible to mind control/corruption powers and while capable of taking damage? It’s no more than what Kirby can take, albeit, he compensates with his skills as Kirby compensates with his powers and so on and so forth. Metaknight is probably capable of some form of long term regeneration should he ever lose one of his wings or limbs considering his and Kirby’s race are just literal puff/goo balls. Motivations: To become stronger, to pursue justice and to protect what he holds true. Backstory: It is shrouded in mystery but it is rumored to be tragic.

[timeless-season-four]

Episode Recap: The Lost Colony of Roanoke

Had to miss a week, but now we’re back with @only-freakin-sunflowers catching us up on 3x05!

Good morning Roanoke! We took a creepy, crawly venture into the woods this episode (into the woods it’s time to go, I hate to leave, I have to go…) and let me tell you, I’m glad I read this one in daylight in a well-lit classroom and not alone in bed at night! Let’s recap what we found when we looked past the birds, the trees, and the snatchees this episode.

This episode played a lot into the overall theme of fear (ours and theirs)– starting with Lucy having a nightmare in which Flynn accused her of lying to him and betraying his trust, regarding what she knows about the journal and such.  Nice way to play into her insecurities and Flynn’s distance since returning from DC last week, where feelings of his wife and daughter were dredged up by that ugly creature Temple. On that note, let’s address the elephant in the room: there is #Garcy tension in the bunker tonight, and lots of it. Or, maybe it’s all in Lucy’s head, who knows. But it’s getting in the way, it’s making noise in her head and it’s loud. (“Making men talk, huh? Harder than saving the world.” Jiya has the right idea.) And it doesn’t just stay in the bunker. It travels to 1590 with them.

Last episode, again with that crust Temple, it was touched upon that Flynn’s been a soldier for so long that he isn’t used to people calling him by his first name anymore. And I admit, as a viewer, I never refer to him as Garcia – who’s that? Like Lucy, I will make an effort from here on out to call him Garcia, cause he is our friend, that much is true. This scene really touched me; the #Garcy interactions may been rocky this episode (take this from a still hesitant friend of Garcia’s), but this was adorable. She knows him so well.

And then, in contrast, we have Garcia lashing out when Lucy is referred to as his wife, as she usually is on missions where the two of them are a team. Lucy is surprised, I am surprised. It’s clear by this point, if it wasn’t already, that he’s having a down day riding the wave of grief, and he doesn’t want another woman to be called his wife, even if that other woman is Lucy. That’s okay. I like that at least him and Lucy communicate about it, air it all out in the open instead of letting it boil over until someone explodes (*coughs* love you #Lyatt but I’m calling you out). That’s very mature and healthy of them. What I DON’T so much like… listen, Garcia, as I said, I’m a very new and hesitant friend of yours, and if you keep making Lucy cry, I may have to go back to calling you Flynn and disregarding our friendship! (Only I’m allowed to make her cry in fics!) You have been momentarily #cancelled.

Permanently #cancelled?? STANLEY freakin FISHER. Clearly, not very sane– as in, creepy as shit. But, the thing about Stanley and the things that makes him stick with you, instead of disregarding him as he sings nursery rhymes and crawls around with his eyes bugged out, is that he always makes some degree of sense. Even when he’s creepy. “Nobody can help us now” you’re not wrong, but bye, no thanks. (Did I even mention, why is he here??? Rittenhouse what are you even doing??? Leave poor crazy Stanley alone.)

And then amongst other creepy happenings, Flynn gets snatched. Flynn, snatched. Tea, spilt. Hotel, Trivago. AND, we shouldn’t be double dipping and using the Lifeboat as a real boat. But we gotta do it, we gotta save our friend Garcia. Who, may I highlight, can make a damn good monologue. His heart to heart with John White about their daughters? My weak ass heart.

Then Lucy gets snatched too. Lucy, snatched. Tea, spilt. Hotel, trivago. She is being held only slightly captive by Eleanor Dare, a wannabe Native whose world has also been destroyed by Rittenhouse. There’s the ticket, there’s the R word. Another heart to heart– I ship it– and she’s no longer snatched. But, Lucy, I gotta say: You are not one of them, sweetie. Blood doesn’t mean a damn thing sweetheart. Blood doesn’t make a family, love does (*sings* it’s not where you come from, it’s where you belonggg… please make friends with me if you just got my reference, I really am not a person but a pile of fandoms wearing a trench coat plagued with exhaustion.)

AND THEN EVEN STILL, Wyatt gets snatched. (Wyatt, snatched, tea, spilt, hotel…) But he just got caught in a hunting snare, meh. Honestly, Wyatt in his pit made me laugh. Is that a metaphor or something? Wyatt and his pit? While nobody deserves to be snatched, honestly maybe Lucy should’ve stayed snatched. It would’ve stopped her from coming out as a WITCH in times where they are burned at the stake. Do you have a death wish, Lucille? BUT, by her own definition, sure, she is a witch.

Now my wig’s snatched too.

I thought the last snatch of the episode was going to be the Lifeboat into another dimension. I thought it was going to break, and they’d all end up somewhere resembling 1888’s Chinatown except they’d all be together and it would be a big disaster. Clearly, I like to jump to conclusions. Fortunately, our team made it home safe… but they didn’t catch Rittenhouse this trip, because Rittenhouse is still playing super dirty, in past and present. In present? Well. Well well well.

The Rittenhouse Foundation For Public History? The What Now? You fools, you absolute buffoons, what on God’s Green One– “A new project to rediscover and remake America today?”  I do not think so. “To our future.” Thanks, I hate it!

Here’s to another week of me slowly losing my marbles, having it up to here with Rittenhouse (er, The Rittenhouse Foundation For Public History...), and witnessing the loveliest of friendships continuing to foster and fester in our humble bunker abode! Thanks for putting up with me!

(ONE THING I DIDN’T NOTE BECAUSE I WAS TOO BUSY LOVINGLY COMPLAINING– # F L U F U S # F L U F U S # F L U F U S also # W Y A T T and R U F U S # W Y A T T and R U F U S  # W Y A T T and R U F U S )

[hellacre13]

In what ways was new 52 better than rebirth?

New 52 Justice League stories were actually good and the team dynamics fresh and DC had a chance to build a modern take but they blew it. Have people actually read the crap that is Justice League Rebirth? Not even the most biased older reader can tell me Rebirth Justice League adventures or dynamics were good. Most of it was boring and built around a very forced and emotionally disconnected team. Origins, Throne of Atlantis, Trinity War, Amazo war, etc etc all were better stories.

It was nice to see a Superman and Batman with a more balanced friendship in the new 52. Batman is always depicted as a little disdainful of Superman preflashpoint. In the new 52 these two were like brothers and Batman never got a chance to walk all over Superman as he usually does. Go back and read the new 52. Compare it to other eras and media with BMSM. New 52 Superman had something most other Supermen lacked and its called a spine. He was also socially conscious. He never was about his comfort. Never put his love interests before the world nor sat on his butt to play house. He had a modern sensibility even while being idealistic. He was a little rough around the edges because he had a journey. He had no parents to run to and pet him. His upbringing helped mold who he was but his heritage was vital too and enhanced who he was. 

He viewed his biological parents and Krypton with reverence. The Els in the new 52 were more interesting. Lara was not just relegated to some woman sobbing over a baby she’s sending away where all the glory goes to Jor-El. New 52 Lara is Jor-El’s equal. She is a badass warrior. Jor-el is a genius scientist and we learned about them and Krypton to learn to care for the world as much as the Kents and Kansas. New 52 Lana was awesome as was Steel. Contrary to what some Lois fans claim, Lois did have page time in the new 52. Compare Lois’ page time to preflashpoint early Superman adventures and you’ll barely see her around. Even when he married her, she had a specific function like Rebirth. And that is just to be there as the trophy wife. It amuses me that some people claim Lois married to Superman is better Lois stories. It in fact is so far from the truth hence the reason why the Lois fans still bitch all through Rebirth.There is not one definitive Lois story around in all her years married to Superman. In the new 52 she actually did some stuff without being there to serve as a love interest. 

Jimmy was tons of fun and felt modern too. Cat also was not just relegated as a man eater. She was more layered and her and Clark’s attempt to modernize the journalistic aspect to Superman was a good idea. The idea Clark Kent keeps writing on himself, or still disappearing from his job to be Superman or giving Lois scoops etc in other verses shows how obsolete that part of Superman’s myth is and makes a mockery of journalism.But DC keeps going back to this and frankly it is not interesting nor does it represent truth or justice. All DC had to do was continue building new Superman’s world to flesh out all the other dynamics we know and try to fold him into the 21st century.

I know some fans struggled with the darker amazons in new 52 Wonder Woman. I can understand not liking them made into trading babies etc for weapons but trying to make an isolated homogeneous society a utopia is a fallacy. The idea the Amazons are just all sweet lotus eaters just does not interest me. I’d have preferred a balance. Living in a gilded cage doesn’t make you better than others. Especially if you doing it by excluding half of humanity. Just like any society the Amazons should have positive and negative attributes and like all societies need to grow and evolve. George Perez’s Amazons were more balanced than Rucka’s saccharin, vanilla Rebirth take. People give Azzarello a hard time but go back to Marston. His Amazons were not nice to men. Azzarello’s prob were closer to his. An ideal take for me would take Perex and Azzarello and fine tune them, while keeping some of either. New 52 Hippolyta to me is a bad ass who ought to have been given more exploration and Amazons like Dessa or Aleka are as interesting as Phillipus and Artemis . It’s just a matter of what the writer wants to say. But DC decide to once again throw everything out with Rebirth Diana. Going so far as putting her in a god damn asylum and saying she was deluded for 10 f**king years! 

Zeus being Diana’s father did not bother me because it adds a whole new dimension you do not get with clay baby. I enjoyed clay baby under Perez but I enjoy demi goddess too.  Her God family was one of the best takes on the Gods. All very creative. I miss them actually and find it a shame DC allows these versions to die and I find Rucka’s Rebirth take of Gods as “patrons” of Disney animals snooze worthy. New 52 Diana herself was compassionate, independent, fierce, wise, very powerful and enjoyed life. She wasn’t nerfed like she is being nerfed in Rebirth. Wonder Woman in Rebirth is usually whiny, confused, lost with as much charm as a stick in the mud. She has 3 people in her cast. An Etta Candy who I have no interest in. Give me Hessia any day. A whitebread Steve Trevor who is there to teach her about romance, though she slept with many sisters on her island and Conan. An a brother (no one asked for) who happens to be more powerful than she is. I saw a Diana taking on Darkseid, shoulder to shoulder with her male counterparts in New 52, and very capable. In Rebirth bullets are constantly taking her down Or other characters just punching her out.

Steve Trevor actually was better in new 52. He was out of Diana’s shadow and actually he not in hers. He served a purpose. For 30 + years Diana did not need Steve. The idea Rebirth tell us she needs him to be a complete character rings false. Their romance is forced in a couple of panels with the “easy” bs but we are told to accept it. Just like the crap by Jurgens that Superman was merged.

New 52 was a journey and building towards something. It was an unfolding verse. There was set up, there were stakes, and DC could have had payoff. They opted not to. Just messed up the entire verse and the momentum.. Rebirth is the equivalent of DC just plunking a status quo on a platter and readers are told to accept it.

Batman was DC’s top seller in the new 52 and he didn’t rely on wedding dresses to get a headline. While the Batcat wedding is a new dimension to the mythos, fact is Batman is character than sells no matter what. If Batcat broke up in ten years, Batman will still sell. Because his character drives his mythos, not his uniform, not who he bangs…HIM.

The new 52 kinda afforded this opportunity with the reboot. They could build and be free creatively. Rebirth imo writes you up against a wall. I believe other properties had interesting and fresh stories as well during the new 52 eg Aquaman, GL, Swamp Thing , Omega Men, Grayson, etc We lost good team books like new 52 Batman/Superman and Superman/Wonder Woman for that debacle called Rebirth Trinity. Rebirth Trinity’s crashing sales is a good metaphor for Rebirth. DC gave readers a book that features the three biggest heroes and you’d think it should be a best seller right? Rebirth Trinity sales in March 2018 issue #20 is down to 22,690 K. That is atrocious.

Just like everything else the Rebirth Trinity’s dynamics are very superficial and built on something that lacks true connectivity and emotion. DC thinks because it gives you a panel or two of characters saying 1+1= 2 then so it should be. They don’t seem to think it important to build something over a period of time to EARN it. It seems it’s their modus opernadi even in their cinematic verse too.And we all know how Marvel are kicking DC’s ass in the cinematic universe because they have what DC don’t and does what DC often will not, ie patience and take risks.

So in a nutshell. New 52 was show. Rebirth is tell. For me the Rebirth strategy, barring books like Batman or events books, that does not bode well for lasting or memorable stories. DC prob hope that with every retcon or renumbering people might forget that their foundation is crap and people will just buy into the hype. But that can only last for so long. New number ones and tons of variant covers to send up orders will only make them look good for a month until the next gimmick. Remember how they were preening in the early months of Rebirth because of double shipping and returnability? Those things just inflate numbers. They are not a sign that DC is growing its readership or a character is successful. Half of those books that seemed to do well in early Rebirth are at cancellation levels now.

People don’t have to take my word for it. Just go to any site that has sales data and compare. New 52 never had returnability or double shipping either. So people who try to hate on the new 52 , they do it a huge disservice, because it did the comic industry a huge favor while it was in a creative slump. Rebirth as far as I am aware has not saved anything.