#the phantom zone being a lane between dimensions

[krinsbez]

The DC Identity-Swap AU: A World/Storybuilding Fanfic Project (that needs a better name)

What follows is what has been come up with for a DC Universe where many heroes and villains ended up with different identities, initially conceived of by comradepitrovsky and expanded on by me and others.

In some cases, the said heroes ended up with different supporting cast members, in others not.

Let us begin, with the founding members of the Justice League: -Superwoman: Diana Kent, the Last Daughter of Paradise. For…reasons, Themyiskara had to go to another dimension, but baby Diana couldn’t come, so at Hippolyta’s request, the Olympians sent her to a Patriarch’s World couple who would raise her right, namely Jonathan and Martha. She’s dating Lois Lane and her archenemy is Lex Luthor, with whom, I want to be clear, there is ZERO Foe Yay, because she’s disgusted by him, and he’s intimidated by her. -Green Lantern: Kal-El of Krypton, who the Guardians appointed to lead the Corps through the transition to running itself. Came to Earth because he needed a break, stuck around because sweet RAO this planet needs help. He managed to keep Sinestro from going off the deep end, so he’s part of the Council Kal set-up to help him run the Corps, along with Kilowog, Mogo, Abin Sure and…not sure. -Zatara: Bruce Wayne. After his parent’s deaths, Bruce was adopted by their close friend John Zatara, who realized the kid was tied to the demon Barbatos, and they figgered out a way for him to use that power for good. -Captain Marvel: Barry Allen, while studying Forensic Science in college, took some classes, and became friends, with Archeology Student C. C. Batson (there is considerable overlap between the two fields, right?). When Batson and his wife were murdered during a dig in Egypt, Barry offered to help with the investigation, and ended up becoming SHAZAM’s champion. -The Flash: Hal Jordan, test pilot for Ferris Aircraft, was struck by lightning whilst flying their latest prototype, and ended up tied to the Speed Force. (Note, like Johnny and Jessie Quick, can fly) -Hawkman and Hawkgirl: Arthur Curry and Dinah Lance. The former encountered the wreck of a Thanagarian spaceship whilst exploring underwater and ended up with the soul of Prince Khufu. Dinah was hanging around her Uncle Carter's place and had something similar happen with the soul of Chay-Ara. -Martian Manhunter. J'onn is exactly the same. Other thoughts, somewhat random, in no particular order: -Ollie was zeta beam'd from The Island to Rann instead of Adam Strange. -Adam is instead Metamorpho. -Eel managed to drag himself to Slaughter Swamp before succumbing to his wounds and so ended up becoming Swamp Thing. -Owing to…complicated feelings WRT to her adopted brother, Zatanna ended up hanging around with her dad’s colleague Thaddeus Brown, and took up his mantle instead, becoming Madame Miracle, Magical Escape Artist! -T. O. Morrow built Red Torpedo first, she got possessed by a water elemental somehow, rebelled against his programming, and ended up traveling to Atlantis, overthrew the tyrant Orm, was acclaimed Queen, married Mera, and now fights crime on the surface as Aquawoman. (I’m gonna say she sometimes wears a human disguise that looks Aquawoman-11, because I fancy her and will use almost any excuse to get her into one of these things) -Ray Palmer and Ralph Dibny became Firestorm. -Instead of becoming Cheetah, Barbara-Ann seized the power of Teth-Adam and became Captain Marvel’s archenemy. -Pam became the Cheetah instead, and is an enemy of The Flash, with no small amount of Foe Yay. -In addition to that, Hal is also in a Love Triangle with Carol and Lady Blackhawk, who came to work for Ferris after arriving in the 21st Century due to time travel shenanigans. Arguably a Love Quadrangle, since he's competing with his alter ego. -Selina and Helena are both Star Sapphires and both of them are pursuing Kal-El, who is receptive to both. -Barry is still with Linda, Wally is Capt. Marvel, Jr. -The Batson Twins became Superboy and Supergirl, but I haven't come up with specifics. Help please? -Bruce adopted Raven and Garth. Suggestions for codenames? -In an effort to gain the power to defeat Superwoman, Lex made a deal with Ares, confident that he could handle the God of War. He is now possessed by Ares, but has no idea, assuming that the ideas Ares puts in his head are entirely his own, because he’s too arrogant to believe anyone else can control or manipulate him. It helps that Ares largely approves of Lex’s ideas and doesn’t need to do much. As a side-eeffect, Lex’s power armor has a distinctly Ares-y feel to it. -Klarion is in Bruce’s Rogue’s Gallery. Said Rogue's Gallery also includes the Sivana family. Which means that yes, Bruce is dating Beautia. -Bruce's archnemesis is the man who in the normal reality became Black Manta, who I've always headcanoned as choosing to torment Arthur purely by random chance, and obviously picked differently here. Since there's no need for a nautical theme, he uses a different codename; Black Bat. -The first thing Kal-El did after completing training was rescue Kandor. Brainiac swore vengeance, and upon escaping from the Sciencells, discovered how to harness the Yellow Light of Fear. In addition to using it himself, he also unleashed a number of Phantom Zone criminals, took over their minds, and equipped his enslaved army with Yellow Rings.

-The Olympians left Diana some magic thingummy that allowed her to be trained in Amazon combat techniques, etc. in her dreams or something, because she needs something to make up for the lack of super-senses, but if she has the Lasso, I'm not sure how Lex can be a problem for her?

-Dick was adopted by the Dibnys, got himself the Gingold Extract, and fights crime as Firestorm’s sidekick, Elastic Lad.

-Mister Mind is one of Diana’s Rogues.

-Dr. Psycho is in Hal's Rogue's Gallery. Presumably, wossname the guy who framed him so he could steal his fiancee Mavra didn't do quite as good a job gaslighting her, she found out the truth, and he murdered her to cover it up. He is therefore unable to blame her for the plot in a feeble and cowardly attempt to save himself when Psycho comes after him. This leads to misogyny being a less prominent aspect of Psycho's particular psychosis, with his primary targets instead being "Alpha Male"-types like the man who ruined his life. And hey, here's Hal Jordan....

-Gen. Eiling as Reverse-Flash, Y/N? -Thawne become Sabbac, Y/N? -I think I'm gonna say Pam still has her canon powerset in addition to being the Cheetah. -Since one of the best things about Hal is how he hates being told what to do, but is most comfortable in jobs where he's in a disciplined hierarchy...Zinda recruits him to create a new version of the Blackhawks. Not sure who else is in it; I can think of a bunch of ace pilots in the DCu, but they’re all American, and the Blackhawks should be an international operation. Possibility; the same temporal shenaniganry that dropped Zinda in the modern-day also spat-out Hans Von Hammer, the Enemy Ace. -I'm adding Captain Nazi to Hal's Rogue's Gallery. Since Hal is Ambiguously Jewish, his sidekick is Inuit, and in this 'verse he's part of a team that's a legacy of an group founded to fight the Nazis, I feel like it works. Also, Hal's other villains thus far are a bisexual woman, a dwarf, and a US Air Force General, people who are naturally inclined to have beef with him and vice versa. -Abra-Kadabra being one of Bruce's villains, Y/N?

-Circe is one of Bruce’s Rogues and they have UST.

@videodromeda

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1313

Batman: Three Jokers #3 - Geoff Johns (writer) Jason Fabok (art) Brad Anderson (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). And so this story ends with the one true Joker back in custody. Joe Chill was used as bait for a trap that Batman couldn't resist walking into. The love letter to Barbara from Jason was pathetic. Jason should have slid the letter under her door instead of using crappy dollar store tape to stick it on her door. Even if the tape hadn't failed, someone could have taken it off the door before Barbara saw it. The melodrama made me cringe. Then we find out at the very end that Bruce knows Joker's true identity but doesn't say who it is. Bruce going to Alaska to check up on the Joker's ex-wife and son was an eye roll moment. The biggest event of this conclusion is that Joe Chill is finally dead. RIP Joe Chill.

 Superman #26 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Ivan Reis (pencils) Danny Miki (inks) Alex Sinclair (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). In part 2 of "Mythological" Synmar arrives on Earth and attacks Superman. Clark has no clue why but he wants to find out. So here's the thing that bugs me. If Superman can save the Daily Planet building from being destroyed by his battle with Synmar by popping both of them into the Phantom Zone, why can't he just zap all of his super villain opponents there whenever the bad guys show up? Easiest way to save the Earth ever. I predict a major slugfest and then Superman and Synmar will come to a peaceful understanding and the alien will go home happy.

 Batman #102 - James Tynion IV (writer) Carlos D'Anda (art pages 13-16) Carlo Pagulayan (pencils) Danny Miki (inks) David Baron (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). "Ghost Stories" part 1. Batman grapples with the Ghost-Maker when the new vigilante targets Clownhunter for execution. A flashback shows us that Bruce has a long history with whoever Ghost-Maker is, which means that the bad guy knows Bruce is Batman. Every time I see Ghost-Maker's costume, I get stonged by MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This". It's the pants.

 Action Comics #1026 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) John Romita Jr. (pencils) Klaus Janson (inks) Brad Anderson (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). "The House of Kent" part 5. This issue was super annoying. Let's start with the long winded recap by Brainiac 5. Then the page layouts that made you have to rotate the comic to read them. The muddy art made me wince. I groaned when time traveller Brainiac 5 from the 31st Century said he didn't know about this battle between the Superman Family and the Parasite from another dimension that's happening in the 21st century. How convenient that this event isn't in Brainiac 5's history database so he can't help the good guys win. The last panel where Lois Lane gets arrested by the FBI…pure cheese. I'll still read this as long as Doug subscribes to it because it's almost better than not having any comics to read.

 Detective Comics #1029 - Peter J. Tomasi (writer) Kenneth Rocafort (art) Daniel Brown (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). "Who Are You?" is the title of this issue where a new bad guy is introduced. I got stonged again when the song by The Who invaded my brain. The new villain is called The Mirror and he reminds me of one of the cops from The Watchmen TV series what with the mirror mask and all. He wants to unmask all of Gotham City's heroes and reveal their secret identities. Good luck with that. Is mayoral candidate officer Christopher Nakano The Mirror? He wants to ban Gotham's masked vigilantes. Could be, but I still think Nakano is The Ghost-Maker. The best thing in this issue is the return of Damian the Boy Wonder on the last page. I've missed the little shit-kicker.

[monotype-on-phantom]

Why Reign Storm Is My Favorite Episode

I’ve gone on record saying this multiple times. Reign Storm is, in my opinion, the highest point of the entire Danny Phantom series, as well as my personal favorite episode. While this is hardly an unpopular opinion, I do still think it’s worth discussing why I feel this way. Why do I like it so much more than other great episodes and other double length specials?

A lot of my reasoning is about personal taste and experience, but there are a lot of things that I think the episode does well, and even better than any other episode in the series. So here we go.

Let’s start with a trip down memory lane.

The year is 2005, I’m 12 years old, and I’m living with my family in a tiny town home because we haven’t found ourselves a house in our new town yet. While things are a bit rough with 6 people plus a baby, things were made easier for us kids by the fact that the town homes had satellite TV!!!

For us, this was a huge deal. We’d never had satellite TV, cable, or even the internet. My family was pretty behind the times. We didn’t have many places to play, but we did have access to countless shows that we’d only ever heard about or seen briefly at our grandparents' house.

Then we saw this “Danny Phantom.”

This shot was basically everything I knew about it. That, and the very lame slogan “no matter who wins, Danny loses.”

I’m not even sure if that was an actual thing, but my siblings and I were all sure that’s what we heard on a commercial for the show. It was pretty crappy marketing. We weren’t aware that it was a show about fighting ghosts. We didn’t know anything other than, apparently, the main character always loses and he looks very miserable in this one shot. To us, it looked like a downright dumb and unpleasant show. Who wants to watch a show about a character who never wins? So, we avoided it like the plague, sticking to shows that, ironically, we’d all like much less years later (All Grown Up, Fairly Odd Parents, and the occasional Jimmy Neutron.)

My first official introduction to the show was Reign Storm. My family was bored, it was kinda late in the evening, and we decided to turn on the TV and see what was playing. All we saw was the second half of Reign Storm part 2, but it. Was. Awesome!!!!!

From that point on, my siblings and I were hooked. We combed the schedule of airing shows every day to see when DP would be playing next. My brother was Danny Phantom for Halloween that year. I was grounded from TV one week, so I hovered outside the living room just to listen to my siblings watching Fanning the Flames (and once I saw it for myself, Ember became my favorite character. No contest.)

My family finally did find a house, and it was two blocks from the local library, where we would often go to actually look up episodes of DP. I did eventually manage to see every episode of the show, including the entirety of Reign Storm. Nothing short of seeing one of my OTPs become canon for the very first time ever compared to that episode, though.

So what is it about this episode that left such an impact?

Well, for starters, there’s the scale of it.

The second half of Reign Storm part 2 was the first I’d ever watched of the show. My introduction to the show was Danny’s town being pulled into another dimension, and him flying off to fight an army of thousands or more and one giant ghost king in a life draining mecha suit.

Then all of these other characters show up to fight alongside him and we get some really cool, creative, and even funny action sequences. Basically, I felt like the episode took me seriously but was still a ton of fun to watch. As someone who’d been without cable or anything like it for most of my life, I hadn’t experienced a lot of shows like this.

When I finally got to watch the entire episode with the context of other episodes in mind, everything about it just got more awesome.

The episode brings back a huge number of characters from previous episodes in one way or another, even if it’s just a brief cameo. We get to see characters interacting who never have before (such as Valerie and Vlad or Poindexter and Skulker). These character interactions and developments are extremely entertaining even if you’re not familiar with the series, but it gets even more so when you are.

Valerie’s growing closer to Danny, but she’s also being put under Vlad’s thumb. Danny’s finally viewed as a hero, but at the same time he’s made some more powerful enemies. However, he also had many of his previous enemies fighting alongside him. There are mysteries set up that won’t be addressed until later episodes (or at all, but we’re ignoring that.)

As I’ve mentioned before, the episode also has the greatest stakes out of any that came before it. Danny’s entire town has been sucked into the ghost zone. He’s surrounded by enemies on all sides. He has to battle against a giant army and the most powerful ghost he’s ever faced, and the tool he’s using to do that could kill him. His friends are waiting for him to come back, and while he’s promised that he would, there’s no guarantee of that. That’s not even counting everything going on with Vlad and Valerie individually.

In spite of all of that, though, the episode still has down time. We see Danny chatting with friends, going to school, and dealing with Dash. There are also some great jokes thrown in, and this is probably the best the show has ever done at mixing comedy and drama. I can really laugh at a lot of the jokes (especially any involving Vlad) without being distracted or losing investment in what’s going on.

And speaking of things the show had never done before, there had never been a single “to be continued” in Danny Phantom prior to this. A cliffhanger? In Danny Phantom? A reason to seriously want to tune in next time and see what happens? Not only that, but even once the main problem of the episode is resolved, there are still things that aren’t. Valerie’s story arc is still ongoing. We haven’t figured out all of Vlad’s plan. We don’t know what he’s plotting with the Fright Knight or what happened to the ecto-skeleton.

While a lot of these things weren’t resolved as well as they could’ve been (if at all), they still offered the opportunity for the show to go in another direction. One that could’ve been amazing.

The show could’ve had more overarching plot points. There could be more cliffhangers, ongoing character arcs, and mysteries that needed to be solved. Honestly, if what I’ve heard about Elmer gambling with this episode (and TUE) is true, I’d say it could’ve been a really smart gamble. I think the main problem was airing RS and TUE so close together without resolving anything or building anything up between them.

Had the series taken its time after Reign Storm and built upon what it brought to the table, we could’ve gotten something truly amazing. Sadly, that’s not what happened, but what happened after doesn’t affect the impact Reign Storm has on me. I still love watching it and speculating about what could’ve happened afterward. There’s almost nothing about it that I would’ve cut or changed (though there are a few things that could’ve been improved.)

While there are other episodes that have great stories and stakes and add a lot to the show, in my opinion, Reign Storm was the most well-executed and balanced of them all. On top of that, it’s an episode that could’ve easily been the turning point of the entire series.

And besides, the episode will always have a special place in my heart as the one that introduced me to one of my favorite cartoons of all time. Can’t complain about that.