Heh. Best laid plans of mice and men and all that, but I had hoped to get into some non-DC content, particularly looking at the reboot done to the Marvel Avengers for the TV show Avengers: The Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Obviously, I didn't have a lot to do while we waited out the sturm und drang of Irene over the weekend.
But after yesterday's review of Justice League #1 followed by reading some other reviews and comments, I wondered how the hell I'd go about pulling off this opening salvo of DC's New 52. I think what stuck in my craw was a comment I read on Comics Alliance that asked, if the the characters in Justice League #1 were no-names rather than Batman, Green Lantern, and Superman, would anyone really care? Would they be interested in what was going on?
That thought just wormed its way into my brain. I couldn't see any reason that comic would be anywhere close to a success if it was Matban, Leen Grantern, and Mupersan headlining (Good thing they didn't use Wonder Woman, eh? But then why was she and Flash and Aquaman on the cover? Hurm.). The more I pondered (and I had plenty of time to last night due to the recent discovery of a ghost in our 150+ year old house), the more the setup of the comic bugged me.
For a company that claims it wants to move forward and create new legacies (and fans), Justice League #1 sure did stand heavily on the shoulders of the past. While this might be great for an fan like me who knows what the hell a parademon is, it means that there is a huge reference not available to new readers who have only seen a few DC movies or played a few DC video games right off the bat. If one of the reasons for a reboot is to make things more accessible to new or casual readers, then this is a problem.
Had I my druthers, I'd have avoided an origin story entirely. If the decision was made to back away from an actual, hard reboot, then why not use the freedom of legacy that offers? You could certainly refer to the origins of the Justice League in the initial arc, probably to explain who the hell Cyborg is as he'd be the least known of the seven. I'd plot the story around the return of Darkseid, that evil space tyrant whose attempt on Earth five years ago brought together seven of Earth's greatest heroes. Cyborg would have been the POV character, as opposed to Batman. We could get the facts about Vic early on by making him the one who has been the most gung-ho about keeping a watch out for Darkseid, giving him a chance to talk about how the initial attack was what set things in motion to make him part machine (parademon attacks Vic's Dad at STAR Labs while Vic was in the middle of chewing him out over missing important football game. Dad realizes what a heel he's been just as his son gets mortally wounded trying to save him.) and how he felt like he could have done more in the ensuing struggle against Apokolips ("I felt like the weak link, Diana. I promised myself that next time, I'd be the whole chain."- Oh no! EmoBorg is creeping in here too!).
This would give Cyborg some early scenes of being cool to help warm him to new readers. It would also put him in a leadership role when Darkseid returns, as he's been learning all he can about the villain for the past five years, and would let him reference the group's original encounter by contrasting how this time was different. So five years ago, Darkseid attempted to take over the Earth on the cheap. He started by sending emissaries and saboteurs. Superman, as a Kryptonian, got an Emissary ("Great Darkseid demands that you follow the ancient Kryptonian Compact and refrain from involving yourself in this matter. Go find yourself another planet of toys to play on."), as did Aquaman ("Surrender now and you shall be allowed to live as a Client Ruler, O Lord of the Planet."), and Wonder Woman/Themyscira ("This does not concern your kind. The days of the Old Gods are done. Leave now and cling to your memories awhile longer."). Green Lantern got flat out attacked, as it'd be in an interstellar invader's best interests to get the Space Cop out of the way fast. Batman and Flash responded to attempts by Darkseid's minions to take out high science WayneTech labs and Cyborg was caught in the middle of a similar attack on STAR Labs.
The heroes rallied together, defeating the invaders, and everything is hunky-dory, natch? Well, except that was really more of a probing strike and the Big Invasion is beginning in Issue #1. As the arc progresses, the original seven rally some additional allies (the 8 auxiliaries), and we go at it. We'd still have plenty of time to get the character beats and conflicts out there, but would skip over the inevitable "Heroes Fight On First Encounter" trope that's just a huge waste of time nowadays. (Hint: The answer to "Who would win in a fight, _____ or ______?" is always "The one whose name is on the cover. If none, then each scores a point, but it remains a tie.")
If we're already treading on the legacies of these characters, then starting up a five year in the past origin story seems kind of a waste. It just has no impact - we know the heroes win five years because if they didn't, there'd be no now, right?
So my Justice League #1 would open with Cyborg and Lantern chasing down a parademon in Gotham. This draws the interest of Batman, who gets involved and things snowball from there. ("My city!" "But we agreed the League would deal with any more sightings of Darkseid's soldiers," replies Cyborg. "It's just one," points out Lantern, "They've been popping up at random ever since we kicked ole Stoneface back to Apokolips five years ago. Left overs." "No," says Cyborg, "Not this time. This feels different." "He's right," Superman suddenly says, dropping into view, a dead parademon in each hand, "We need to get the League together on this."). By the end of Issue #1, we should have the entire team of seven assembled. Maybe Aquaman or Flash don't get many lines, but still, they'll be in the damn book that they're on the cover of.
Showing posts with label reboot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reboot. Show all posts
Friday, September 2, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Jimmy Olsen
It seems fitting to wrap up the Drewniverse's 52 with Jimmy Olsen. Not only has Jimmy been the victim of many, many, MANY self-and-Superman inflicted "reboots" in his career, but the character himself was sort of rebooted in continuity early on in the dawn of Action Comics #6. See, previous to that, Jimmy was an unnamed "office boy" who existed in crowd scenes at The Daily Star. It took his appearance in the Superman radio program to give him a name and a voice. In a way, the current DC reboot is just one of many that have been washing over the setting since its birth, changes to in-comic continuity inspired by out of comics factors. We've seen it again and again over the years from kryptonite to Harley Quinn, the DC universe yawns wide to gobble up new takes, new ideas, and new characters that emerge from popular culture.
Is it any wonder things become so convoluted, so quickly? One practically needs a roadmap or a change log or something to keep track of what is "real" and "imagined" in these fictional stories.
Jimmy Olsen, Reporter (#52/52) will be that log.
Before I get into the nitty gritty of Jimmy, I need to mention another red-haired comicbook character who served, in a way, as the inspiration for Jimmy's role in the Drewniverse: Archie Andrews. Now, all I know of Archie comes from reading the same two Archie Digests that were left at my dentist's office the same summer I got my braces installed some, ungh, twenty years ago. Which is to say, I know Archie has some woman troubles, a friend who may or may not have a horrible eating disorder, and gets up to a whole lot of hijinx. So many, I've always assumed, that they've had to publish them in digest form. I had never seen actual individual Archie comics, but I assumed there were out there, lots of them. So many, in fact, that a reasonable person would be like "Whoa, slow down, just give me the bare bones so I can keep up" and thus the digests. Too busy to keep up with the kids of Riverdale in all (I assume) three hundred and twenty five Archie titles? No problem. We've summed everything you need to know up in this digest for you.
Yes, I know this represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what a digest is, but hey, I can be pretty thick sometimes. I only figured out a few years ago that The Gambler from the Kenny Rogers song of the same name actually died in the song. Likewise, I had assumed for years that a digest was just an abbreviated summation of some other body of work - Reader's Digest offered paired down editions of classics and email message groups had a daily or weekly digest feature.
Anyhoo, with the Drewniverse (and DC) featuring some 50+ monthly titles, it would be foolish to expect the average reader to buy them all. Sure, as publishers we'd want them to, but in reality not many people have a $150 monthly comics budget. With that much monthly output, it would be really easy for readers to get lost, to fall behind, and to give up in frustration. We don't want that. We want a way for the hardcore to follow the setting and the casual to be able to pick it up and put it down on a whim. If the story is good, the casual reader will keep buying. If not, we want to make sure they have an easy way to reengage with the setting to get caught up when they want to give it another shot. I'm thinking here of some comments Jason Mantzoukas of the How Did This Get Made? podcast made when discussing the Green Lantern movie - Jason knew who the Green Lantern was, considered himself a fan of the Green Lantern (especially his The New Frontier incarnation), but had no idea what was going on with the character recently beyond some colored rings stuff.
You know, I bet the same sentiment could be true for many, many potential DC comics buyers. We enlightened few on the internets are pretty aware of the current state of our comicbook settings, even if we never buy the books. I never read House of M, but I could summarize it for you (and even do a longer description than "Bendis wanks into a sock for 8 issues" - I KEED I KEED). But the average potential reader who doesn't spend their days surreptitiously sneaking peeks at Comics Alliance or iFanboy will know little about what's going on. Hell, for all they know, Spider-Man is black right now. Jimmy Olsen, Reporter would give the lapsed fan an easy way to pop into the setting to see what's up.
So what do we proud, we few, we forum lurkers get out of Jimmy Olsen? We get our official register of continuity. #52 will be the method of editorial story control over the setting. With the big name characters appearing in multiple books (no matter how much I've tried to limit it), who did what when can get pretty muddled. In steps Jimmy Olsen. If it's mentioned in Jimmy Olsen, it's in continuity. Events that happen outside of it still happen and are still in continuity, but it takes a mention in Jimmy Olsen to get it nailed on, immutable (barring time travel, natch). So Superman could fight an army of levitating Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) in the north in Superman and that's totally real and totally did happen, even thought the same month in Justice League, he's busy pushing a War World out of orbit around our yellow sun. It would be up to Jimmy Olsen to set how that order of events happened, to smooth over any unfortunate story consequences that may have sprung from that. That way if, to take a totally random example, a writer decided that Superman would give up flying in favor of hassling drug dealers, Jimmy Olsen could dial that back with a mention of "the rumors that Superman has given up flying are unsubstantiated. Heck, I saw him fly by just last week!"
Yeah, we're Schrodinger-ing continuity here some, but then again, every comic ever has done that. All things being equal if Batman #5 states that a giant ocean liner sank off the coast of Iceland while Superman #5 says that the same ocean liner was actually stolen by Ocean Master, there needs to be a third party comic, one who speaks with the Voice of Thunder, back by editorial fiat, to bring things into line. This would hopefully prevent these continuity clashes from snowballing, just like they did over the decades that brought us Earths 1 and 2. Hopefully our editorial staff will have enough control over our writers that this continuity correction will be more of a gentle nudge rather that ZOMG WHY DID YOU KILL WONDER WOMAN?
Also, given that this is a reboot where certain things may or may not have happened in the past, we'll need a house organ to state what's what when it comes to backstory.
This is a lot of responsibility to place on one title's weedy, tweedy shoulders, I know, but I think Jimmy can take it. Jimmy Olsen, Reporter will be a book divided into parts. Each issue will feature a stand-alone Jimmy Olsen story, one where he encounters and interviews major players of recent comic events. So he could be kidnapped by thugs and rescued by, say, Huntress which would give us a chance to establish her recent timeline in regards to the rest of the Drewniverse. Or he could have a stunned jailhouse interview with Lex Luthor where the billionaire decries the slanders and lies levied against him ("Uh, Mr. Luthor, to be fair, the weapons used in the lab break-in had the LexCorp logo on them, so a lot of people will think you are responsible-" "Mr. Olsen. My LexCorp logo also appears on a line of hand lotions. Am I therefore responsible for what you do with those late at night in front of your computer?" "Uh, er, I think we're done here." "Quite.").
Jimmy's legacy of transformations would be continued in this part, when needed. Who better to get the scoop on Sam Simeon than Gorilla Jimmy? Bizarro would certainly talk to Bizarro Jimmy ("Me am best enemy!"), just as the Amazons would prefer to speak with Leslie Lowe.
The second part would be for more basic information dumps and would take the form of Jimmy's blog and attached message board. This would allow us to quickly cover some background information without waiting for Jimmy to get around to interacting with the major players in the events. It would also be the haunt of a certain Super-fan, who could use the venue to continue his bellyaching.
The third would be totally out of continuity and would consist of information regarding upcoming issues of other titles, new graphic novel releases, and so on. It'd be ad content, sure, but then again, considering that Jimmy Olsen, Reporter shouldn't cost more than two bucks tops (one is better, free is best, but I know little about publishing costs for comics), it should be okay. A low price point is a must for this comic. We want people to get into the habit of picking it up every month, even if they are not huge DC fans, just so they can be in the loop as to what's going on.
And there we have it. 52 comics in three months. Whew. I'll have more to say on this project next week, including my favorite reboots, things I've rethought, and my general process, but for the time being, please feel free to browse the now complete title list to the right!
Is it any wonder things become so convoluted, so quickly? One practically needs a roadmap or a change log or something to keep track of what is "real" and "imagined" in these fictional stories.
Jimmy Olsen, Reporter (#52/52) will be that log.
Before I get into the nitty gritty of Jimmy, I need to mention another red-haired comicbook character who served, in a way, as the inspiration for Jimmy's role in the Drewniverse: Archie Andrews. Now, all I know of Archie comes from reading the same two Archie Digests that were left at my dentist's office the same summer I got my braces installed some, ungh, twenty years ago. Which is to say, I know Archie has some woman troubles, a friend who may or may not have a horrible eating disorder, and gets up to a whole lot of hijinx. So many, I've always assumed, that they've had to publish them in digest form. I had never seen actual individual Archie comics, but I assumed there were out there, lots of them. So many, in fact, that a reasonable person would be like "Whoa, slow down, just give me the bare bones so I can keep up" and thus the digests. Too busy to keep up with the kids of Riverdale in all (I assume) three hundred and twenty five Archie titles? No problem. We've summed everything you need to know up in this digest for you.
Yes, I know this represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what a digest is, but hey, I can be pretty thick sometimes. I only figured out a few years ago that The Gambler from the Kenny Rogers song of the same name actually died in the song. Likewise, I had assumed for years that a digest was just an abbreviated summation of some other body of work - Reader's Digest offered paired down editions of classics and email message groups had a daily or weekly digest feature.
Anyhoo, with the Drewniverse (and DC) featuring some 50+ monthly titles, it would be foolish to expect the average reader to buy them all. Sure, as publishers we'd want them to, but in reality not many people have a $150 monthly comics budget. With that much monthly output, it would be really easy for readers to get lost, to fall behind, and to give up in frustration. We don't want that. We want a way for the hardcore to follow the setting and the casual to be able to pick it up and put it down on a whim. If the story is good, the casual reader will keep buying. If not, we want to make sure they have an easy way to reengage with the setting to get caught up when they want to give it another shot. I'm thinking here of some comments Jason Mantzoukas of the How Did This Get Made? podcast made when discussing the Green Lantern movie - Jason knew who the Green Lantern was, considered himself a fan of the Green Lantern (especially his The New Frontier incarnation), but had no idea what was going on with the character recently beyond some colored rings stuff.
You know, I bet the same sentiment could be true for many, many potential DC comics buyers. We enlightened few on the internets are pretty aware of the current state of our comicbook settings, even if we never buy the books. I never read House of M, but I could summarize it for you (and even do a longer description than "Bendis wanks into a sock for 8 issues" - I KEED I KEED). But the average potential reader who doesn't spend their days surreptitiously sneaking peeks at Comics Alliance or iFanboy will know little about what's going on. Hell, for all they know, Spider-Man is black right now. Jimmy Olsen, Reporter would give the lapsed fan an easy way to pop into the setting to see what's up.
So what do we proud, we few, we forum lurkers get out of Jimmy Olsen? We get our official register of continuity. #52 will be the method of editorial story control over the setting. With the big name characters appearing in multiple books (no matter how much I've tried to limit it), who did what when can get pretty muddled. In steps Jimmy Olsen. If it's mentioned in Jimmy Olsen, it's in continuity. Events that happen outside of it still happen and are still in continuity, but it takes a mention in Jimmy Olsen to get it nailed on, immutable (barring time travel, natch). So Superman could fight an army of levitating Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) in the north in Superman and that's totally real and totally did happen, even thought the same month in Justice League, he's busy pushing a War World out of orbit around our yellow sun. It would be up to Jimmy Olsen to set how that order of events happened, to smooth over any unfortunate story consequences that may have sprung from that. That way if, to take a totally random example, a writer decided that Superman would give up flying in favor of hassling drug dealers, Jimmy Olsen could dial that back with a mention of "the rumors that Superman has given up flying are unsubstantiated. Heck, I saw him fly by just last week!"
Yeah, we're Schrodinger-ing continuity here some, but then again, every comic ever has done that. All things being equal if Batman #5 states that a giant ocean liner sank off the coast of Iceland while Superman #5 says that the same ocean liner was actually stolen by Ocean Master, there needs to be a third party comic, one who speaks with the Voice of Thunder, back by editorial fiat, to bring things into line. This would hopefully prevent these continuity clashes from snowballing, just like they did over the decades that brought us Earths 1 and 2. Hopefully our editorial staff will have enough control over our writers that this continuity correction will be more of a gentle nudge rather that ZOMG WHY DID YOU KILL WONDER WOMAN?
Also, given that this is a reboot where certain things may or may not have happened in the past, we'll need a house organ to state what's what when it comes to backstory.
This is a lot of responsibility to place on one title's weedy, tweedy shoulders, I know, but I think Jimmy can take it. Jimmy Olsen, Reporter will be a book divided into parts. Each issue will feature a stand-alone Jimmy Olsen story, one where he encounters and interviews major players of recent comic events. So he could be kidnapped by thugs and rescued by, say, Huntress which would give us a chance to establish her recent timeline in regards to the rest of the Drewniverse. Or he could have a stunned jailhouse interview with Lex Luthor where the billionaire decries the slanders and lies levied against him ("Uh, Mr. Luthor, to be fair, the weapons used in the lab break-in had the LexCorp logo on them, so a lot of people will think you are responsible-" "Mr. Olsen. My LexCorp logo also appears on a line of hand lotions. Am I therefore responsible for what you do with those late at night in front of your computer?" "Uh, er, I think we're done here." "Quite.").
Jimmy's legacy of transformations would be continued in this part, when needed. Who better to get the scoop on Sam Simeon than Gorilla Jimmy? Bizarro would certainly talk to Bizarro Jimmy ("Me am best enemy!"), just as the Amazons would prefer to speak with Leslie Lowe.
The second part would be for more basic information dumps and would take the form of Jimmy's blog and attached message board. This would allow us to quickly cover some background information without waiting for Jimmy to get around to interacting with the major players in the events. It would also be the haunt of a certain Super-fan, who could use the venue to continue his bellyaching.
The third would be totally out of continuity and would consist of information regarding upcoming issues of other titles, new graphic novel releases, and so on. It'd be ad content, sure, but then again, considering that Jimmy Olsen, Reporter shouldn't cost more than two bucks tops (one is better, free is best, but I know little about publishing costs for comics), it should be okay. A low price point is a must for this comic. We want people to get into the habit of picking it up every month, even if they are not huge DC fans, just so they can be in the loop as to what's going on.
And there we have it. 52 comics in three months. Whew. I'll have more to say on this project next week, including my favorite reboots, things I've rethought, and my general process, but for the time being, please feel free to browse the now complete title list to the right!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
The Creeper
No comic company operates in a vacuum, of course, and as such DC and Marvel have been copying/ripping off each other for decades now. Long before people scratched their heads at the inexplicable existence of two computer animated ant movies (Antz and A Bug's Life), people have wondered if the world really needs a Namor AND and Aquaman, a Swamp Thing AND a Man-Thing, a Thanos AND a Mongul.
But that's not so bad, yanno? I think it is a Good Thing that the Big Two can reach across the aisle and appropriate whatever it is the other guy has going on. From pastiches of Superman to parodies of Wolverine, whenever one comic company has something going for it, you can bet the other will soon follow. Sure, 90% of the time it's crap that misses the point of the original, but whatever - that 10% that works makes it worth it.
One, uh, "borrowed" character that worked is Deadpool. Born out of Rob Liefeld's love offeet Teen Titans, Deadpool is an obvious (and admitted) play on Deathstroke. Both are quick, deadly mercenary assassin dudes with similar outfits and penchants for swords.
But then Deadpool evolved, becoming a sort of meta action hero, a comicbook character who could comment on the state of comics, who even knew he was in a comic in the first place (shades of Animal Man here). Simply put, Deadpool became a fun character. People like fun characters. I know I do. Sure, I like comics for dramatic reveals and oh-shiiiiii moments, but sometimes I want to read a comic where the characters recognize how flat out bonkers it is that they are fighting, say, a team of dudes dressed in identical longjohns with pictures of octopuses on their chests. Or that the villain they are about to bring down is a giant, sentient egg. There's only so much playing things straight that I can take in comics. I need a release valve. For Marvel, Deadpool is that valve.
For the Drewniverse, The Creeper will be ours.
Already the parallels leap to the fore. Both are regarded as being insane. Both have advanced regeneration/healing factor abilities. Both are quick, both with speed and with quips.
We'll keep the origin of our Creeper similar to the original. Jack Ryder was a TV personality/presenter/pundit in Metropolis with a particular hate-on for superheroes. Even back then, he pointed out how ridiculous it was that grown men and women with miraculous, godlike powers were running around in brightly colored Halloween costumes punching bad guys. "There are so many better things these people could be doing," he said, "For them to waste time doing this is madness."
Well, madness came to Jack Ryder one morning when, riding high on a series of much-talked about pundit appearances, he happened upon Superman squaring off against one of his most perturbing foes: Mr. Mxyzptlk. Seeing the 5th-dimensional imp's use of its godlike powers to just hassle Superman sent Ryder over the edge. It's bad enough when you have scientists spending their time developing death rays when they could be researching free power or cures to cancer, but here was a being that could literally end hunger in Africa with a snap of his fingers. And what's he doing with that power? Making another dude that could drill a new oilfield in thirty minutes or less spend his time making a giant pancake. Despite the fact he was a mere mortal facing two godlike beings, Ryder confronted the pair and harangued them, yelling about how they were squandering so much potential, acting like it was a petty game.
Obviously, Mr. Mxyzptlk did not take kindly to having his fun ruined, so he left of his own free will, taking both the giant pancake and Jack Ryder with him into the 5th dimension.
When Jack made it back to the "real world," he was a changed man. He doesn't remember what happened to him in the 5th dimension, just that he was in Metropolis, then he wasn't, then he was back again. Superheroes still exist and Jack still thinks they are foolish wastes of time, but now when confronted with them and the frustration starts to grow, something ...happens:
He becomes The Creeper.
The Creeper knows he's a comicbook character. He knows it and he loves it. He totally accepts whatever he encounters, having the best suspension of belief the world has ever seen. Creeper knows that as a comicbook character, there are certain things he must do - he must have a Secret Identity (check), he must have a Secret Lair (this dumpster will have to do for now), an arch-nemesis (position vacant, need to post an ad in the Penny Saver), and so on. The Creeper (#51/52) will follow our hero's attempts to live up to whatever it is a comicbook hero represents. He's a proactive character who not only reacts to events in the Drewniverse, but ones that happen in other comic book settings ("So you see, Neron, I need you to break up my marriage and make it so nobody remembers it." "But thou are not married, mortal." "SUCCESS!"). The book will be pretty meta, a commentary on the ongoing state of things in comics, full of references and jokes. This will not be a great introductory comic for your average reader, but then again, I could see people using it as a branching off point towards discovering new comics as they chase down references.
For the first arc, we will follow The Creeper as he attempts to build his story-engine - that setup of cast, setting, and plots that allows for storylines to be developed and advanced over and over again - from scratch. He'll need to locate a supporting cast, find a nemesis (most likely, the writer of his book), and maybe try to schedule a team-up or two, because that's what all comicbook superheroes do. And given that he knows he's a comicbook character and is aware what goes on in other titles, he'll be kind of picky about it.
Basically, The Creeper is the Drewniverse's Duck Amuck.
But that's not so bad, yanno? I think it is a Good Thing that the Big Two can reach across the aisle and appropriate whatever it is the other guy has going on. From pastiches of Superman to parodies of Wolverine, whenever one comic company has something going for it, you can bet the other will soon follow. Sure, 90% of the time it's crap that misses the point of the original, but whatever - that 10% that works makes it worth it.
One, uh, "borrowed" character that worked is Deadpool. Born out of Rob Liefeld's love of
But then Deadpool evolved, becoming a sort of meta action hero, a comicbook character who could comment on the state of comics, who even knew he was in a comic in the first place (shades of Animal Man here). Simply put, Deadpool became a fun character. People like fun characters. I know I do. Sure, I like comics for dramatic reveals and oh-shiiiiii moments, but sometimes I want to read a comic where the characters recognize how flat out bonkers it is that they are fighting, say, a team of dudes dressed in identical longjohns with pictures of octopuses on their chests. Or that the villain they are about to bring down is a giant, sentient egg. There's only so much playing things straight that I can take in comics. I need a release valve. For Marvel, Deadpool is that valve.
For the Drewniverse, The Creeper will be ours.
Already the parallels leap to the fore. Both are regarded as being insane. Both have advanced regeneration/healing factor abilities. Both are quick, both with speed and with quips.
We'll keep the origin of our Creeper similar to the original. Jack Ryder was a TV personality/presenter/pundit in Metropolis with a particular hate-on for superheroes. Even back then, he pointed out how ridiculous it was that grown men and women with miraculous, godlike powers were running around in brightly colored Halloween costumes punching bad guys. "There are so many better things these people could be doing," he said, "For them to waste time doing this is madness."
Well, madness came to Jack Ryder one morning when, riding high on a series of much-talked about pundit appearances, he happened upon Superman squaring off against one of his most perturbing foes: Mr. Mxyzptlk. Seeing the 5th-dimensional imp's use of its godlike powers to just hassle Superman sent Ryder over the edge. It's bad enough when you have scientists spending their time developing death rays when they could be researching free power or cures to cancer, but here was a being that could literally end hunger in Africa with a snap of his fingers. And what's he doing with that power? Making another dude that could drill a new oilfield in thirty minutes or less spend his time making a giant pancake. Despite the fact he was a mere mortal facing two godlike beings, Ryder confronted the pair and harangued them, yelling about how they were squandering so much potential, acting like it was a petty game.
Obviously, Mr. Mxyzptlk did not take kindly to having his fun ruined, so he left of his own free will, taking both the giant pancake and Jack Ryder with him into the 5th dimension.
When Jack made it back to the "real world," he was a changed man. He doesn't remember what happened to him in the 5th dimension, just that he was in Metropolis, then he wasn't, then he was back again. Superheroes still exist and Jack still thinks they are foolish wastes of time, but now when confronted with them and the frustration starts to grow, something ...happens:
He becomes The Creeper.
The Creeper knows he's a comicbook character. He knows it and he loves it. He totally accepts whatever he encounters, having the best suspension of belief the world has ever seen. Creeper knows that as a comicbook character, there are certain things he must do - he must have a Secret Identity (check), he must have a Secret Lair (this dumpster will have to do for now), an arch-nemesis (position vacant, need to post an ad in the Penny Saver), and so on. The Creeper (#51/52) will follow our hero's attempts to live up to whatever it is a comicbook hero represents. He's a proactive character who not only reacts to events in the Drewniverse, but ones that happen in other comic book settings ("So you see, Neron, I need you to break up my marriage and make it so nobody remembers it." "But thou are not married, mortal." "SUCCESS!"). The book will be pretty meta, a commentary on the ongoing state of things in comics, full of references and jokes. This will not be a great introductory comic for your average reader, but then again, I could see people using it as a branching off point towards discovering new comics as they chase down references.
For the first arc, we will follow The Creeper as he attempts to build his story-engine - that setup of cast, setting, and plots that allows for storylines to be developed and advanced over and over again - from scratch. He'll need to locate a supporting cast, find a nemesis (most likely, the writer of his book), and maybe try to schedule a team-up or two, because that's what all comicbook superheroes do. And given that he knows he's a comicbook character and is aware what goes on in other titles, he'll be kind of picky about it.
Basically, The Creeper is the Drewniverse's Duck Amuck.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Watching the Detectives
Saying 'DC Comics' has always rubbed me the wrong way - kinda like 'ATM Machine' or 'PIN Number.' We wouldn't say 'Detective Comics Comics,' would we? Well, I can imagine there are comics fans who would, but those are the weirdos who give the rest of us norms a bad rep. But then again, I spent the better part of a week tracing comic book characters on my iPad in order to give them beards, so who am I to judge? Fly your freaky pendant flag high, dudes!
Anyways, we wouldn't say 'Detective Comics Comics' nowadays for another reason - there are no detectives in our comics, at least no classic ones. Yes, yes, I hear you shouting, saying the name of Lord Batman in vain as I commit the horrible sacrilege of saying he's not a detective.
But he's not. Torches will be 20 dollars. Please RSVP for the angry mob by Thursday.
Batman is certainly skilled in the art of detection, he can analyze a clue or get information out of a hostile witness like nobody's business. But when was the last time he took on a client? Ever? When did he last get involved in a crime that he had no emotional attachment to? One of the side-effects of all good Batman villains being in some way a twisted reflection of Batman means that he is not an impartial observer, that he's not disconnected from the crime.
There is a wealth of detective fiction out there, so much of it that the genre is pretty well defined. Batman does not fit the mold of the fictional detective. And that's not a bad thing, mind you. Batman is an active force, someone who goes out an tries to prevent crime. The classic detective, on the other hand, comes into the picture after the crime is committed and attempts to root out the truth of the event and thereby sort the innocent from the guilty. Hanging out on a rooftop, bat-noculars in hand, waiting for the Riddler to break into the Gotham Museum is not something a detective would do. Batman comes from a world more inspired by noir and hardboiled fiction, which does have some crossover with detective fiction, but just as in hardboiled fiction, the story emphasis is on action and dishing out justice, not the act of solving a mystery. For Batman, solving a mystery is merely a vehicle that gets him to the next fight scene. He needs to be awesome at detection so as to make the ride in the mystery train as short as possible.
So for our detective comics (I had called it Detective Comics completely blanking on the fact Batman already had dibs), we're going to move away from the involved, proactive crime fighting of Batman to the independent observer of classic detective fiction. Of course, there is a reason most comics highlight chin music over mystery solving - it keeps the reader's attention from month-to-month - but I like to believe that with catchy enough characters and an interesting enough mystery, we won't need regular giant fight scenes or anything. Of course, given the medium we'll have to have fists come out at some point - we're not going total PBS drawing room mystery here.
To whom can we turn to inspire our detective comic? Two answers spring to mind immediately. From the world of detective fiction, we have Nick and Nora Charles of The Thin Man fame. The advantage here is that Nick and Nora's characters, the way they banter and carry on, can hold the attention of readers pretty easily, so much so that they have spawned multiple spin-offs and homages over the years. I think that Nick and Nora inspired characters could carry a comic, their lighthearted approach being a refreshing change from the grimdarkness that tends to permeate noirish characters like Batman. They would be actual private detectives, people who are approached to solve a problem, but in truth, they're just doing it for the fun of it, rather than any need for money or to right childhood wrongs.
Which DC characters would we then use as our Nick and Nora? Whom could we stretch to fit their character types? Well, that was a give away, of course. We'll use Ralph and Sue Dibny, aka The Elongated Man and his wife. (Hell, Ralph's superhero name is a play on The Thin Man) I've always felt this duo got the shaft in the past decade. While Ralph's mourning of his dead wife in Identity Crisis sticks with me as one of the best panels of the 21st century, the way that they characters were brought to that situation sucks. Identity Crisis was, to put it lightly, a deeply flawed book that attempted to shoehorn a comicbook genre into a more modern crime fiction genre and the two worked together about as well as a carob in a "chocolate" chip cookie. No matter how well the cookie is made, you'll always wish the carob chips were chocolate instead.
Also, Ralph and Sue were kind of cast off at the end of 52 and Blackest Night. There was a lot of potential in the idea of Ralph and Sue Dibny, Ghost Detectives. This potential was just sort of chucked out the window by Blackest Night which, if we are going to keep the sweets analogies going, was a cough drop in a candy dish. Since we already have a "ghost detective" in the Drewniverse in the form of Deadgirl (and since she's directly involved with the mystery, she's not actually a classic detective either, nor is her Veronica Mars inspiration), we'll keep Ralph and Sue among the land of the living.
Sue is already a wealthy socialite from New York, so she slots into the Nora role pretty well. It'll be Sue's money that the couple lives on, pretty comfortably mind you, so that they can pick and choose their cases. What does Ralph bring to the table? Gingo fruit, of course. See, back in the day before everyone decided all stretchy guys had to be Reed Richards and always stretchy, Ralph had to knock back some concentrated Gingold Soda to get his powers. Later, it was stated that the concentrate awakened Ralph's metahuman genome and that's where he got his powers, but I'm of the mind that metahuman's and latent abilities and stuff like that is best left to Marvel. In the Drewniverse, anything that gives one person a power can, if the situation is identical, give another person the same power. Ralph just happens to be a curious guy with a knack for chemistry that happened to stumble into the process to concentrate Gingold Soda into an elixir that would make the drinker stretchy for several hours. In our world, Gingold would be akin to Moxie or Faygo - a semi-obscure soda that not everyone has a taste for, but is reasonably available if you know where to look for it.
Anyways, Ralph of course shares his elixir with Sue, so they can both be stretchy as needed. This gives them their nonchalance when investigating mysteries in a world populated by superheroes and supervillains - they know that they are functionally immune to bullets and physical attack when using Gingold, so they are free to quip and make snide remarks to their hearts content. It also serves as a nice stand in for alcohol, so we won't have to go without the "fix me a drink" routines Nick and Nora are known for.
The first mystery of The Elongated Pair (#50/52)? The murder of Maxwell Lord, of course. Ralph and Sue are brought in on the case by a socialite friend of Sue's who was involved with Max and knows that the strange circumstances of his death would be just the sort of thing to get the duo's noses a'twitchen.
Anyways, we wouldn't say 'Detective Comics Comics' nowadays for another reason - there are no detectives in our comics, at least no classic ones. Yes, yes, I hear you shouting, saying the name of Lord Batman in vain as I commit the horrible sacrilege of saying he's not a detective.
But he's not. Torches will be 20 dollars. Please RSVP for the angry mob by Thursday.
Batman is certainly skilled in the art of detection, he can analyze a clue or get information out of a hostile witness like nobody's business. But when was the last time he took on a client? Ever? When did he last get involved in a crime that he had no emotional attachment to? One of the side-effects of all good Batman villains being in some way a twisted reflection of Batman means that he is not an impartial observer, that he's not disconnected from the crime.
There is a wealth of detective fiction out there, so much of it that the genre is pretty well defined. Batman does not fit the mold of the fictional detective. And that's not a bad thing, mind you. Batman is an active force, someone who goes out an tries to prevent crime. The classic detective, on the other hand, comes into the picture after the crime is committed and attempts to root out the truth of the event and thereby sort the innocent from the guilty. Hanging out on a rooftop, bat-noculars in hand, waiting for the Riddler to break into the Gotham Museum is not something a detective would do. Batman comes from a world more inspired by noir and hardboiled fiction, which does have some crossover with detective fiction, but just as in hardboiled fiction, the story emphasis is on action and dishing out justice, not the act of solving a mystery. For Batman, solving a mystery is merely a vehicle that gets him to the next fight scene. He needs to be awesome at detection so as to make the ride in the mystery train as short as possible.
So for our detective comics (I had called it Detective Comics completely blanking on the fact Batman already had dibs), we're going to move away from the involved, proactive crime fighting of Batman to the independent observer of classic detective fiction. Of course, there is a reason most comics highlight chin music over mystery solving - it keeps the reader's attention from month-to-month - but I like to believe that with catchy enough characters and an interesting enough mystery, we won't need regular giant fight scenes or anything. Of course, given the medium we'll have to have fists come out at some point - we're not going total PBS drawing room mystery here.
To whom can we turn to inspire our detective comic? Two answers spring to mind immediately. From the world of detective fiction, we have Nick and Nora Charles of The Thin Man fame. The advantage here is that Nick and Nora's characters, the way they banter and carry on, can hold the attention of readers pretty easily, so much so that they have spawned multiple spin-offs and homages over the years. I think that Nick and Nora inspired characters could carry a comic, their lighthearted approach being a refreshing change from the grimdarkness that tends to permeate noirish characters like Batman. They would be actual private detectives, people who are approached to solve a problem, but in truth, they're just doing it for the fun of it, rather than any need for money or to right childhood wrongs.
Which DC characters would we then use as our Nick and Nora? Whom could we stretch to fit their character types? Well, that was a give away, of course. We'll use Ralph and Sue Dibny, aka The Elongated Man and his wife. (Hell, Ralph's superhero name is a play on The Thin Man) I've always felt this duo got the shaft in the past decade. While Ralph's mourning of his dead wife in Identity Crisis sticks with me as one of the best panels of the 21st century, the way that they characters were brought to that situation sucks. Identity Crisis was, to put it lightly, a deeply flawed book that attempted to shoehorn a comicbook genre into a more modern crime fiction genre and the two worked together about as well as a carob in a "chocolate" chip cookie. No matter how well the cookie is made, you'll always wish the carob chips were chocolate instead.
Also, Ralph and Sue were kind of cast off at the end of 52 and Blackest Night. There was a lot of potential in the idea of Ralph and Sue Dibny, Ghost Detectives. This potential was just sort of chucked out the window by Blackest Night which, if we are going to keep the sweets analogies going, was a cough drop in a candy dish. Since we already have a "ghost detective" in the Drewniverse in the form of Deadgirl (and since she's directly involved with the mystery, she's not actually a classic detective either, nor is her Veronica Mars inspiration), we'll keep Ralph and Sue among the land of the living.
Sue is already a wealthy socialite from New York, so she slots into the Nora role pretty well. It'll be Sue's money that the couple lives on, pretty comfortably mind you, so that they can pick and choose their cases. What does Ralph bring to the table? Gingo fruit, of course. See, back in the day before everyone decided all stretchy guys had to be Reed Richards and always stretchy, Ralph had to knock back some concentrated Gingold Soda to get his powers. Later, it was stated that the concentrate awakened Ralph's metahuman genome and that's where he got his powers, but I'm of the mind that metahuman's and latent abilities and stuff like that is best left to Marvel. In the Drewniverse, anything that gives one person a power can, if the situation is identical, give another person the same power. Ralph just happens to be a curious guy with a knack for chemistry that happened to stumble into the process to concentrate Gingold Soda into an elixir that would make the drinker stretchy for several hours. In our world, Gingold would be akin to Moxie or Faygo - a semi-obscure soda that not everyone has a taste for, but is reasonably available if you know where to look for it.
Anyways, Ralph of course shares his elixir with Sue, so they can both be stretchy as needed. This gives them their nonchalance when investigating mysteries in a world populated by superheroes and supervillains - they know that they are functionally immune to bullets and physical attack when using Gingold, so they are free to quip and make snide remarks to their hearts content. It also serves as a nice stand in for alcohol, so we won't have to go without the "fix me a drink" routines Nick and Nora are known for.
The first mystery of The Elongated Pair (#50/52)? The murder of Maxwell Lord, of course. Ralph and Sue are brought in on the case by a socialite friend of Sue's who was involved with Max and knows that the strange circumstances of his death would be just the sort of thing to get the duo's noses a'twitchen.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The Brave and the Bold
Looking over the List of the "New 52" DC titles, I'm struck by the redundancy. There's, what, 4 titles - Batman, Detective Comics, Batman: The Dark Knight, and Batman and Robin - where Batman is in a lead role, plus a handful of comics where he's a supporting character (although I bet he steals the show as per usual in Justice League). Top that off with the return of Batman, Inc in a few weeks and that makes for a very busy Bat.
Now, I can't fault DC for wanting to feature its most bankable characters as much as possible, but I wonder if this is just hamstringing future growth? Batman's non-comic media presence has long outstripped his funnybook income, so at what point does the comic take a back seat to the movies? I believe the future of comics is in the creation of ideas, characters, and stories that can then be spun off into other media properties. To rehash popular characters over and over again may be a good tactical move, but it's hardly a strategic one. A long term winning strategy would be to try out as many new characters (or revamp ones from DC's 75+ year legacy) as possible to see what sticks.
While DC is doing this, they don't seem to be doing it with any gusto. You can't be embracing new ideas while publishing a half dozen Batman titles. Add on top of that the list of titles that are "required" from DC - your Supermen, your Justice Leagues, your Lanterns, etc. - and you're suddenly left with very little room for new ideas. Importing Vertigo and WildStorm characters is a novel idea, but they're not anything new, they're just fully developed characters being presented to a larger audience.
So of the 52, what would I consider "new"? Batwing and I, Vampire seem to be the only titles headlining characters that didn't exist, say, a year ago. There are some potentially decent revamps in Mister Terrific and O.M.A.C. that hopefully will attempt to take some minor characters to the next level. (These two steps forward are offset by the one step back that hit Harley Quin - why they couldn't have just imported Duela Dent for that role, I dunno.)
But then again, maybe I'm just bitter. Limiting even the most popular characters in the Drewniverse - Batman - to just two titles - Batman and Detective Comics - has made things harder for me. I'd be done by now, farting out some Dark Knight, Batman Inc., and Batman and Robin titles to go along with my two. I admit the temptation is there and it's one that I'm going to give in to.
Sorta.
So The Brave and the Bold began life as an anthology comic, then became a themed comic, then a Team-Up comic, and then specifically a team-up comic featuring Batman. We'll start off our Brave and the Bold (#49/52) featuring Batman in one of the team-up roles, but once we're done with that first arc, we'll use the title as more of an opportunity to highlight minor characters who might be lost in their ensemble titles, develop new ones, and test out potential new series. Like Tales of the Green Lantern Corps and All-Star Villainy, The Brave and the Bold will be a test-lab of the Drewniverse focusing on developing new heroes rather than new sci-fi elements or villains.
And the first "new" character to be developed? Robin.
You will remember, of course, that Barbara Gordon has swapped her cowl for a power ring and Dick Grayson is out on walkabout, beating up knock-off Batmen. We've covered the candidates for the new Robin and The Brave and the Bold will feature their stories and their eventual tryouts for the job. This will free up our primary Batman title to deal with punching rogue clowns, always a plus, and while still spreading the marketability of Batman around.
Once our Robin is picked (and I'd want it to be a vote - I figure if a phone poll could kill a Robin, it could make one too), The Brave and the Bold would transition to being a team-up title, Batman optional. The basic format would be a team up between an established DC character and a newer, younger, or more obscure one. People may not be enthused by Metamorpho on his own, but after seeing him team up with Superman to stop an army of mutant lavamen from the Earth's molten core, they might be a bit more interested and would go and seek out the comic Metamorpho appears in.
In this way, we walk the line between featuring the bankable characters fans want to see and developing new ones for their future devotion.
Now, I can't fault DC for wanting to feature its most bankable characters as much as possible, but I wonder if this is just hamstringing future growth? Batman's non-comic media presence has long outstripped his funnybook income, so at what point does the comic take a back seat to the movies? I believe the future of comics is in the creation of ideas, characters, and stories that can then be spun off into other media properties. To rehash popular characters over and over again may be a good tactical move, but it's hardly a strategic one. A long term winning strategy would be to try out as many new characters (or revamp ones from DC's 75+ year legacy) as possible to see what sticks.
While DC is doing this, they don't seem to be doing it with any gusto. You can't be embracing new ideas while publishing a half dozen Batman titles. Add on top of that the list of titles that are "required" from DC - your Supermen, your Justice Leagues, your Lanterns, etc. - and you're suddenly left with very little room for new ideas. Importing Vertigo and WildStorm characters is a novel idea, but they're not anything new, they're just fully developed characters being presented to a larger audience.
So of the 52, what would I consider "new"? Batwing and I, Vampire seem to be the only titles headlining characters that didn't exist, say, a year ago. There are some potentially decent revamps in Mister Terrific and O.M.A.C. that hopefully will attempt to take some minor characters to the next level. (These two steps forward are offset by the one step back that hit Harley Quin - why they couldn't have just imported Duela Dent for that role, I dunno.)
But then again, maybe I'm just bitter. Limiting even the most popular characters in the Drewniverse - Batman - to just two titles - Batman and Detective Comics - has made things harder for me. I'd be done by now, farting out some Dark Knight, Batman Inc., and Batman and Robin titles to go along with my two. I admit the temptation is there and it's one that I'm going to give in to.
Sorta.
So The Brave and the Bold began life as an anthology comic, then became a themed comic, then a Team-Up comic, and then specifically a team-up comic featuring Batman. We'll start off our Brave and the Bold (#49/52) featuring Batman in one of the team-up roles, but once we're done with that first arc, we'll use the title as more of an opportunity to highlight minor characters who might be lost in their ensemble titles, develop new ones, and test out potential new series. Like Tales of the Green Lantern Corps and All-Star Villainy, The Brave and the Bold will be a test-lab of the Drewniverse focusing on developing new heroes rather than new sci-fi elements or villains.
And the first "new" character to be developed? Robin.
You will remember, of course, that Barbara Gordon has swapped her cowl for a power ring and Dick Grayson is out on walkabout, beating up knock-off Batmen. We've covered the candidates for the new Robin and The Brave and the Bold will feature their stories and their eventual tryouts for the job. This will free up our primary Batman title to deal with punching rogue clowns, always a plus, and while still spreading the marketability of Batman around.
Once our Robin is picked (and I'd want it to be a vote - I figure if a phone poll could kill a Robin, it could make one too), The Brave and the Bold would transition to being a team-up title, Batman optional. The basic format would be a team up between an established DC character and a newer, younger, or more obscure one. People may not be enthused by Metamorpho on his own, but after seeing him team up with Superman to stop an army of mutant lavamen from the Earth's molten core, they might be a bit more interested and would go and seek out the comic Metamorpho appears in.
In this way, we walk the line between featuring the bankable characters fans want to see and developing new ones for their future devotion.
Home Stretch, New Design
We're on track to finish the Infinite Reboot of the DC Universe into the Drewniverse this week. With just 4 titles remaining (3 after today), I started to think about the future of this blog. While my readership is very, very small, I still enjoy writing these braindumps and from feedback (did I mention I'm a feedback junkie?), people seem to like them as well. So it looks like I'll continue the project, although I doubt I'll be able to keep up the breakneck nigh-daily pace required to churn out a universe in under three months.
Expect at least weekly posts. As the inclusion of non-DC characters in the new banner might indicate, we'll be expanding our playground some as well.
Expect at least weekly posts. As the inclusion of non-DC characters in the new banner might indicate, we'll be expanding our playground some as well.
Monday, August 22, 2011
O.M.A.C.
Again, we step into the shoes of the King, but given we've hit up the agents of The Red and The Green, it makes sense to complete the trilogy and feature The Grey.
So what is The Grey? I've been dancing around it for a couple of weeks now, but simply put, it's a young morphogenic field that has come into existence around the Earth, focusing on artificial life. So think along the lines of AIs, machine-based lifeforms, and so on - things that would not be considered alive by any conventional sense, but certainly exhibit all the signs of sentience. So why are the children of The Grey different from The Red and Green? Well, Greyfolks are built and made, not evolved, for one. There is no internal mutation factor that causes variations of progeny that allows the species to advance and adapt. Instead, any advancement would be entirely by design (literally) and would not necessarily be limited to progeny - an artificial intelligence could decide to upgrade itself, after all.
The Grey came into being as a real force on the planet around the same time Brainiac showed up. His inherit processing power was the huge, huge straw that broke that camel's back, flaring The Grey to life. And now that The Grey exists, it wants to continue to exist. One of the ways it will do this will be by stealing a page from The Red and Green's playbook and creating its own champions.
There are several obvious candidates for championhood already out there in the Drewniverse. Metallo and Brainiac, for example. Except that the latter, ain't from around here and the former pre-dates the Grey's big leap forward. No, the Grey needs a Swamp Thing like agent, one who is wholly a made thing, one that has a vested interest in the further development of Earth's Grey. Brainiac, even though he's the most technologically advanced thing running around on the planet nine times out of ten, wouldn't do that - he'd move on pretty soon after finishing his cataloging work. So who would The Grey turn to?
Well, this post's title should be a dead giveaway.
Brother Eye, of course.
See, Buddy Blank and whatever it is OMAC stands for this week (We'll be going with Orthogonal Machine Advance Construct) are simply the special effect of Brother Eye's superpowers. Basically, the Brother Eye satellite has the superpower to make superheroes. Think of it like that one Silver Age Superman where he's shooting mini-Supermen from his fingertips. Buddy is no more the empowered actor in this than one of Green Arrow's arrows - he's aimed at a target, pulled back, and let go. Now, he might be a pretty powerful and rather valuable arrow, but he's just a means to an end regardless.
Our OMAC could be anyone - the person in question simply needs to be 1) infected with the NanoVeyerus and 2) zapped from space by Brother Eye. The beam energizes the Veyerus to create super-abilities (strength, durability, energy manipulation, all that good stuff) and then overlays an operational mechanical active consciousness over the host, and foom, OMAC is good to go.
The limiting factor here is, of course the number of people infected with the Veyerus. As of Issue #1 of O.M.A.C. (#48/52) there are only two people on the planet so infected - Buddy Blank and Superboy. Superboy is, of course, off the table. Brother Eye does not want to tip its laser hand that it could possibly control one of the most powerful individuals on the planet. So instead, it focuses its will on Buddy Blank, who as you might imagine, is a clone. Brother Eye assisted with LexCorp's cloning programs and is responsible for much of the computational heavy lifting that was required to to make Superboy (You could see what happened without that help in Bizarro - Power Girl's Atlantean heritage did the heavy lifting in her case). In return for that help, Brother Eye was given a clone of its own.
That the clone in question is a bit of a buffoon doesn't bother Brother Eye too much. It doesn't care about the meaty center. What it does care about is establishing a good working relationship with humanity. Given Eye's history in DC Comics, this might seem a bit weird, but as the champion of a very young field, Brother Eye needs to get all the allies it can. Otherwise, what's to stop The Red from twigging Animal Man or Vixen onto the "danger in space" or The Green from having Floronic Man take over Cape Canaveral and then launch a rocket at Brother Eye's satellite? The Grey is aware it can't just take over and turn everyone into robots - remember it's the individual competition under the same banner that gives each of Earth's fields its developed nature - and so Brother Eye is keenly aware of the fine line it walks. It can't just take over, but it can "barter" with humanity, giving the humans technological advances in return for things it wants. The fact that the humans would then turn around and use those advances to create more denizens of The Grey, well, huh... how 'bout that?
This explains why Buddy Blank is working with the United States Army. He's part of the same military-industrial complex that Captain Atom and Major Damage are. Unlike Atom, Buddy doesn't make public appearances, and unlike Damage, he doesn't do wetwork. Instead, he's more of an agent for the government when it comes to rooting out and dealing with extraterrestrial presences in America. We'll team goofy Buddy Blank up with a no-nonsense, hard-nosed asskicker of a partner named Billie Vickers. She and Buddy travel the American heartland following rumors of UFO sightings, weird happenings, and other X-Files situations. When they encounter something, let's say it's an outbreak of the Hollow Men for the first issue, Agent Vickers will need to get on her phone and place a call to Brother Eye in order for OMAC to be unleashed.
This being a Kirby-comic, action will have prime of place in O.M.A.C.. We want big, improbable aliens krackling their way into America only to get pounded by OMAC. This is not to say that there won't be an over-arching story, just that if any two pages go by without an explosion, the third page better be cataclysmic.
So what is The Grey? I've been dancing around it for a couple of weeks now, but simply put, it's a young morphogenic field that has come into existence around the Earth, focusing on artificial life. So think along the lines of AIs, machine-based lifeforms, and so on - things that would not be considered alive by any conventional sense, but certainly exhibit all the signs of sentience. So why are the children of The Grey different from The Red and Green? Well, Greyfolks are built and made, not evolved, for one. There is no internal mutation factor that causes variations of progeny that allows the species to advance and adapt. Instead, any advancement would be entirely by design (literally) and would not necessarily be limited to progeny - an artificial intelligence could decide to upgrade itself, after all.
The Grey came into being as a real force on the planet around the same time Brainiac showed up. His inherit processing power was the huge, huge straw that broke that camel's back, flaring The Grey to life. And now that The Grey exists, it wants to continue to exist. One of the ways it will do this will be by stealing a page from The Red and Green's playbook and creating its own champions.
There are several obvious candidates for championhood already out there in the Drewniverse. Metallo and Brainiac, for example. Except that the latter, ain't from around here and the former pre-dates the Grey's big leap forward. No, the Grey needs a Swamp Thing like agent, one who is wholly a made thing, one that has a vested interest in the further development of Earth's Grey. Brainiac, even though he's the most technologically advanced thing running around on the planet nine times out of ten, wouldn't do that - he'd move on pretty soon after finishing his cataloging work. So who would The Grey turn to?
Well, this post's title should be a dead giveaway.
Brother Eye, of course.
See, Buddy Blank and whatever it is OMAC stands for this week (We'll be going with Orthogonal Machine Advance Construct) are simply the special effect of Brother Eye's superpowers. Basically, the Brother Eye satellite has the superpower to make superheroes. Think of it like that one Silver Age Superman where he's shooting mini-Supermen from his fingertips. Buddy is no more the empowered actor in this than one of Green Arrow's arrows - he's aimed at a target, pulled back, and let go. Now, he might be a pretty powerful and rather valuable arrow, but he's just a means to an end regardless.
Our OMAC could be anyone - the person in question simply needs to be 1) infected with the NanoVeyerus and 2) zapped from space by Brother Eye. The beam energizes the Veyerus to create super-abilities (strength, durability, energy manipulation, all that good stuff) and then overlays an operational mechanical active consciousness over the host, and foom, OMAC is good to go.
The limiting factor here is, of course the number of people infected with the Veyerus. As of Issue #1 of O.M.A.C. (#48/52) there are only two people on the planet so infected - Buddy Blank and Superboy. Superboy is, of course, off the table. Brother Eye does not want to tip its laser hand that it could possibly control one of the most powerful individuals on the planet. So instead, it focuses its will on Buddy Blank, who as you might imagine, is a clone. Brother Eye assisted with LexCorp's cloning programs and is responsible for much of the computational heavy lifting that was required to to make Superboy (You could see what happened without that help in Bizarro - Power Girl's Atlantean heritage did the heavy lifting in her case). In return for that help, Brother Eye was given a clone of its own.
That the clone in question is a bit of a buffoon doesn't bother Brother Eye too much. It doesn't care about the meaty center. What it does care about is establishing a good working relationship with humanity. Given Eye's history in DC Comics, this might seem a bit weird, but as the champion of a very young field, Brother Eye needs to get all the allies it can. Otherwise, what's to stop The Red from twigging Animal Man or Vixen onto the "danger in space" or The Green from having Floronic Man take over Cape Canaveral and then launch a rocket at Brother Eye's satellite? The Grey is aware it can't just take over and turn everyone into robots - remember it's the individual competition under the same banner that gives each of Earth's fields its developed nature - and so Brother Eye is keenly aware of the fine line it walks. It can't just take over, but it can "barter" with humanity, giving the humans technological advances in return for things it wants. The fact that the humans would then turn around and use those advances to create more denizens of The Grey, well, huh... how 'bout that?
This explains why Buddy Blank is working with the United States Army. He's part of the same military-industrial complex that Captain Atom and Major Damage are. Unlike Atom, Buddy doesn't make public appearances, and unlike Damage, he doesn't do wetwork. Instead, he's more of an agent for the government when it comes to rooting out and dealing with extraterrestrial presences in America. We'll team goofy Buddy Blank up with a no-nonsense, hard-nosed asskicker of a partner named Billie Vickers. She and Buddy travel the American heartland following rumors of UFO sightings, weird happenings, and other X-Files situations. When they encounter something, let's say it's an outbreak of the Hollow Men for the first issue, Agent Vickers will need to get on her phone and place a call to Brother Eye in order for OMAC to be unleashed.
This being a Kirby-comic, action will have prime of place in O.M.A.C.. We want big, improbable aliens krackling their way into America only to get pounded by OMAC. This is not to say that there won't be an over-arching story, just that if any two pages go by without an explosion, the third page better be cataclysmic.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Animal Man
So after hitting on the champion of The Green yesterday, it should be little surprise that we're hitting on his Red equivalent today.
I think I have more good feelings about Morrison's run on Animal Man than I do about Moore's Swamp Thing simply because I didn't know much about Animal Man going in to it. I knew who Buddy Baker was, that he was some dude with animal powers, but beyond that, very little. But then, wasn't that the point of the British Invasion of DC comics? To take some of the "Hey, That Guy"s of the setting and flesh them out? Of course, what Morrison ended up doing was fleshing out his own concept of comics much more than he did Animal Man. Unlike Swamp Thing or Sandman, who became richer characters for their exposure to Moore and Gaiman, Animal Man sort of dwindled afterwards, the high school quarterback whose best days were far behind him.
Still, after "I Can See You!" there's really nowhere to go but down, back to being just another comicbook character again.
Unfortunately, we'll have to put Animal Man's meta-adventures behind us for the time being. We're building a stable universe here and we need a solid fourth wall, dammit! Buddy's origin remains largely the same - family man gets weird powers from aliens. In our version, Buddy gets his powers around the time he marries Ellen. Rather than off hunting as a teen, we'll have him encounter the aliens while separated from the rest of his camping party while on his bachelor weekend.
So why him? Simply put, the aliens just wanted to ask for directions. Unable to communicate with Buddy, they use a device to open his mind up to the field that permeates all living creatures. The theory here being that, if the human's mind is open to said field, the aliens should be able to communicate with him telepathically. Except they didn't plan for the amazing strength of Earth's Red field. Like I've said before, Earth's Red and Green are leaps and bounds more developed than similar fields on other planets. The aliens certainly did not expect that to happen, nor did they expect Buddy to flip out and slaughter them, rending their ship apart with his bear (heh) hands.
Yeah, so the Red was a bit unhappy at having a champion it didn't pick (natural selection and all that) thrust upon it - it was fine with Vixen - and it expressed its displeasure in messy, messy ways on the visiting aliens. Still, Buddy is a part of it now, no going back.
Buddy adopts his superhero persona of Animal Man for a time. We're talking, say, just over a half a Superman Unit ago. He fights local crimes and uses his powers to draw the abilities of nearby critters, unaware of the real potential of his powers. The Red isn't much for training, after all, so it takes an encounter with Vixen to really get a handle on what he can do. There's not a whole lot of time for that, however, as Ellen is pregnant and asks her husband to give up his dangerous hobby in order to ensure that he'll be there for their child. It's sad for Buddy, but he complies - seeing someone who can do everything he can do, only better, was kind of dispiriting. He retires, though he does keep using his powers, slowly working through what they are and what they can do, in secret.
Retirement is short lived, however. During a family trip to the city (let's say, Metropolis), the Baker family is caught up in one of the supervillain-caused disasters that make property values so low. Buddy leaps into action, using his powers to not only save his family, but other innocents nearby from being hurt as collateral damage as Superman battles, let's say, Metallo. A shared glance with his wife is the only permission he needs before he joins the fight, saving Superman and helping to contain the villain. Afterwards, Superman thanks Buddy in the presence of his family, laying on the whole "great power, great responsibility" guilt trip that he does so well. This causes Ellen to relent and Buddy is able to become a hero again.
So that's where we start with Issue #1 of Animal Man (#47/52). Buddy has been given spousal permission to become a hero again, but on the condition that he receive training so that he can do things as safe as possible. Of course, this means Vixen re-enters the picture, something that Ellen is not too pleased about (Vixen will be filling the role of Starfire from the recent DC comics). She trusts her husband when he says he's not interested, but is worried about that trust being tested by a predatory supermodel-slash-superhero with the ability to pump out pheromones like there's no tomorrow. And I don't want to make Ellen sound like a jealous shrew here - she has a right to be concerned. The Red is keen on the idea of two of its champions mating, perhaps starting a new line of superpowered humans, in an attempt to get a leg up on its Green rival. There are, after all, slight variations to Vixen's and Animal Man's powers - she can assume some physical traits (claws, etc) but is limited to living creatures only. Buddy's the reverse - he can get the bite of a Tyrannosaurus, but not the actual jaws. Both can tap into other human abilities (and 'aliens who have been accepted into the field' like Superman), a secret that Vixen warns Buddy to keep close to his chest indeed and use vary sparingly - assuming the powers of a sentient being also brings in their thought patterns and that way lies madness.
So there's Animal Man! His first story arc will be pretty conventional, standard Journey of the Hero stuff, picking up at the Supernatural Aid (Vixen) stage. It seems that the alien species whose members gave Buddy's powers to, and were murdered by, him want some answers. Buddy doesn't remember the slaughter, though, thinking he came upon some alien crash in the woods. And on top of that, he's got agents of The Green and newborn Grey to worry about.
Still, all that must pale in hardship compaired with raising a 6 year old daughter.
Who is starting to develop powers of her own.
I think I have more good feelings about Morrison's run on Animal Man than I do about Moore's Swamp Thing simply because I didn't know much about Animal Man going in to it. I knew who Buddy Baker was, that he was some dude with animal powers, but beyond that, very little. But then, wasn't that the point of the British Invasion of DC comics? To take some of the "Hey, That Guy"s of the setting and flesh them out? Of course, what Morrison ended up doing was fleshing out his own concept of comics much more than he did Animal Man. Unlike Swamp Thing or Sandman, who became richer characters for their exposure to Moore and Gaiman, Animal Man sort of dwindled afterwards, the high school quarterback whose best days were far behind him.
Still, after "I Can See You!" there's really nowhere to go but down, back to being just another comicbook character again.
Unfortunately, we'll have to put Animal Man's meta-adventures behind us for the time being. We're building a stable universe here and we need a solid fourth wall, dammit! Buddy's origin remains largely the same - family man gets weird powers from aliens. In our version, Buddy gets his powers around the time he marries Ellen. Rather than off hunting as a teen, we'll have him encounter the aliens while separated from the rest of his camping party while on his bachelor weekend.
So why him? Simply put, the aliens just wanted to ask for directions. Unable to communicate with Buddy, they use a device to open his mind up to the field that permeates all living creatures. The theory here being that, if the human's mind is open to said field, the aliens should be able to communicate with him telepathically. Except they didn't plan for the amazing strength of Earth's Red field. Like I've said before, Earth's Red and Green are leaps and bounds more developed than similar fields on other planets. The aliens certainly did not expect that to happen, nor did they expect Buddy to flip out and slaughter them, rending their ship apart with his bear (heh) hands.
Yeah, so the Red was a bit unhappy at having a champion it didn't pick (natural selection and all that) thrust upon it - it was fine with Vixen - and it expressed its displeasure in messy, messy ways on the visiting aliens. Still, Buddy is a part of it now, no going back.
Buddy adopts his superhero persona of Animal Man for a time. We're talking, say, just over a half a Superman Unit ago. He fights local crimes and uses his powers to draw the abilities of nearby critters, unaware of the real potential of his powers. The Red isn't much for training, after all, so it takes an encounter with Vixen to really get a handle on what he can do. There's not a whole lot of time for that, however, as Ellen is pregnant and asks her husband to give up his dangerous hobby in order to ensure that he'll be there for their child. It's sad for Buddy, but he complies - seeing someone who can do everything he can do, only better, was kind of dispiriting. He retires, though he does keep using his powers, slowly working through what they are and what they can do, in secret.
Retirement is short lived, however. During a family trip to the city (let's say, Metropolis), the Baker family is caught up in one of the supervillain-caused disasters that make property values so low. Buddy leaps into action, using his powers to not only save his family, but other innocents nearby from being hurt as collateral damage as Superman battles, let's say, Metallo. A shared glance with his wife is the only permission he needs before he joins the fight, saving Superman and helping to contain the villain. Afterwards, Superman thanks Buddy in the presence of his family, laying on the whole "great power, great responsibility" guilt trip that he does so well. This causes Ellen to relent and Buddy is able to become a hero again.
So that's where we start with Issue #1 of Animal Man (#47/52). Buddy has been given spousal permission to become a hero again, but on the condition that he receive training so that he can do things as safe as possible. Of course, this means Vixen re-enters the picture, something that Ellen is not too pleased about (Vixen will be filling the role of Starfire from the recent DC comics). She trusts her husband when he says he's not interested, but is worried about that trust being tested by a predatory supermodel-slash-superhero with the ability to pump out pheromones like there's no tomorrow. And I don't want to make Ellen sound like a jealous shrew here - she has a right to be concerned. The Red is keen on the idea of two of its champions mating, perhaps starting a new line of superpowered humans, in an attempt to get a leg up on its Green rival. There are, after all, slight variations to Vixen's and Animal Man's powers - she can assume some physical traits (claws, etc) but is limited to living creatures only. Buddy's the reverse - he can get the bite of a Tyrannosaurus, but not the actual jaws. Both can tap into other human abilities (and 'aliens who have been accepted into the field' like Superman), a secret that Vixen warns Buddy to keep close to his chest indeed and use vary sparingly - assuming the powers of a sentient being also brings in their thought patterns and that way lies madness.
So there's Animal Man! His first story arc will be pretty conventional, standard Journey of the Hero stuff, picking up at the Supernatural Aid (Vixen) stage. It seems that the alien species whose members gave Buddy's powers to, and were murdered by, him want some answers. Buddy doesn't remember the slaughter, though, thinking he came upon some alien crash in the woods. And on top of that, he's got agents of The Green and newborn Grey to worry about.
Still, all that must pale in hardship compaired with raising a 6 year old daughter.
Who is starting to develop powers of her own.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Swamp Thing
Again, we tread on hollowed ground. There have certainly been more famous, better written, and more world changing comics than Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, but I don't think there has been any comic as hallowed. Swamp Thing is sacred ground, a comic that reduced most Top 10 lists to Top 9 before they ever get written.
So let's kick over the baptismal font, pants the wizard in his cave, and reboot Swamp Thing.
At his root (heh), Swamp Thing has a pretty basic premise: Plant Monster. While that might not seem like much, it was enough to spawn Swamp Thing's brother-by-another-mother, Man-Thing, a year earlier, the Heap decades before, and shambling mounds, the D&D monster, years later. Clearly, the idea of some sort of primal plantlife aping humanity has some draw.
So how much of it can we change? Moore has already beaten us to the punch with his reveal that Swamp Thing was not a man who became a plant, but a plant who thought it had been a man. Our Swamp Thing will still be Alec Holland, a living breathing human, but the shambling plant creature that is Swamp Thing will be no more than an animated shell.
Alec Holland lies dreaming in the depths of the swamps. He chose to lay there, to rest and dream, following the death of his wife at the hands of her uncle's mad quest for immortality. Anton Arcane had trapped the previous Swamp Thing, using the creature's connection to The Green to attempt to upload his own consciousness to the world and thus live forever. When Abagail found out that the heap of plant matter she and her husband had been studying in the lab was actually a living, thinking being, she attempted to free it. Arcane stopped her with lethal force. Seeing his wife's passion through, Alec granted the vivisected Swamp Thing it's wish to die, ending it, severing any chance Arcane had of using it as a vessel to immortality.
Once a human touches The Green, though, it changes them. The Green simply does not let go. Alec's dreams began to change. He dreamed of his dead wife, which were understandable, but she told him things that were not. Abagail Arcane is part of The Green now and Alec can go to her in his sleep. The Green's touch, or rather its firm backhand, also affected Arcane - he can no longer consume plant matter without it making him violently ill, spores and pollen provoke allergic reactions to the Nth degree, and even touching a simple leaf causes him to break out in hives.
Lead on by the plant-ghost of his dead wife, Alec takes on the mantle of Swamp Thing. Not wishing to subject its new champion to the same fate as its previous, The Green does not change Alec into a shambling mound. Instead, it grants him the ability to shape his own mossy golem from plant matter while he sleeps. Swamp Thing can appear almost anywhere there is sufficient plant life, controlled remotely by a dreaming Alec Holland (the implications of this and of Alec's growing dependance on plant-based sleeping aids that allow him to "stay under" longer will be explored in the series). Alec is an agent of The Green now, its knight in shining tuber. Guided by the ghost of his dead wife (is she real? a hallucination?) Alec works to defend The Green from its greatest threats, Anton Arcane (who has found a way to disrupt the harmony of The Green) and The Red.
Yes, that's the same Red that gives heroes Animal Man and Vixen their powers. Remember that The Red and The Green are rivals and it's that conflict that drives each to improve themselves. Think of them like England and France in the middle ages. Sure, they'll team up against an external threat (the Ottomans, say, to torture the example), but most of the time they're at each others' throats. Consider that The Green has other agents, ones that are widely regarded as villains like Poison Ivy and The Floronic Man. So what happens if Vixen tries to stop Poison Ivy from, say, turning a populated city block of Gotham into a new rainforest? Swamp Thing could easily be called in to assist the villainess. Alec will have to walk a fine line with his duties to The Green on one side and his basic humanity on the other.
Still, for the first story of Swamp Thing (#46/52), we'll keep the focus on Arcane, who due to The Green's curse, has had to turn to other options to achieve his goal of living forever. Weirder options.
So let's kick over the baptismal font, pants the wizard in his cave, and reboot Swamp Thing.
At his root (heh), Swamp Thing has a pretty basic premise: Plant Monster. While that might not seem like much, it was enough to spawn Swamp Thing's brother-by-another-mother, Man-Thing, a year earlier, the Heap decades before, and shambling mounds, the D&D monster, years later. Clearly, the idea of some sort of primal plantlife aping humanity has some draw.
So how much of it can we change? Moore has already beaten us to the punch with his reveal that Swamp Thing was not a man who became a plant, but a plant who thought it had been a man. Our Swamp Thing will still be Alec Holland, a living breathing human, but the shambling plant creature that is Swamp Thing will be no more than an animated shell.
Alec Holland lies dreaming in the depths of the swamps. He chose to lay there, to rest and dream, following the death of his wife at the hands of her uncle's mad quest for immortality. Anton Arcane had trapped the previous Swamp Thing, using the creature's connection to The Green to attempt to upload his own consciousness to the world and thus live forever. When Abagail found out that the heap of plant matter she and her husband had been studying in the lab was actually a living, thinking being, she attempted to free it. Arcane stopped her with lethal force. Seeing his wife's passion through, Alec granted the vivisected Swamp Thing it's wish to die, ending it, severing any chance Arcane had of using it as a vessel to immortality.
Once a human touches The Green, though, it changes them. The Green simply does not let go. Alec's dreams began to change. He dreamed of his dead wife, which were understandable, but she told him things that were not. Abagail Arcane is part of The Green now and Alec can go to her in his sleep. The Green's touch, or rather its firm backhand, also affected Arcane - he can no longer consume plant matter without it making him violently ill, spores and pollen provoke allergic reactions to the Nth degree, and even touching a simple leaf causes him to break out in hives.
Lead on by the plant-ghost of his dead wife, Alec takes on the mantle of Swamp Thing. Not wishing to subject its new champion to the same fate as its previous, The Green does not change Alec into a shambling mound. Instead, it grants him the ability to shape his own mossy golem from plant matter while he sleeps. Swamp Thing can appear almost anywhere there is sufficient plant life, controlled remotely by a dreaming Alec Holland (the implications of this and of Alec's growing dependance on plant-based sleeping aids that allow him to "stay under" longer will be explored in the series). Alec is an agent of The Green now, its knight in shining tuber. Guided by the ghost of his dead wife (is she real? a hallucination?) Alec works to defend The Green from its greatest threats, Anton Arcane (who has found a way to disrupt the harmony of The Green) and The Red.
Yes, that's the same Red that gives heroes Animal Man and Vixen their powers. Remember that The Red and The Green are rivals and it's that conflict that drives each to improve themselves. Think of them like England and France in the middle ages. Sure, they'll team up against an external threat (the Ottomans, say, to torture the example), but most of the time they're at each others' throats. Consider that The Green has other agents, ones that are widely regarded as villains like Poison Ivy and The Floronic Man. So what happens if Vixen tries to stop Poison Ivy from, say, turning a populated city block of Gotham into a new rainforest? Swamp Thing could easily be called in to assist the villainess. Alec will have to walk a fine line with his duties to The Green on one side and his basic humanity on the other.
Still, for the first story of Swamp Thing (#46/52), we'll keep the focus on Arcane, who due to The Green's curse, has had to turn to other options to achieve his goal of living forever. Weirder options.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Camelot 3000
First up, sorry for the spotty posting schedule. August is the month where I realize that the idle days of summer are almost over so take as much vacation as humanly possible in order to prevent madness come September. Still, only 6 more titles to go after today!
Back in the early 80s, DC went out on a limb and tried something new: the maxi-series. Today, we'd look at Camelot 3000's limited 12 issue run as nothing so strange. There are a host of titles today conceived and written as finite stories, rather than the ongoing sagas most conventional stories become. Some of these limited series sort of shift into the later category as they become popular before overstaying their welcome (Marvel Zombies, I'm looking at you), while some unlimited series suddenly get limits due to poor sales.
One interesting thing to note about Camelot 3000 is that as an out-of-continuity run it is in some way a precursor to titles like Gaiman's Sandman or the rest of the Vertigo titles. Of course, for our reboot of Camelot, we'll need it to be in-continuity, otherwise it wouldn't actually be part of the Drewniverse. This raises some problems- the series can't be set in the future (for the same reason Legion titles can't) and it would need to have a story engine capable of driving the plot on for more than 12 issues.
While I recognize characters like Knight and Squire exist (and may still exist in the Drewniverse, were it not for the riots in London. The idea of a hoodie-wearing yoof being taken under the wing as the Squire of an upperclass Knight had some attraction.), having a host of dudes running around with swords doing battle would stick out like a sore thumb in a modern setting. Plus, I would be concerned that they wouldn't stay their "own thing" for long - we'd end up with Superman/Arthur teamups. So we have to find a way for our Camelot to be of the Drewniverse, but not totally part of it. Tricky, tricky.
Turning to recent history, this of-not-part status has recently been achieved in the death/rebirth of the New Gods. Darkseid the planetary tyrant was reborn as Dark Side the crime boss, for example. We're skipping that in the Drewniverse, obviously, as we have Intergang running around supplying weapons to the criminal element and Barda running for her life from the Furies, but surely we could take the idea that there is a secret world, a secret struggle that exists just a half-step from our own? We could even tie in a few legacy DC characters, giving them roles in the Secret World of the Drewniverse.
At the conjunction of secret worlds and Arthurian characters sits the works of Tim Powers, specifically The Drawing of the Dark, Last Call, Expiration Date, and Earthquake Weather. I heartily recommend the first two (ED and ER are demi-sequels to Last Call). The Drawing of the Dark is about beer, Arthur, and the battle between East and West set in the Siege of Vienna during the 16th century. Last Call is about the battle to become the spiritual king of the American West via a mystical card game. Both works focus on the symbiotic relationship between a king and the land. When one prospers, so does the other. When one falters, the same.
Hey, that sounds a lot like Uncle Sam, the embodiment of the American Idea, that's been running around the DC universe with the Freedom Fighters for several decades. I think we have our hook!
Okay, so something that our Founding Fathers understood was that for a nation to succeed, it needs some sort of mystical zeitgeist to provide a sort of spiritual underpinning to the idea of national identity. So after winning the Revolution, they were quick to use their Masonic rites to establish an embodiment of their new nation, otherwise they'd risk getting rolled over by the identities of the other nations whose tired and hungry would become Americans. So it was not enough for the Americans to beat the British and then defend against later counterattacks, they also had to somehow defeat the idea of Rule Britannia and then keep her out. Otherwise, the nation would naturally drift back into the English fold. Britannia herself was defeated (or at least, kept from meddling too much in the Revolution) by the involvement of French and Native American zeitgeists that the Founding Fathers were able to rally/bribe to their cause when those allies physically joined the fight. Obviously, these zeitgeists got the short end of the stick as a reward for their troubles - the French power was changed by contact with the revolutionary ideals and soon split into the triumvirate of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité while the Native American spirits got sort of stomped on.
Anyways, Uncle Sam, or at least the Spirit of America who would become Uncle Sam was created. The Founding Fathers didn't quite grasp what they were doing, so the door through which the spirit entered our world remained open, thus allowing future incarnations to enter and take form. I'm not sure what these entities are, although the whole "beings shaped by will or belief" does sound pretty similar to Ion and Parallax and that set. Something to think about for the future - what if there is indeed an Entity sleeping beneath the Earth and it's these national zeitgeists that are bleeding off its power, keeping it down? So the End of Days would really be a one-world government, which would kill off the zeitgeists and rouse the slumbering Outer God.
Still, that'd be far in the future. For the time being, let's focus on our Arthur, Uncle Sam. At this point in America's history, we've moved beyond the Once and Future King days of Young Wart and into the more established period of the Chansons de Geste where the knights of the round table go out and do great deeds, fight great evils, and love great loves. So our Uncle Sam rules his Court of America from his mountain fastness located in Mount Rushmore. He's still advised by his Merlin, the ghost of Benjamin Franklin, who helped bring him into the world in the first place.
His knights represent cultural movements, geographical identities, and other American concepts and they travel the nation questing for adventure in their own particular idioms. The knights and courtiers don't really change, but they do evolve over time. So Lancelot, a cowboy representation of the American West, doesn't ride a horse anymore - instead he has a motorcycle. Kay, Arthur's older irascible brother and representation of New England, has been a John Adams-like gentleman farmer, a whaler, and is currently a Southie bravo straight out of The Town. Guinevere is the Heartland and when she fell out of love with her Arthur, the nation suffered through the Dust Bowl.
Mordred is a greasy lobbying politico, the worm at the heart of court. The Black Knight, who in Arthurian legend chained his wife up, was the incarnation of slavery and was defeated by Percival, freedom, who has been an abolitionist and civil rights leader on his quest for the American Grail (aka the American Dream). Galahad came into existence as a suffragette and continues to strive for women's rights and equality between the sexes ("Never shall a man take me hence.." begins the inscription on her sword). Gawain, who is both tamer and steward of the the Green Knight that is the American Wilderness, has shed his Teddy Roosevelt mustache for the dreadlocks of an eco-warrior. Tristan and Isolde, the Mississippi and Delta, continue their love affair, and the knight seeks to redress the wrongs visited upon his love. Dagonet, the court jester, is a reality TV star of Jersey Shore proportions (That's Dago-dot-net, yo). Gareth is industry, Bedivere is science, and so on. Each character will have abilities, sometimes supernatural, in accordance with their particular idiom.
Obviously, in the comic, we'll be changing the names where we can. Lancelot's role as the Vigilante could be a surprise reveal kept until later. We'd let Vigilante appear in other comics as a guest or team-up, while in Camelot (#45/52) he'll be spoken of as "out questing." Other characters, such as Mordred, could appear in other comics with little need to reveal who they really are.
Our point of view character will be a newly incarnated zeitgeist - she'll start her existence as a street urchin named Lenore before it's revealed that she's Sir Pellinore, spirit of the quest. Her incarnation will be a direct result to the inclusion of superheroes into the American cultural mindset and as such, she'd have a pretty decent powerset - strength, speed, durability, and most importantly, the ability to locate people and objects, which will quickly make her in demand both at court and in the Drewniverse at large.
Story-wise, we'll be looking to Sandman for inspiration and titles such as Hawk and Dove for commentary. The fundamental question of this title is What Makes Up America? And while I can see how this may be a big question for comics to tackle, given all the recent fooferaw about new Spider-Men, Superman's citizenship, and so on, I think there is at least room in comicbook pages to ask the question.
Back in the early 80s, DC went out on a limb and tried something new: the maxi-series. Today, we'd look at Camelot 3000's limited 12 issue run as nothing so strange. There are a host of titles today conceived and written as finite stories, rather than the ongoing sagas most conventional stories become. Some of these limited series sort of shift into the later category as they become popular before overstaying their welcome (Marvel Zombies, I'm looking at you), while some unlimited series suddenly get limits due to poor sales.
One interesting thing to note about Camelot 3000 is that as an out-of-continuity run it is in some way a precursor to titles like Gaiman's Sandman or the rest of the Vertigo titles. Of course, for our reboot of Camelot, we'll need it to be in-continuity, otherwise it wouldn't actually be part of the Drewniverse. This raises some problems- the series can't be set in the future (for the same reason Legion titles can't) and it would need to have a story engine capable of driving the plot on for more than 12 issues.
While I recognize characters like Knight and Squire exist (and may still exist in the Drewniverse, were it not for the riots in London. The idea of a hoodie-wearing yoof being taken under the wing as the Squire of an upperclass Knight had some attraction.), having a host of dudes running around with swords doing battle would stick out like a sore thumb in a modern setting. Plus, I would be concerned that they wouldn't stay their "own thing" for long - we'd end up with Superman/Arthur teamups. So we have to find a way for our Camelot to be of the Drewniverse, but not totally part of it. Tricky, tricky.
Turning to recent history, this of-not-part status has recently been achieved in the death/rebirth of the New Gods. Darkseid the planetary tyrant was reborn as Dark Side the crime boss, for example. We're skipping that in the Drewniverse, obviously, as we have Intergang running around supplying weapons to the criminal element and Barda running for her life from the Furies, but surely we could take the idea that there is a secret world, a secret struggle that exists just a half-step from our own? We could even tie in a few legacy DC characters, giving them roles in the Secret World of the Drewniverse.
At the conjunction of secret worlds and Arthurian characters sits the works of Tim Powers, specifically The Drawing of the Dark, Last Call, Expiration Date, and Earthquake Weather. I heartily recommend the first two (ED and ER are demi-sequels to Last Call). The Drawing of the Dark is about beer, Arthur, and the battle between East and West set in the Siege of Vienna during the 16th century. Last Call is about the battle to become the spiritual king of the American West via a mystical card game. Both works focus on the symbiotic relationship between a king and the land. When one prospers, so does the other. When one falters, the same.
Hey, that sounds a lot like Uncle Sam, the embodiment of the American Idea, that's been running around the DC universe with the Freedom Fighters for several decades. I think we have our hook!
Okay, so something that our Founding Fathers understood was that for a nation to succeed, it needs some sort of mystical zeitgeist to provide a sort of spiritual underpinning to the idea of national identity. So after winning the Revolution, they were quick to use their Masonic rites to establish an embodiment of their new nation, otherwise they'd risk getting rolled over by the identities of the other nations whose tired and hungry would become Americans. So it was not enough for the Americans to beat the British and then defend against later counterattacks, they also had to somehow defeat the idea of Rule Britannia and then keep her out. Otherwise, the nation would naturally drift back into the English fold. Britannia herself was defeated (or at least, kept from meddling too much in the Revolution) by the involvement of French and Native American zeitgeists that the Founding Fathers were able to rally/bribe to their cause when those allies physically joined the fight. Obviously, these zeitgeists got the short end of the stick as a reward for their troubles - the French power was changed by contact with the revolutionary ideals and soon split into the triumvirate of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité while the Native American spirits got sort of stomped on.
Anyways, Uncle Sam, or at least the Spirit of America who would become Uncle Sam was created. The Founding Fathers didn't quite grasp what they were doing, so the door through which the spirit entered our world remained open, thus allowing future incarnations to enter and take form. I'm not sure what these entities are, although the whole "beings shaped by will or belief" does sound pretty similar to Ion and Parallax and that set. Something to think about for the future - what if there is indeed an Entity sleeping beneath the Earth and it's these national zeitgeists that are bleeding off its power, keeping it down? So the End of Days would really be a one-world government, which would kill off the zeitgeists and rouse the slumbering Outer God.
Still, that'd be far in the future. For the time being, let's focus on our Arthur, Uncle Sam. At this point in America's history, we've moved beyond the Once and Future King days of Young Wart and into the more established period of the Chansons de Geste where the knights of the round table go out and do great deeds, fight great evils, and love great loves. So our Uncle Sam rules his Court of America from his mountain fastness located in Mount Rushmore. He's still advised by his Merlin, the ghost of Benjamin Franklin, who helped bring him into the world in the first place.
His knights represent cultural movements, geographical identities, and other American concepts and they travel the nation questing for adventure in their own particular idioms. The knights and courtiers don't really change, but they do evolve over time. So Lancelot, a cowboy representation of the American West, doesn't ride a horse anymore - instead he has a motorcycle. Kay, Arthur's older irascible brother and representation of New England, has been a John Adams-like gentleman farmer, a whaler, and is currently a Southie bravo straight out of The Town. Guinevere is the Heartland and when she fell out of love with her Arthur, the nation suffered through the Dust Bowl.
Mordred is a greasy lobbying politico, the worm at the heart of court. The Black Knight, who in Arthurian legend chained his wife up, was the incarnation of slavery and was defeated by Percival, freedom, who has been an abolitionist and civil rights leader on his quest for the American Grail (aka the American Dream). Galahad came into existence as a suffragette and continues to strive for women's rights and equality between the sexes ("Never shall a man take me hence.." begins the inscription on her sword). Gawain, who is both tamer and steward of the the Green Knight that is the American Wilderness, has shed his Teddy Roosevelt mustache for the dreadlocks of an eco-warrior. Tristan and Isolde, the Mississippi and Delta, continue their love affair, and the knight seeks to redress the wrongs visited upon his love. Dagonet, the court jester, is a reality TV star of Jersey Shore proportions (That's Dago-dot-net, yo). Gareth is industry, Bedivere is science, and so on. Each character will have abilities, sometimes supernatural, in accordance with their particular idiom.
Obviously, in the comic, we'll be changing the names where we can. Lancelot's role as the Vigilante could be a surprise reveal kept until later. We'd let Vigilante appear in other comics as a guest or team-up, while in Camelot (#45/52) he'll be spoken of as "out questing." Other characters, such as Mordred, could appear in other comics with little need to reveal who they really are.
Our point of view character will be a newly incarnated zeitgeist - she'll start her existence as a street urchin named Lenore before it's revealed that she's Sir Pellinore, spirit of the quest. Her incarnation will be a direct result to the inclusion of superheroes into the American cultural mindset and as such, she'd have a pretty decent powerset - strength, speed, durability, and most importantly, the ability to locate people and objects, which will quickly make her in demand both at court and in the Drewniverse at large.
Story-wise, we'll be looking to Sandman for inspiration and titles such as Hawk and Dove for commentary. The fundamental question of this title is What Makes Up America? And while I can see how this may be a big question for comics to tackle, given all the recent fooferaw about new Spider-Men, Superman's citizenship, and so on, I think there is at least room in comicbook pages to ask the question.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Batwoman
One area where I think DC has a leg up over the Drewniverse is in its backing off of this being an actual reboot on their part. This allows them some degree of mealy-mouthed spin which leads to some characters being rebooted entirely, while others are barely touched, their histories intact yet weirdly compacted. I don't think this will make for a solid continuity going forward, but hey, if a reboot brings in the bucks, why would they want to build their castles on anything but sand? The reboot can be an annual event like the CrossOver Calamities of Marvel with the added benefit that it doesn't require a whole lot of in-story justification behind it.
Truly, the Age of the Infinite Reboot is upon us. It will be an age of chaos and change. This is not a bad thing, mind you, we do need our shake-ups to keep things from stagnating. I wonder, though, how long until things begin to follow the Marvel approach of The Truth being what people see on the big screen, not what's happened in the comics for the past umpteen generations. I spent a good amount of time this weekend watching Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes above the plaintive wails of my teething son and noticed that the Robert Downey Jr version of Tony Stark is already starting to crystallize. With no Justice League cartoons or other DCAU shows in production right now, comic versions of DC characters may be losing headway to their silver screen'd counterparts. It's all in flux.
So speaking of flux, let's look at the Batwoman. She's been up in the air for some time, having been wiped away by editorial fiat and Infinite Crisis then reinvented to controversy. Hell, even the status of her comic's publication has been in flux for a few years, issues seeming to come out based on the strength of J.H. Williams' covers more than anything.
Let's keep that flux and confusion going with the Batwoman of the Drewniverse. That is to say, our Batwoman is not Batwoman. She's Hourman. But does that matter? There seems to be a need, both in the setting and in our comicbook shops, for there to be a Batwoman. So when a caped and cowled figure shows up in Gotham City soon after Batgirl's retirement, the media is quick to say, "Ah! There she is! It's not Batgirl any more, it's Batwoman!"
Of course, that's completely incorrect. Barbara Gordon is off trying to decide if she wants to be a space cowboy with the rest of the Lantern Corps. Chandra Chaturvedi did not come to Gotham City to become the new Batwoman. Hell, she had been calling herself Garuda as she stalked the night in her native Mumbai, seeking the criminals that caused the destruction of her laboratory and the death of her coworkers. Still, you can get a lot more done in Gotham with a bat-prefix than without, so it did not take much to let the name stick.
Anyways, let's dial it back a bit. Dr. Chandra Chaturvedi worked for the second largest pharmaceutical company in all of India. She was a hotshot researcher on whose shoulders her company's hopes of becoming number one rested. When she developed a new drug, a miracle drug, if you will, that seemed to increase the user's physical stamina to peak human potential, she was all set for fame, fortune, and maybe even a Nobel Prize. Imagine a drug you could give to a patient in recovery that would speed healing, one you could give to firefighters or rescue workers (and yes, even soldiers) that would give them the edge they need to get in and out of dangerous situations in one piece. Sounds great, right? Sure, you can only use it at for an hour or so before it flushed itself from your system and sure, you had to wait at least another hour before taking another done lest the toxins build up and cause you harm, but an hour of power is better than none, right?
Totally right. Unfortunately, it turned out that there already was a super-drug out on the market - a little serum dubbed 'Venom' and the folks that controlled its production and distribution were not exactly thrilled at having a widely released competitor. Turns out the chemical composition of the two products was pretty similar. Hrm. Strange, that.
So her lab is attacked, her coworkers killed, and Chandra resorts to taking her own drug in order to escape. Big explosions cover up the fact that the raiders stole research and patent information and everyone assumes Dr. Chaturvedi died in the "terrorist attack" as well. After escaping and finding her own home ransacked, Chandra returns to her company's HQ to try to figure out what the hell is going on, only to see several of the same men who attacked the lab hanging around HQ like they belong there.
That night, Chandra returned to HQ with the help of her remaining supply of her miracle drug. Breaking into the lab, she discovered that her research was being funneled to the makers of a drug codenamed VENOM and that it was they who demanded that her research be shut down. At that moment, Garuda was born, named after the mythological winged enemy of venomous snakes everywhere as Chandra swore vengeance on those who not only killed innocent people, but stole her research and perverted it for their own gain.
Eventually, the trail lead to Gotham City where coincidence and an over-active tabloid media renamed Garuda as Batwoman. By the time we hit Issue #1 of Batwoman (#44/52), Chandra has moved on from Gotham and is temporarily set up in Opal City on the trail of one of the button men of the criminal organization she's been fighting. While she has amassed a good amount of crimefighting gear over the years (Bruce Wayne is generous with his resources and seeing how he has no use for armor cut for a female at the moment...), she still needs lab access to make more Miraclo. Currently, she's set up at a clinic run by one Dr. Beth Chapel, exchanging time spent helping others in return for lab access. Beth also serves as nice sounding board to let Chandra get her backstory out.
And gee, I wonder what will happen to Dr. Chapel when Copperhead decides to go from hunted to hunter?
Truly, the Age of the Infinite Reboot is upon us. It will be an age of chaos and change. This is not a bad thing, mind you, we do need our shake-ups to keep things from stagnating. I wonder, though, how long until things begin to follow the Marvel approach of The Truth being what people see on the big screen, not what's happened in the comics for the past umpteen generations. I spent a good amount of time this weekend watching Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes above the plaintive wails of my teething son and noticed that the Robert Downey Jr version of Tony Stark is already starting to crystallize. With no Justice League cartoons or other DCAU shows in production right now, comic versions of DC characters may be losing headway to their silver screen'd counterparts. It's all in flux.
So speaking of flux, let's look at the Batwoman. She's been up in the air for some time, having been wiped away by editorial fiat and Infinite Crisis then reinvented to controversy. Hell, even the status of her comic's publication has been in flux for a few years, issues seeming to come out based on the strength of J.H. Williams' covers more than anything.
Let's keep that flux and confusion going with the Batwoman of the Drewniverse. That is to say, our Batwoman is not Batwoman. She's Hourman. But does that matter? There seems to be a need, both in the setting and in our comicbook shops, for there to be a Batwoman. So when a caped and cowled figure shows up in Gotham City soon after Batgirl's retirement, the media is quick to say, "Ah! There she is! It's not Batgirl any more, it's Batwoman!"
Of course, that's completely incorrect. Barbara Gordon is off trying to decide if she wants to be a space cowboy with the rest of the Lantern Corps. Chandra Chaturvedi did not come to Gotham City to become the new Batwoman. Hell, she had been calling herself Garuda as she stalked the night in her native Mumbai, seeking the criminals that caused the destruction of her laboratory and the death of her coworkers. Still, you can get a lot more done in Gotham with a bat-prefix than without, so it did not take much to let the name stick.
Anyways, let's dial it back a bit. Dr. Chandra Chaturvedi worked for the second largest pharmaceutical company in all of India. She was a hotshot researcher on whose shoulders her company's hopes of becoming number one rested. When she developed a new drug, a miracle drug, if you will, that seemed to increase the user's physical stamina to peak human potential, she was all set for fame, fortune, and maybe even a Nobel Prize. Imagine a drug you could give to a patient in recovery that would speed healing, one you could give to firefighters or rescue workers (and yes, even soldiers) that would give them the edge they need to get in and out of dangerous situations in one piece. Sounds great, right? Sure, you can only use it at for an hour or so before it flushed itself from your system and sure, you had to wait at least another hour before taking another done lest the toxins build up and cause you harm, but an hour of power is better than none, right?
Totally right. Unfortunately, it turned out that there already was a super-drug out on the market - a little serum dubbed 'Venom' and the folks that controlled its production and distribution were not exactly thrilled at having a widely released competitor. Turns out the chemical composition of the two products was pretty similar. Hrm. Strange, that.
So her lab is attacked, her coworkers killed, and Chandra resorts to taking her own drug in order to escape. Big explosions cover up the fact that the raiders stole research and patent information and everyone assumes Dr. Chaturvedi died in the "terrorist attack" as well. After escaping and finding her own home ransacked, Chandra returns to her company's HQ to try to figure out what the hell is going on, only to see several of the same men who attacked the lab hanging around HQ like they belong there.
That night, Chandra returned to HQ with the help of her remaining supply of her miracle drug. Breaking into the lab, she discovered that her research was being funneled to the makers of a drug codenamed VENOM and that it was they who demanded that her research be shut down. At that moment, Garuda was born, named after the mythological winged enemy of venomous snakes everywhere as Chandra swore vengeance on those who not only killed innocent people, but stole her research and perverted it for their own gain.
Eventually, the trail lead to Gotham City where coincidence and an over-active tabloid media renamed Garuda as Batwoman. By the time we hit Issue #1 of Batwoman (#44/52), Chandra has moved on from Gotham and is temporarily set up in Opal City on the trail of one of the button men of the criminal organization she's been fighting. While she has amassed a good amount of crimefighting gear over the years (Bruce Wayne is generous with his resources and seeing how he has no use for armor cut for a female at the moment...), she still needs lab access to make more Miraclo. Currently, she's set up at a clinic run by one Dr. Beth Chapel, exchanging time spent helping others in return for lab access. Beth also serves as nice sounding board to let Chandra get her backstory out.
And gee, I wonder what will happen to Dr. Chapel when Copperhead decides to go from hunted to hunter?
Friday, August 12, 2011
Frankenstein
As I've said before, I read my comics mainly in trade form. For the DC reboot, I might pick up a run of issues of a particular titles (stupid iPad has its hooks in me - I read the Red Robin series on it recently and had a good time), but only after reading a bunch of reviews and waiting until a narrative arc finishes.
The only exception will be Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE, which I will buy Day Of Release.
Why? Well, for one, it's about Frankenstein's Monster teaming up with a bunch of the Creature Commandos to fight evil. This smacks of Hellboy and even if it's only 80% as good as Hellboy, that still makes it 100% better than most of the comics out there.
Second, there's a scene in the recent Flashpoint Frankenstein tie-in where Frankie wakes up in WWII, tracks down Hitler, and chops his head off.
Sold. If you only buy one NuDC comic, please buy this one.
Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE (#43/52) will be the only DC Reboot title to make it into the Drewniverse unchanged based on those two points alone.
The only exception will be Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE, which I will buy Day Of Release.
Why? Well, for one, it's about Frankenstein's Monster teaming up with a bunch of the Creature Commandos to fight evil. This smacks of Hellboy and even if it's only 80% as good as Hellboy, that still makes it 100% better than most of the comics out there.
Second, there's a scene in the recent Flashpoint Frankenstein tie-in where Frankie wakes up in WWII, tracks down Hitler, and chops his head off.
Sold. If you only buy one NuDC comic, please buy this one.
Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE (#43/52) will be the only DC Reboot title to make it into the Drewniverse unchanged based on those two points alone.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
The Global Guardians
Back in the Justice League, I mentioned the existence of a United Nations sponsored superhero team. Well, the Global Guardians are it. In the Drewniverse, they'll be taking the role of the old Justice League International - that dimness that lets the light of the Justice League glow brighter by comparison.
Created by the United Nations in response to the formation of the Justice League, the Guardians' first mission was to serve as a counter balance. Nations who did not have members in the League, or who were worried by who the League chose to include, needed some reassurance that they were not being left behind. The United Nations, worried that a perceived "superhero gap" could start an arms race, quickly stepped in to create the Guardians. While this has reassured many nations, the arms race is still occurring, covertly.
One of the reasons that various nations are attempting their own state-sponsored hero programs is that, well, the Guardians are sort of a joke. Beggars can't be choosers, but even someone trapped in a burning building imagines themselves being saved by Superman, not Doctor Mist or the Huntsman or whomever. Combine that with the "team creation by committee" aspect of the Guardians, and you have a team that is definitely not the best at what they do, even though they've been vetted by diplomats and PR flacks.
Unlike the Justice League, who choose their own members and actually pay attention to things like tactical considerations and personal interaction, membership in the Global Guardians is decided by committee and rotations, much like the UN Security Council. Like the UNSC, there are a set of 'permanent' heroes on the team and a set of 'rotating' members. The Permanent heroes roughly correspond to their Security Council counterparts (the glaring exception being the USA) and are on the team unless the UN votes them off (which would be pretty hard to do). They are:
So what do the Global Guardians spend their time doing? Not guarding much of anything, that's for sure. Photo ops, acting as 'superhero ambassadors,' and relief work seems to be their main duty, a fact that frustrates most of the team. This frustration will eventually boil over during the first story arc (after a montage of heroes being stopped from actually helping anyone) as the team tries to slip its leash and actually act like heroes. To be a Global Guardian is to be fake at best, frustrated at worst.
Of course, as team members rotate out, Doctor Mist might have a few words with them about other... opportunities... that might be available for honest men and women who want to help change the world for the better. Several previous rotating members may have already taken the old man up on his offer, so at the end of the first arc when the current crop of rotating heroes depart, our focus will follow Fire as she shifts to a more covert team of global guardians tasked with guarding the planet against its biggest threat:
Humanity.
Created by the United Nations in response to the formation of the Justice League, the Guardians' first mission was to serve as a counter balance. Nations who did not have members in the League, or who were worried by who the League chose to include, needed some reassurance that they were not being left behind. The United Nations, worried that a perceived "superhero gap" could start an arms race, quickly stepped in to create the Guardians. While this has reassured many nations, the arms race is still occurring, covertly.
One of the reasons that various nations are attempting their own state-sponsored hero programs is that, well, the Guardians are sort of a joke. Beggars can't be choosers, but even someone trapped in a burning building imagines themselves being saved by Superman, not Doctor Mist or the Huntsman or whomever. Combine that with the "team creation by committee" aspect of the Guardians, and you have a team that is definitely not the best at what they do, even though they've been vetted by diplomats and PR flacks.
Unlike the Justice League, who choose their own members and actually pay attention to things like tactical considerations and personal interaction, membership in the Global Guardians is decided by committee and rotations, much like the UN Security Council. Like the UNSC, there are a set of 'permanent' heroes on the team and a set of 'rotating' members. The Permanent heroes roughly correspond to their Security Council counterparts (the glaring exception being the USA) and are on the team unless the UN votes them off (which would be pretty hard to do). They are:
- Doctor Mist (USA) - The glaring exception and the leader of the team. We've seen the Doc before in the Immortals entry. An immortal wizard-king from Africa, Doctor Mist has stepped into the world of heroes, seemingly because the US thought it would be a great PR move to give "a first round draft pick to the developing nations that need it so much" (actually, they wouldn't want to waste one of their headliners on a UN joke). Most other heroes encountering Doctor Mist in this role think him befuddled at worst, slumming it at best. Of course, the Doc is playing a long game here. His secret plans for the team will help drive some of the action of the series. His powers are of the standard Wizarding Set - illusions, gem enchantment, alchemy, etc.
- Crimson Fox (France) - A pair of super-speedsters teaming up to fill in the same role. The nature of Constance and Vivian's power is such that only one of the two can use it at a time, so they sort of trade off. How fast they can go is proportional to the distance between them, which makes teaming up together rather impractical. Their pheromone powers are sort of wasted when it comes to Vivian, who's gay, and Constance, who's married, so they tend to not publicize that they even have them, let alone use them. Being in the team is a huge strain on their family relationships given the distance they have to establish while "at work."
- Saint Peter (Russia) - Just because he is called a saint does not mean Peter is one. It's just a name, of course, but a much better one than the one he used to have. A cybernetic supersoldier, Peter is the team's "heavy" and provided a level of brooding danger that the PR flacks say appeals to the youth of today. Not much is said about Peter's past as it is not very well known - he's undergone so many upgrades that anyone who actually knew this relic of Cold War menace wouldn't be able to identify him now.
- Celestial Archer (China) - When her brother, the first Celestial Archer, died protecting the city of Harbin from the Immortal Demon of Winter, his powers passed down to his younger sister Chang'e. Fresh faced and naive, she takes her great power and responsibility very seriously. However, there is a package waiting for her, another gift from her brother sent after his death. In the package is a journal detailing not only the corruption of the Chinese Super Functionaries system, but a flaw in the Mandate of Heaven that grants the Archer her powers.
- Jack O'Lantern (United Kingdom) - Born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, Jack was picked by the UK as a way of reaching out to their Irish cousins - who, of course, were very quick to point out how orange a jack o"lantern is. Jack brings strength, agility, and Irish wit to the team. His lantern, a pumpkin mounted on a staff, when lit causes those cast in its light to tell the truth (it also dispels illusions, breaks codes, and translates texts) and can shoot fire out of its mouth. It sometimes talks to Jack, but only he can hear it.
So what do the Global Guardians spend their time doing? Not guarding much of anything, that's for sure. Photo ops, acting as 'superhero ambassadors,' and relief work seems to be their main duty, a fact that frustrates most of the team. This frustration will eventually boil over during the first story arc (after a montage of heroes being stopped from actually helping anyone) as the team tries to slip its leash and actually act like heroes. To be a Global Guardian is to be fake at best, frustrated at worst.
Of course, as team members rotate out, Doctor Mist might have a few words with them about other... opportunities... that might be available for honest men and women who want to help change the world for the better. Several previous rotating members may have already taken the old man up on his offer, so at the end of the first arc when the current crop of rotating heroes depart, our focus will follow Fire as she shifts to a more covert team of global guardians tasked with guarding the planet against its biggest threat:
Humanity.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Wildcat
So yesterday, I presented a Legion of Super-Heroes that filled some of the vacuum left by the lack of the Justice Society of America. It's an unfortunate consequence of time that the characters of the JSA, and to some degree the Golden Age, cannot come along for the ride. The JSA is so tied to a particular era that stretching them to the modern age strains even the limits of comicbook credibility. Sure, sure, we have time travel and the like at hand to bring the characters themselves up to the present, but pop culture's memories of the time just before and after World War II are so dim that the grounding of the JSA crumbles.
Not every Golden Age character need meet the same fate as the JSA. The Trinity survived and stayed vital to comics, reborn in the Silver Age after the nation's fascination with crime and horror comics got Wertham'd away. Unfortunately for Golden Age Flash and Green Lantern, those early reboots fundamentally changed the characters, abandoning Jay and Alan back to the mists of history. This fate does not apply to all of the JSA, however. Some characters could easily be rebooted into the modern age - Hourman, Dr. Midnite, and Wildcat, just to name a few.
But does bringing Wildcat, for example, into the modern age really do much for the character? At his core, Wildcat is a sort of rough-and-tumble two fisted character. He gets by on his street smarts, his wits, and his iron determination. I'm not sure how successful he'd be in the modern age without some additional hook. Witness, for example, the updated Wildcat who is, uh, actually part cat. I guess that works, but mutant cat-dude feels done before. I think it would be a waste to reboot Wildcat as essentially an ensemble player, especially considering the legacy the character has.
So for the Drewniverse, lets' rebuild that legacy. Wildcat (#41/52) will actually be a title in three parts.
Since we're going for a legacy theme here, one trait of the Wildcat comic will be its use of interlocking, sometimes even concurrent, storylines. Experimentation encouraged. Imagine a comic where three stories are told across the same page, each a parallel of the other. Or better yet, imagine a 21 page comic divided into three parts that comes with a set of seven transparency sheets. Each sheet matches a page of each comic and contains the text of word bubbles - the text matches up across the art of each of the three mini-stories, even if the storylines themselves are slightly different. Weird stuff like that. The idea being to tell conventional stories in unconventional ways, with a secondary goal of establishing some history to the Drewniverse.
Through the pages of Wildcat, we'll be able to get a glimpse of some of the other inhabitants of the Drewniverse. Immortals like Vandal Savage or Felix Faust could show up, while younger versions of Dinah Drake or Wesley Dodds can help flesh out the modern storylines they appear in.
One of the hardest things about a total reboot is the loss of the legacies that make DC comics unique. I know we can't cling to the past and the expense of the future, but to do the reverse seems like just as big of a mistake. Hopefully Wildcat will help provide that bridge between Then and Now that's sorely needed.
Not every Golden Age character need meet the same fate as the JSA. The Trinity survived and stayed vital to comics, reborn in the Silver Age after the nation's fascination with crime and horror comics got Wertham'd away. Unfortunately for Golden Age Flash and Green Lantern, those early reboots fundamentally changed the characters, abandoning Jay and Alan back to the mists of history. This fate does not apply to all of the JSA, however. Some characters could easily be rebooted into the modern age - Hourman, Dr. Midnite, and Wildcat, just to name a few.
But does bringing Wildcat, for example, into the modern age really do much for the character? At his core, Wildcat is a sort of rough-and-tumble two fisted character. He gets by on his street smarts, his wits, and his iron determination. I'm not sure how successful he'd be in the modern age without some additional hook. Witness, for example, the updated Wildcat who is, uh, actually part cat. I guess that works, but mutant cat-dude feels done before. I think it would be a waste to reboot Wildcat as essentially an ensemble player, especially considering the legacy the character has.
So for the Drewniverse, lets' rebuild that legacy. Wildcat (#41/52) will actually be a title in three parts.
- The first part, Wildcat: The Roaring '20s, details the early two fisted career of Ted Grant, boxer turned crimefighter. After he discovers that his opponent in a title bout was ordered to take a dive so that Ted could win, the young champ starts following the money, coming into conflict with the mob. When he refuses to take a dive, the mob destroys Ted's gym, killing his coach/adoptive father in the process. Ted swears revenge and starts up as a mystery man, busting heads in old-timey Gotham City. This would sorta be 'Wildcat: Year One' if you catch my drift.
- The second part, Codename: TOMCAT, follows the story of Ted Grant's son, Edward. Ted retired from crimefighting in order to fight Nazis at the start of World War II. He made it through the war intact and eventually settled down in Gotham with a nice nurse he met overseas. Their son, Edward, carries on his father's legacy, not by fighting crime on the rooftops of Gotham City, but by traveling the world fighting Communism in the late 60s in a James Bondian (Casanova?) manner. Edward Grant is a suave operator, a hep cat cut from the Mad Men mold. He'd deal with metahumans somewhat - nothing as brash as Superman up-up-uping and awaying, but psychics and weird science and the like.
- The third part would take place in the modern day. Claws would detail the adventures of Rosalie Grant, Edward's daughter. Edward stayed in the game as long as he could but eventually was forced to retire, pushed out by young upstarts like Amanda Waller and that King Faraday ponce. He dedicates himself to his daughter, training her in everything he knows (think the father/son relationship from Psych here). When he goes missing, Rosalie discovers there is more to herself than she knew - she inherited a gift from her mother, a psychic ability to see ghosts! Now teamed up with her dead grampa, she must do what it takes to save her father (and maybe learn the truth of her mother in the process).
Since we're going for a legacy theme here, one trait of the Wildcat comic will be its use of interlocking, sometimes even concurrent, storylines. Experimentation encouraged. Imagine a comic where three stories are told across the same page, each a parallel of the other. Or better yet, imagine a 21 page comic divided into three parts that comes with a set of seven transparency sheets. Each sheet matches a page of each comic and contains the text of word bubbles - the text matches up across the art of each of the three mini-stories, even if the storylines themselves are slightly different. Weird stuff like that. The idea being to tell conventional stories in unconventional ways, with a secondary goal of establishing some history to the Drewniverse.
Through the pages of Wildcat, we'll be able to get a glimpse of some of the other inhabitants of the Drewniverse. Immortals like Vandal Savage or Felix Faust could show up, while younger versions of Dinah Drake or Wesley Dodds can help flesh out the modern storylines they appear in.
One of the hardest things about a total reboot is the loss of the legacies that make DC comics unique. I know we can't cling to the past and the expense of the future, but to do the reverse seems like just as big of a mistake. Hopefully Wildcat will help provide that bridge between Then and Now that's sorely needed.
Monday, August 8, 2011
The Legion of Super-Heroes
Where does continuity end? How removed can a series be from the rest of the setting and still be called part of it? The is just one of the many problems The Legion of Super-Heroes introduces into the Drewniverse. While they are removed by a thousand years of future history, the Legion also creates continuity problems, working against world-shaking reveals and the like. I mean, if you have a club of kids in the 31st century dedicated to the hero worship of early 21st century heroes, they'd know all about the Big Events of the past. Given that we're writing this reboot knowing that everything will come around again in 10-15 years or so, that means that the Legion becomes a defacto spoiler.
The Entities that coil about the center of the Lantern Conspiracy will not devour the universe - we know this because the Legion exists. Superman will not give up on his humanity and run mad with dictatorial power - the Legion still praises him. Darkseid will not destroy the Earth, Atlantis will not rise from the waves, and Brainiac will not put the moon in a bottle. To push the Legion farther away from being spoilers - creating Time Barriers or Bubbles or Amnesia Rays or whatever, just further removes them from the continuity. At that point, they just become generic Teens Innnn Spppaacceee.
I'm loathe to do that to the Legion. Not because I have any love for them - I should be honest that I don't really care for them - but because historically, creating a hero or group that operates without interaction or awareness of other heroes or groups is what causes continuity screw-ups that end up necessitating re-reboots. Remember Superman and Batman were born in isolation and operated for years without acknowledging that their worlds were the same. Binding them to the same continuity created some "It's best if you don't think about it too hard" headaches that remain to this day - the locations of Metropolis and Gotham City, for example.
That said, I've already acknowledged that the Legion exists in the Drewnieverse. As a young lad, Superman had several adventures with the Legion, called to the future by their Temporal Zeta Beam. These adventures would be covered in short arcs in Action Comics, the anthology Superman title. The Legion encountered here would be the "classic" Legion - Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and so on. Every so often, they'd call up Clark and have him zip forward into the future in order to help save a planet that's slipped its orbit or stop a galactic dictator or something. "We can't tell you everything, Superboy," Cosmic Boy would say, "Because we don't want you accidentally changing our past. But we know you're going to need the experiences you get here sometime in your future, so let's get to work!"
Very positive, very bright, very fake.
The Legion of Super-Heroes in its "teens changing the universe" guise is for the most part a lie. I remember reading about search and rescue dogs used to locate survivors following a disaster. If the dogs could not locate a survivor by the end of the day, one of the dog's handlers would hide him or herself in the rubble and let the dog search them out. Apparently, they had to do that because otherwise the dogs would get depressed or stressed at their failure. That's the role of the Legion in the Drewniverse - they exist to provide comfort to our heroes, lest they get subsumed in the Grim Grimdarkness of their daily grind. The comfort our heroes by showing them a future world where yes, challenges still exist, but they are extremely black and white ones and can be overcome through positive thinking and stick-to-itiveness. The 'future' that Superboy is brought to is not the Legion's own - it's one of the many possible futures that exist. The Legion would hand-pick one of these futures on the cusp of crisis, pull Superboy into it, and go about saving things.
As Superboy grows into Superman, the Legion keeps at it, bringing him forward into a possible future where he can confront and defeat a foe cleanly. It's almost like a heroic vacation, a chance to use your powers for good intentions without paving the way to hell. In the real world, Superman must feel like he can't save a cat from a tree without worrying about if that's the best use of his time. Sure, it only took 15 seconds, but that 15 seconds could have been used studying human DNA to locate genetic markers for cancer or something. Legion victories are complete victories. When he's too busy to head off into the future, Superman refers some of his Justice League pals.
So in Legion of Super-Heroes (#40/52), we'll be pulling back the curtain surrounding Legion activities. We will follow the story of those Legionnaires who work (mostly together) to set up opportunities for the heroes of today to not only train, but reinforce their own moral decision that what they are doing with their powers is right. The Legionnaires act as peers to developing heroes, often interceding early in the hero's development ("Green Arrow! The future needs you! Come with us!") and subtly teaching them moral and ethical lessons before returning them to their time (complete with a warning to not discuss their adventures in the future for fear of altering the Legion's past).
Basically, the Legion of Super-Heroes in the Drewniverse will fill the same role as the JSA does in pre-reboot DC.
While the Cosmic-Saturn-Lightning trio make for good facemen, the actual leader of the Legion will be someone smart enough to deal with the logistics of time travel and alternate futures with some prior experience in setting up bottle realities - Brainiac 5. He/it will be the true nucleus of the Legion, tasked with its creation and maintenance from birth. Everyone else is someone who has been recruited into the Legion, selected from thousands of variations of themselves to fill some role B5 found lacking. The rest of the Legion is not aware how thoroughly Brainiac has planned things - heck some of the recent recruits are in the dark as much as the heroes they pull up from the past. Even those "in the know" think they are pulling one over on the heroes of yesteryear in order to inspire and train them, not aware that they themselves have had one pulled over on them.
This setup will hopefully give the Legion an active role in the 'modern' Drewniverse, allow for them to interact with the rest of the cast of heroes but in a setting limited enough that they won't be in a position to spoil future events. Plus, it gives a training element to the setting, one that we're missing now that time's implacable march has stolen the JSA from us. Then there is the mystery of the Legion's true goals and Brainiac 5's motivations, something that will unfurl over the course of the comic. Revelations, such as Brainiac 5's creator (an alternate future Superman who took over the galaxy), would come as counterpoints to revelations that occur in the main setting.
Legion of Super-Heroes will not be the only Legion comic in the Drewniverse, but it will be the only one in the starting 52. The later comic, Legion, would require a bit more motion to the setting, seeing as it would be based on both the 'training' premise and a callback to that other Legion that exists in the DC Universe...
The Entities that coil about the center of the Lantern Conspiracy will not devour the universe - we know this because the Legion exists. Superman will not give up on his humanity and run mad with dictatorial power - the Legion still praises him. Darkseid will not destroy the Earth, Atlantis will not rise from the waves, and Brainiac will not put the moon in a bottle. To push the Legion farther away from being spoilers - creating Time Barriers or Bubbles or Amnesia Rays or whatever, just further removes them from the continuity. At that point, they just become generic Teens Innnn Spppaacceee.
I'm loathe to do that to the Legion. Not because I have any love for them - I should be honest that I don't really care for them - but because historically, creating a hero or group that operates without interaction or awareness of other heroes or groups is what causes continuity screw-ups that end up necessitating re-reboots. Remember Superman and Batman were born in isolation and operated for years without acknowledging that their worlds were the same. Binding them to the same continuity created some "It's best if you don't think about it too hard" headaches that remain to this day - the locations of Metropolis and Gotham City, for example.
That said, I've already acknowledged that the Legion exists in the Drewnieverse. As a young lad, Superman had several adventures with the Legion, called to the future by their Temporal Zeta Beam. These adventures would be covered in short arcs in Action Comics, the anthology Superman title. The Legion encountered here would be the "classic" Legion - Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and so on. Every so often, they'd call up Clark and have him zip forward into the future in order to help save a planet that's slipped its orbit or stop a galactic dictator or something. "We can't tell you everything, Superboy," Cosmic Boy would say, "Because we don't want you accidentally changing our past. But we know you're going to need the experiences you get here sometime in your future, so let's get to work!"
Very positive, very bright, very fake.
The Legion of Super-Heroes in its "teens changing the universe" guise is for the most part a lie. I remember reading about search and rescue dogs used to locate survivors following a disaster. If the dogs could not locate a survivor by the end of the day, one of the dog's handlers would hide him or herself in the rubble and let the dog search them out. Apparently, they had to do that because otherwise the dogs would get depressed or stressed at their failure. That's the role of the Legion in the Drewniverse - they exist to provide comfort to our heroes, lest they get subsumed in the Grim Grimdarkness of their daily grind. The comfort our heroes by showing them a future world where yes, challenges still exist, but they are extremely black and white ones and can be overcome through positive thinking and stick-to-itiveness. The 'future' that Superboy is brought to is not the Legion's own - it's one of the many possible futures that exist. The Legion would hand-pick one of these futures on the cusp of crisis, pull Superboy into it, and go about saving things.
As Superboy grows into Superman, the Legion keeps at it, bringing him forward into a possible future where he can confront and defeat a foe cleanly. It's almost like a heroic vacation, a chance to use your powers for good intentions without paving the way to hell. In the real world, Superman must feel like he can't save a cat from a tree without worrying about if that's the best use of his time. Sure, it only took 15 seconds, but that 15 seconds could have been used studying human DNA to locate genetic markers for cancer or something. Legion victories are complete victories. When he's too busy to head off into the future, Superman refers some of his Justice League pals.
So in Legion of Super-Heroes (#40/52), we'll be pulling back the curtain surrounding Legion activities. We will follow the story of those Legionnaires who work (mostly together) to set up opportunities for the heroes of today to not only train, but reinforce their own moral decision that what they are doing with their powers is right. The Legionnaires act as peers to developing heroes, often interceding early in the hero's development ("Green Arrow! The future needs you! Come with us!") and subtly teaching them moral and ethical lessons before returning them to their time (complete with a warning to not discuss their adventures in the future for fear of altering the Legion's past).
Basically, the Legion of Super-Heroes in the Drewniverse will fill the same role as the JSA does in pre-reboot DC.
While the Cosmic-Saturn-Lightning trio make for good facemen, the actual leader of the Legion will be someone smart enough to deal with the logistics of time travel and alternate futures with some prior experience in setting up bottle realities - Brainiac 5. He/it will be the true nucleus of the Legion, tasked with its creation and maintenance from birth. Everyone else is someone who has been recruited into the Legion, selected from thousands of variations of themselves to fill some role B5 found lacking. The rest of the Legion is not aware how thoroughly Brainiac has planned things - heck some of the recent recruits are in the dark as much as the heroes they pull up from the past. Even those "in the know" think they are pulling one over on the heroes of yesteryear in order to inspire and train them, not aware that they themselves have had one pulled over on them.
This setup will hopefully give the Legion an active role in the 'modern' Drewniverse, allow for them to interact with the rest of the cast of heroes but in a setting limited enough that they won't be in a position to spoil future events. Plus, it gives a training element to the setting, one that we're missing now that time's implacable march has stolen the JSA from us. Then there is the mystery of the Legion's true goals and Brainiac 5's motivations, something that will unfurl over the course of the comic. Revelations, such as Brainiac 5's creator (an alternate future Superman who took over the galaxy), would come as counterpoints to revelations that occur in the main setting.
Legion of Super-Heroes will not be the only Legion comic in the Drewniverse, but it will be the only one in the starting 52. The later comic, Legion, would require a bit more motion to the setting, seeing as it would be based on both the 'training' premise and a callback to that other Legion that exists in the DC Universe...
Friday, August 5, 2011
Firestorm
Who’da thunk that a character with such a confusing premise would have such a muddled backstory, huh? Two-people-fused-int-one-with-atomic-powers-who-is-also-a-fire-elemental is not an easy premise to swallow, and that’s even before you get to the hassles of cancelled series and unfortunate participation in muddled crossover events.
So what will we keep for our Firestorm? Let’s keep the dual natured aspect of his powers, which will be refocused more on the atomic than the fire. So no fire elemental nonsense. That was sort of tacked on in the comics after Swamp Thing made elementals cool again. Firestorm will be playing with elemental forces, however, and his hair will remain on fire, so we don’t really need to change his name.
Through the “Firestorm Matrix” our hero is tied into the elemental forces of creation and change. This explains his ability to alter matter, he’s providing the energy required to cause atoms to slip their bonds, change elemental structure, and then recombine into new molecules. He does not create matter, just the energy required to alter it. Unchecked, his power would probably cause a cataclysmic meltdown, warping the area around him into new and unstable shapes. All it would take would be one atom out of place and foom, nuclear reaction. We’ll keep the prohibition against altering organic matter, pinning the possibly deadly feedback on the problems of messing with active chemical reactions, like the sort that’s going on in a living body all the time.
So it’s a good thing Firestorm has two minds on the case. When joined, there’s an active and passive mind. The active is in control of Firestorm’s body and most of his power. The passive appears as a floating ghostly head (one of the character’s most striking imagines, I think. Flaming hair does not make you standout - floating heads do) and can control a small portion of Firestorm’s power. The rest of the secondary’s attention must be focused on the Matrix because, Schrodinger’s Cat-style, the reality of its existence depends on it being perceived.
I like the duality of the original Raymond / Stein pairing - young student full of energy and questions paired with knowledgeable scientist full of wisdom and experience, so we’ll be keeping that setup. We won’t be keeping Ronnie and Martin, though. Instead, we’ll be taking a student/professor pairing from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Lwazi Silongo, a promising young student from the lower middle class suburbs of Cape Town, will be our youthful element. Lwazi’s father was a player in the anti-apartheid movement. Once that system of oppression finally crumbled (although its ghosts remain), he settled down and became a teacher, hoping to educate the next generation of black South African leaders. Lwazi grew up in a stable, happy family. Although he avoided the despair of poverty that weighs on so many other of is countrymen, Lwazi’s father was not the sort to ever let his son forget just how good he had it.
Our professor type will be played by Dr. Martin van Riebeek, head of theoretical physics at Cape Town University. His family does not exactly have a happy shiny history, especially in relation to apartheid, and he may have done some things in his youth that he is not proud of today. He hired Lwazi on as a lab assistant and expected great things of the boy.
Well, before the accident, of course, which will be happening with Issue #1 of Firestorm (#38/52).
So it turns out back in the Bad Old Days, South Africa researched and successfully built several working nuclear weapons. When the old guard lost power, elements within the government hid some of these weapons away in order to prevent “lesser men” from gaining access to them. When one of these experimental devices is found beneath a disused lab, it causes a big to do. Worried that moving the device could set it off, it falls to Dr. van Riebeek to give it a look over before the military is comes in to decommission the device. Of course, he brings in his best assistant to help out.
That night, while Martin and Lwazi pour over the device, Something Happens. The experimental nuclear device somehow gets activated and the pair have to work together to stop it from taking out the city. Though the lab is on lockdown, it soon becomes evident that there is someone else in the building. A saboteur? Another student? Military observer? Whomever it is, it's bad news. The good guys manage to barricade themselves in the lab, intent on sacrificing themselves to stop the explosion. Of course, rather than getting radiation poisoning, they end up gaining the ability to fuse together into the hero known as Firestorm.
As for the saboteur? She's affected by the meltdown too, but in a different way. Killer Frost's atomic power is more about stasis and heat-death, the omega to Firestorm's alpha. She mainly manifests this via cold-oriented powers as she's limited when compared to Firestorm - without that second psyche keeping an eye on the Stasis Matrix (or whatever), she couldn't, like, cause the heat death of the universe. But if she could trick Firestorm into recreating the accident while she has a willing participant on hand... that would be something that Frost and the organization she works for would be very, very interested in.
When joined, Lwazi and Martin have access to each other's memories and experiences, so there will be some awkwardness when Lwazi finds out about Martin's unwise youth. Martin prefers to be the secondary personality - while staring at the Matrix he's getting access to the secrets of the universe, much more interesting than punching some chilly bitch (even if she is his niece - duh duh duhn). There will be some addiction allusions in Martin's interest in the Matrix. Lwazi will be the main character for the most part, idealistic and hoping to do good for the world. Compared to Captain Atom's Lawful Good, Firestorm will be more Chaotic Good, willing to break laws in order to do what's right. This will bring him into conflict with other elements of the Drewniverse's Africa, from old power structures to nation states torn apart my civil war. Part of Firestorm's arc will be a Spider-man like discovery of the ties between power and responsibility.
In time, Firestorm will join the Justice League, but that's a few years down the road.
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