Green and Black

Green Arrow & Black Canary

I was pretty stoked when these characters got married a few years back because, after decades of flirting the issue, the two finally seemed to move to the next step and get a happy ending.  While Wally West remains my family-man superhero, Ollie and Dinah get to be the crimefighting couple.

Haha!  Her wedding "gown" has fishnet stockings. Heheh.

For Ollie's story, his happiness came to a screeching halt with the conclusion of Cry for Justice after he (SPOILERS!) murdered the villain and went on the run from the rest of the Justice League.  Or something like that. Frankly I didn't follow too closely after the story started dismembering heroes and murdering babies.  But rather than leading down the path of outcast murderous vigilante divorcee (like in the post-BN DCU), I'd much prefer a story of redemption.

Fortunately, while the (SPOILER!) murder of Prometheus happened before the My52 launch date and is thus part of my canon, the story of his downfall came after, so I'm able to branch off and have Black Canary talk him away from the path back into the vigilante murderer he had been once before. Because the murder was brought about from extreme grief, there's room for extenuating circumstances to keep him out of jail.  They may not let him back into the League, but they can't keep Dinah from staying by his side.

Dinah's story isn't so rollercoaster-y, which is kind of a shame.  Sure she doesn't have any great hole to dig her out of, but she also hasn't had any major highs to play off of either.  She recently gave up her adopted daughter, Sin, but that works to my advantage because I just want the two of them (Mia's off to the Teen Titans and, if he's still alive, Conner will go roam the Earth or something).

Bye.

Ollie recently lost his mayoral position in Star City, so the two of them set up shop in Dinah's florist shop.  It's not very exiting, but they become strong members of the community they're fighting for.  The new mayor, of course, is as corrupt as they come and GA & BC are declared outlaws and hunted by the police even as they're rescuing citizens.  To fill his days, Ollie manages to politic himself into a City Council position to at least keep his eye on the dirty dealings. 

Something I want to address just for my own satisfaction, though, is to unkink Dinah's timeline. More details when I get to talking about the Justice Society, but I've been trying to come up with ideas to justify the growing time gap between WWII and my sliding timeline, a gap that currently requires Dinah's mother to have given birth at age 60.  I know it doesn't bother everyone, but it's something I'd like to nail down.

For Dinah, I think the solution lies in her pre-CoIE's origin.  Before they were a straight-up mother/daughter legacy, the JSA Dinah had a daughter cursed with a destructive "canary cry" and had to be placed in Limbo for her protection.  Somewhere along the way, Society Dinah transformed her mind into the body of her daughter and joined the League with a new sonic scream.  It was an odd solution to an odd problem, but it was the situation until CoIE came along and made a more linear timeline.  

All this was so she could be young enough to date Green Arrow.  Seriously.

So my ticket to bridging the timeline is to use Infinite Crisis to reclaim a bit of that Limbo story. Now, WWII Black Canary can have given birth in the 1950s (at the decent age of 30 or so), only to discover the Wizard's curse and be forced to place her daughter in Limbo.  Then, during a later adventure, Black Canary II can be rescued from Limbo in time to become a founding member of the Justice League.  Perhaps she's rescued as a baby and allowed to grow up, but I don't exactly have a timeline for all of that worked out yet.

Titans Together!

Teen Titans

With my Justice League in the pocket, it's time to delineate another classic superteam, the Teen Titans.

Originally assembled with the then-current line-up of teen-aged sidekicks (e.g. Batman's Robin and Green Arrow's Speedy), the Teen Titans eventually expanded to include other pre-existing teenagers (like Beast Boy of the Doom Patrol) as well as original characters designed specifically to be teen characters for the Titans (like Raven or the entire line-up from the 1996 series).

Truth is, it's rare that I like characters designed just to join a team.  Whether it's the Red Tornado for the Justice League or Bombshell for the Teen Titans, it more often than not comes across as a one-note character designed to fill a specific and obvious niche without much dimension otherwise.  Meanwhile, recent years have seen the introduction of enough teenaged superheroes that I get frustrated when they ignore them in favor of de-aging characters like Raven and Beast Boy.

So while my roster isn't completely without such made-for-team characters, I'm mostly putting it together with many of the pre-existing teen characters, all who come with their own lives, families, and enemies and add to the team's mythology rather than just filling a niche.


Speedy
Hands down I think Mia Dearden is the one to lead the Teen Titans. The experience and training she's received from both Green Arrow and Black Canary makes her one of the most skilled members of the team.  That she's a character living with HIV is a strong character trait and care must be taken to neither downplay it more than it deserves or to get too preachy about it.  My only real complaint is with the name.  I get that she's the second of Green Arrow's sidekick, but it was Roy's nickname and it seems odd for her to swipe it.  When she joins the Teen Titans, I'll be ripping off Young Justice and changing her name to Artemis to signal that she's not under Green Arrow's tutelage any more.

Static

I'm mostly familiar with the character from his cartoon in 2000, but I think his unique powers and personality make him a welcome member of the team.  Uniquely in my Titans, he still has a loving family and home, which would add an interesting dynamic to the team.

Miss Martian
The one exception to my dislike of made-for-teaming characters, Miss Martian was created for the One Year Later Teen Titans and totally caught my fancy.  The reveal of her secretly being a White Martian trying to atone for her race's sins took me by surprise and gave the character even more depth.  I love the contrast between her outwardly sweet appearance and her status as the team's powerhouse.

Lagoon Boy

I almost chickened out on including Lagoon Boy here for the simple (and dumb) fact that it would give me two green characters.  Silly.  LB hasn't been in much over the years, but his appearances in early Young Justice comics and the Sins of Youth event sold me on the character.  He's a fun-loving character with a dumb power (amphibious AND able to swell up like a puffer fish), but that just makes him more appealing.  I'm a fan of marine biology and can see him taking on a few other sea-life related powers as he develops.


Vulcan
From the Son of Vulcan mini-series, Vulcan inherited the title when the previous Vulcan died and imbued him with the powers and weapons to fight a secret White Martian invasion.  That there's actually a White Martian on his team should lead to no end of interesting interactions.  Of all the kids listed here, Vulcan is the least experienced and, despite his vast powers and weaponry, often feels out of his depth.

Titans Tower will remain on its island in San Francisco and the kids' status as (mostly) orphans will make it easier for them to relocate there if needed.  I'm not actually a fan of the current design, but figure I could hold off a while to redesign it after the Fearsome Five destroy it or something.

An element to be added to the team's private lives will be to enroll all these under-age super-heroes into a posh local college preparatory academy.  Miss Martian is easily able to change her skin color to maintain a secret identity, but Lagoon Boy has a little more trouble.  One of the sea-based powers I'd like him to develop is a cuttlefish's ability to change its skin coloration. This'll help a little, but since he can't actually change his features, he's going to look like a burn victim.  Meanwhile, Static will have received a scholarship to the academy which a very proud father will very reluctantly agree to send him off to.  Maintaining their secret identities in this new environment will be aided by a new staff member, Rachel Roth, the former Teen Titan known as Raven.

Getting these Titans together will be a bit more of a challenge than with my Justice League. Unlike the JLA, the Teen Titans didn't have a convenient breaking point around my BN#8 launch point where I could smoothly restructure the team.  Recent adventures *did* include Static and Miss Martian, so I guess I'm part way there.  I also have other plans for Superboy and Kid Flash, so moving them off the team is another step in the right direction.  

A League of My Own

The Justice League of America

Since 1960, armchair comic editors like myself have had strong opinions on who should be in the Justice League and why.  It's the holy grail of fantasy comic-ing.  And while I wanted to lead off My52 with the key players like Superman and Green Lantern, I knew it wasn't going to be long before I had to lay out my own League.

From the start I decided to go for a fairly large line up.  The League is for proven characters; this isn't where you send wannabe characters and hope they become popular through association with Batman (that's what the anthology books are for).  These should be established characters with lives and careers outside the League, and it's assumed that not every member will be present for every adventure.

Free reign can lead to a little decision paralysis, though, so I gave myself a premise I needed to adhere to.  I call this the "family rep" requirement.  Each character assembled in my JLoA will be a representative of a particular family of characters in the DC Universe.  In other words, I don't necessarily need Batman as long as I have someone who can represent the Batman family.  I'm sure it'll make more sense as I reveal my roster.

Superman (Superman family)

Of course the League needs some big guns, and no guns are bigger than Superman.  While some say Superman's presence would overshadow the rest of the League, I think his strong moral core is his most valuable asset here.  Although my "man of action" is quick to leap into the fray, his real impact on the team is the way he encourages everyone around him to be a little bit better.  

Batwoman (Batman family)

Sure I think Dick Grayson would be a good fit into the League, but for my Bat-representative I went with Batwoman who had really impressed me during her introduction in 52. From day 1 she was confident and competent, and held her own against monster men and alongside Nightwing without any of the usual "is this what I'm supposed to be doing?" qualities that usually plague newcomers to the DCU.  This trait is especially welcome when seen alongside such legendary heroes as Superman and Green Lantern. 

The Flash (Flash family)

Unsurpassed superspeed aside, Wally has been heroing since he was 12 years old and brings a lifetime of experience to the team.  His time on the Teen Titans also gives him connections to a large percentage of hero-dom.

 

Green Lantern (Green Lantern family)

Hal is the cool uncle of the team, the one that takes his teammates on wild rides without consideration for what comes after.  He and Superman share the status of being the only founding members on the team, and that shared "elder statesman" status leads them to clash more often than not. He’s also the team’s main connection with extra-terrestrial beings and information.

Giganta (Wonder Woman family)

Maybe the biggest brow-raiser of the bunch?  Giganta has tested the line between hero and villain in titles such as Wonder Woman and the Atom followed by her “teaming” with Batwoman as a mind-controlled Female Fury during Final Crisis.  That could be her -in- to the team, and get her to cross the line.  Plus, I’m a big fan of the villain-turned-good story.  Her skills as a scientist are also welcome on the team.

Blue Beetle (Charlton family)

Beetle takes the role once held by Firestorm, that of over-powered yet young and inexperienced hero.  The League has taken him in more to keep their eye on him and train him than actual belief that he’s ready.  At the end of the day, though, he really is one of the big guns in the League.

Bulleteer (Captain Marvel family)

Good lord, do all female heroes in the DCU have red hair?  In any case, I liked the no-nonsense “outsider’s” look at super heroics which characterized her Seven Soldiers mini-series.  I’d like to see more of her “really?” attitude in the League. You know, someone tries explaining the history of the Shaggy Man and Bulleteer's all "nobody else thinks that's dumb?"  She also needs a slight power upgrade. A recent depiction of her incorrectly showed her flying, but since that's a power a Bulleteer needs to have, I'll be adding a reason for it.  I'm assuming magnetic helmet...

Mera (Aquaman family)

One of the breakout characters from Blackest Night, Mera brings all the traits of Aquaman (including the throne of Atlantis) with a more versatile set of powers.  She’s imperious and commanding, but is driven by a noblesse oblige which drives her to help people.  It's a shame I couldn't find a good picture of her with her high white collar, 'cause that's definitely coming back.

Mister Miracle (New Gods family) 

In many ways, Mister Miracle is the front man of the Justice League. Shiloh Norman's showbiz career steers him straight for the spotlight.  He doesn't necessarily tend to do things the easy way, instead preferring a bit of showmanship to his heroics.

The League’s most recent HQ was the Hall of Justice located in Washington D.C., but that just seems kind of derivative.  I do want to keep them down to Earth and within the borders of the U.S., but not *so* accessible that they become commonplace. I’m leaning toward something like a refurbished Challenger Mountain base in the Colorado Rockies.

Assembling this team in the wake of Blackest Night shouldn't be too challenging.  As of April, 2010, the League was just finishing up their not-well-received Cry for Justice mini-series by James Robinson which was supposed to lead into his ongoing JLA writing gig.  Not sure if it went as planned, though, because the League that formed afterward was only slightly related to the cast of that mini-.  Still, it's easy enough to launch from the collapse of the League right around that time and pull together the group you see above.  In fact, Batwoman, Bulleteer and Green Lantern all appeared in that series, and Mera was just wrapping up her star turn in Blackest Night.  

Recent JLA storylines hint at the villain Doctor Impossible being a Mr. Miracle counterpart from Earth-3, and I would turn those rumors into a storyline featuring the New Gods (thus drawing in Mr. Miracle) and the Crime Syndicate.  Presumably, when "evil won" on Earth-1 during Final Crisis, Earth-3 could have seen a similar "good wins" and they enact a plan to link up with the Apokoliptian gods on our Earth.  The Syndicate members are able to ambush old sparring partners like Superman, Flash and Green Lantern, but they're not prepared for new foes like Giganta, Mera or Batwoman.  Eventually, this new League is able to send the Syndicate packing.

Blue Beetle can be brought in later when the League encounters him and witnesses his untrained power.

Watching the Detective

Detective Comics

Hot on the heels of my Action Comics anthology pitch, I present that book's sister title.  For all the reasons I stated there, Detective Comics cannot be allowed to die, and I think it's best future in My52 is in the form of an anthology series featuring more Batman-themed characters. Just as Action Comics skewed toward Superman, this title will feature characters from Batman's extended family (like Robin or Huntress) or characters who align with Batman's street-level crime-busting (like the Question or Black Lightning).

I know I'm grossly generalizing here, but there is a notable divide between Superman fans and Batman fans (it's what keeps my marriage lively), and it's my hope that by providing two anthology series each focused on one side of the line or the other, readers will be able to pick which one to follow based on their personal tastes.

There might be room for other anthologies based on other reading trends, but I think these two will do for now.

Time for Action!

Action Comics

Despite my zero need for having multiple titles for the same character, I couldn't let 800+ issues of Action Comics come to an end on my watch.  This venerable title deserves to keep going, but not as a home for Superman (who I've already placed in My52's Adventures of Superman).

I've decided to take advantage of this free title to bring back the concept of the anthology series.  A publishing universe as grand as the DC Universe has a lot of characters that, while they maybe don't warrant a full, ongoing series still deserve to have the occasional story told. At the same time, any comic universe which doesn't want to grow stagnant will want to occasionally introduce new characters.  An anthology series would provide for both of these needs.

"Hi, I'm Superman." "And I'm Batman, and we both debuted 

in anthology comic series."

It seems, though, that anthology series have been very hard to sustain in recent decades.  I don't know when the most recent one was, but I remember muscling through some mediocre stories in Showcase '95 (or so) and an equal number of stories I just wasn't interested in.

My plan here is to provide an anthology with a little more focus than just a grab bag of random characters and stories.  Action Comics, as the birthplace of Superman, will tell stories of characters drawn from Superman's extended family (such as Jimmy Olsen or Supergirl) or characters who align with the bright, heroic action stories Superman embodies (such as Red Tornado or Booster Gold).  Ideally fans will be more comfortable picking up this series if they already know the types of stories it will contain.

Structurally, each issue will feature two stories (both one-shots and story arcs), and in classic Arabian Nights style, will always feature one story ending that issue (a one-shot or concluding arc) and one story continuing (either just starting or in the middle of an arc).  Personal experience with the 2003's Brave and the Bold team-up series showed that even when I didn't care about the characters teamed up, I still read it to see how the ongoing story developed.  

Yes, even this one.

Earth's Mightiest Mortal

Power of Shazam!

It almost seems like DC Comics doesn't know what to do with Captain Marvel, but since there was a spot-on series by Jerry Ordway back in the mid-'90s, it can't be that elusive.  There've been a lot of changes in the Marvel Family since then, though.

Originally, 10-year-old Billy Batson was empowered by the wizard Shazam and became Captain Marvel upon saying his mentor's name.  Among the growing Marvel Family was Freddy Freeman, who would gain a portion of that power as Captain Marvel Jr. whenever he said the name of his mentor, Captain Marvel (making him one of the few super-heroes who can't say his own name without losing his powers).

Since then, Shazam was killed, Billy Batson took his spot using the name 'Marvel', and Freddy fleeted up to take Captain Marvel's role under the name 'Shazam.'

Guess what Freddy "Shazam" Freeman has to say now 

to turn on and off his powers.

Despite being written by Judd Winick, I hadn't heard anything bad about the Trials of Shazam mini-series which gave Freddy his new powers and identity, so I'm inclined to keep him as the main guy despite my preference for the boy-to-man shtick of Billy Batson.

However, since My52 isn't beholden to marketing concerns, I'm going to take advantage of the return of the wizard Shazam to at least fix that name business.  In the pages of JSA, Shazam (the wizard) was rescued from the Rock of Finality and was more than a little grumpy at the failures of his chosen champions.  He took back the powers he'd granted to Billy and was critical of that upstart Freeman who'd stolen his name.

Moving forward into My52, the wizard Shazam catches up with Freddy and hashes things out. Shazam reclaims his name, and Freddy takes on the identity of Captain Marvel.  Because Freddy is empowered directly from the gods, he's not a minion of Shazam as Billy was, but they've developed a partnership of sorts (although there's still room for some antagonism between the two of them for flavor.)

I'm not sure how old Freddy is, but he was at least a teenager when he started, and my +5 years to the sliding timeline puts him at least to college age and adulthood.  Unfortunately, I lose the adolescent wish fulfillment of the original concept, but Freddy's mortal identity does come with lame legs (courtesy of the villain Captain Nazi), so we do get to dabble with the lame-to-hero status formerly held by Don Blake.  Recent art has sadly moved away from tying Freddy to Elvis and instead shown him as some 90s-style hipster.  Because Elvis admitted Capt. Marvel Jr. was his favorite (and an inspiration for his glam years), recent artists returned the favor by giving Freddy a rockabilly appearance.  Under My52 guidance, that art direction will return.

Alex Ross knew what he was doing, 

although we might not go that far in My52.

Recent years have seen an effort to differentiate Captain Marvel from Superman. They did this by declaring that, since Captain Marvel's origin was mystical, he would only concern himself with mystical threats.  I may have hinted at this before, but I don't cater to anything that limits the story potential of a character.  It'd be like saying Superman can only fight aliens, or Batman can only face off against orphans.  Some of Marvel's more famous enemies include such science-based enemies as Mr. Mind, Dr. Sivanna, and Mr. Atom.

I do, however, agree with the need to differentiate between Supes and Marvel.  I'll do that here by playing Captain Marvel a bit more seriously (what with the wisdom of Solomon and all) while Superman regains his sense of humor.  On the other hand, Superman's adventures will be a bit more "mainstream," while Marvel will be doing more time travel or alien world or just generally gonzo style adventures.  Bottom line, readers will be getting two different kinds of stories from these nearly identically-powered characters.

Beware my power...

Green Lantern

It was his work on Green Lantern that made Geoff Johns a household name and got him promoted to chief creative director of DC Comics (or whatever).  He made sense of Hal Jordan's timeline enough to bring him back to life in a satisfying way, and turned a character who once had trouble keeping a solo series into the headliner of a number of world-shaping epic storylines.

Having said that, there's one trait Johns brought to his Green Lantern Corps which made it tough for me to read.  He played up the space police aspect and included a lot of inexplicably Earth-like procedures.

For the uninitiated, a Code 1011 is "deicide." 

By "Earth-like" procedures I, of course, mean Utah.

The end result was that, for a superhero with a magic ring, Green Lantern felt a little...mundane. I'd like to keep the epicness of the Green Lantern Corps while returning a sense individuality to the members, and I'll do it by depowering the spectrum corps entirely.

If you'll remember from waaaay back in the My52 Blackest Night rewrite, Hal Jordan revived the dying Entity of life by reabsorbing all the various emotional entities from their respective power batteries back into the White Entity.  They saved all life in the universe, but in the end depowered all the Lantern Corps.

Yellow, Orange, Violet and Blue Lanterns are depowered and taken off the galactic stage. Although I was never a fan of the Red Lanterns, I can totally see Atrocitus (and Dex-Starr just because) killing all his fellow Red Lanterns to claim enough burning energy to remain active.

He's gross-looking, but would provide a nice change 

from Sinestro as the go-to Green Lantern villain.

I'd also like to keep the Indigo Tribe going just to continue to play off their mysterious origins and goals.

Meanwhile, the Green Lanterns are also depowered, but unlike the other Corps, they have a body of high-powered Guardians guiding them.  With their police force rendered powerless and a strong feeling of guilt over their role in hiding the Blackest Night (and other extremes they've gone to recently in the War of Light), the Guardians make the ultimate sacrifice and enter the central battery, using their own power and life forces to relight it.  As powerful as the Guardians were, though, it's not enough to empower 3600 sectors worth of Lanterns, so the remaining Corps has to be selective in where they base themselves.  Each remaining Green Lantern must act in an increasing level of autonomy, with only occasional guidance and support from Oa.  Many of my favorite veteran Lanterns continue on, such as Rot Lop Fan, Iolande, Salaak, and Stel, while others are retired (some by choice, like Soranik Natu).  

Of our Earth-born Lanterns, I waffled a bit on which one to keep as the My52 Green Lantern, or even introducing a new character to take up the ring.  To be honest, Guy and Kyle were never in the running.  Guy was never more to me than a one-note character, and Kyle never hooked me in 20 years of trying.   Hal and John were both strong candidates, though, but despite John's success as a character in the Justice League animated series, I ultimately opted to keep Hal in the suit both because he brings the strongest supporting cast (non-costumed story aspects are just as important to me as their costumed antics), and also because I came up with other plans for John.

While Guy and Kyle quietly retire to obscurity, John retains the distinction of being the only mortal to be named a Guardian (I believe from his 'Mosaic' days, gaining the title "the Architect") and will remain on Oa with a still-ringed Salaak to help run the Corps.  

See?

On Earth, Hal keeps his position as an Air Force fighter pilot, and with it all the supporting cast that came with it, like Cowgirl and General Stone.  It's an interesting inversion that Hal's commanding officer is in on his alternate identity, rather than him having to keep coming up with excuses when he goes off-world for days at a time.  I'm not clear why Stone would keep his secret, but there it is.  Hal also has his brother's family living in Coast City, but they're not particularly danger-prone, so they'll be there to simply provide an air of the mundane in Hal's otherwise gonzo life (fighter pilot by day/space cop by night).