So. Everyone keeping track of the schedule goings-on? Most of the FC books seem to be falling into place to conclude by the end of January, so that they can be "reflected in the books starting in March"--hmm; there seems to still be a safety cushion built in there. LEGION OF 3 WORLDS, on the other hand, appears to have fallen off a cliff; #3 is now due out in mid-January (and #4 in late December, but I imagine that'll get fixed sometime soon), and #5 still isn't on the schedule. Although if the lightning rod is going to tie into FLASH: REBIRTH, it's going to have to be out by April, isn't it?
If FINAL CRISIS is, as Morrison puts it, "a doom-laden, Death Metal myth for the wonderful world of Fina(ncia)l Crisis/Eco-breakdown/Terror Trauma we all have to live in," then RotRL is as metal as it gets--although, as several people have pointed out already, it has next to nothing to do with FC proper. (Johns made the claim that "you'll see events in FINAL CRISIS have motivated the Guardians...," but any reference to that seems to have not made it into the final script.) I'm surprised, though, that after taking such pains to explain or at least cue everything about the Legion in Lo3W, Johns has basically written this issue as a slightly longer issue of GREEN LANTERN for people who've been following it already.
Pg. 1:
Between #1 and #2? I guess that means that the GL storyline this "prologue" cliffhangers into happens between those issues too. Which means, as the sloth mugged by a gang of vicious snails put it, it all happened so fast! Except wasn't the deal in FC #1 that the Alpha Lanterns had cordoned off the planet, no one gets in or out, etc.? So what are Hal and John doing zooming off to outer space? Or do they get the "space cop" exception?
[ETA: As fcfanatic points out, at this point Hal's scar from FC #1 should be visible, and it's not. What's interesting is that most of the close-ups of Hal's face in this issue specifically don't show his left temple--and the ones that do almost all have some kind of patch of shading in that area. I suppose it's possible that Davis put the scar in there, and Hope didn't know it was supposed to be there... or maybe everyone just forgot/didn't know.]
Also, I've updated the timeline.
"Inversions" has to be a reference to Qull of the Five Inversions from "Tygers," the Alan Moore/Kevin O'Neill story in TALES OF THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS ANNUAL #2 that keeps on giving. [ETA: This point is explicated at greater length in the recent GREEN LANTERN #33--they're the survivors of the Massacre of Sector 666.]
Pg. 2:
For Atrocitus and Sector 666, see notes for DC UNIVERSE 0, pp. 15-16.
Ysmault is another throwaway thing from "Tygers."
The Guardians' android police force was the Manhunters--the kind created by Jack Kirby that first appeared in 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL #5, rather than DC's many other flavors of Manhunter. According to GREEN LANTERN #33, they went all "the crime isss life, the sentence isss death" on Sector 666.
Pg. 3:
Man, that oath may scan right, but it's sure ungainly--"so freshly dead"? Wouldn't "ripped from a body freshly dead" seem more natural? (Answer: yes, but then it wouldn't be able to include the extremely metal word "corpse".) Nice how the page's layout echoes the design of the Red Lantern insignia, too.
Pg. 5:
Jim Jordan, created by John Broome and Gil Kane, first appeared in 1961's GREEN LANTERN #9. (Note the "Kane St." in the background of the first panel; "Dooley Ave." probably refers to Kevin Dooley, who was editing the series during the "destruction of Coast City" period.) Cowgirl (Jillian Pearlman), created by Geoff Johns and Ethan van Sciver, first appeared in 2006's GREEN LANTERN #4.
Coast City's population would make it the fourth-largest city on the U.S. of Earth-Prime, bigger than any but New York, L.A. and Chicago. Not bad for a place that was a ghost town only a couple of years ago.
Pg. 6:
Korugar, Sinestro's home planet, first appeared in 1961's GREEN LANTERN #7.
Pp. 7-8:
"The last time the Guardians thought they stopped Sinestro...": This is not quite accurate: in 1988's THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS #223 and thereabouts, Sinestro was sentenced to death, and managed to survive by putting his "essence" into the Central Power Battery. (Which made it stop working.)
Parallax, uh... Yes, right! Parallax. Next question, please?
Pg. 9:
This scene follows up on a plot thread from GREEN LANTERN #27. This Guardian was burned by the Anti-Monitor in GREEN LANTERN #25 (which is also where A-M got, uh, de-husked), and that sure looks like a Black Lantern/Black Hand insignia in his (or her?) eyeballs.
Ash, created by Ron Marz and Tony Harris, first appeared in 1993's GREEN LANTERN CORPS QUARTERLY #7.
Pg. 10:
Zamaron is the home planet of the Violet Lanterns we saw in DC UNIVERSE 0. And... now Scardian has yellow-lantern eyes.
Pg. 13:
Wouldn't executing a recidivist perpetrator of genocide count as deterrence as much as punishment?
Pg. 16:
Bleez and Vice are both new. Ranx, the Sentient City, is yet another "Tygers" bit, although it showed up at length in the course of the Sinestro Corps War. Laira, in the bottom panel, was created by Ruben Diaz and Travis Charest, and first appeared in GREEN LANTERN CORPS QUARTERLY #6.
Pg. 17:
I don't think we've seen space sector 543 before, although the Vega system has been established as being in sector 2828. The Controllers, created by Jim Shooter, Mort Weisinger and Curt Swan, first appeared in 1967's ADVENTURE COMICS #357. Okaara was mentioned a bunch in Marv Wolfman and George Pérez's early NEW TEEN TITANS stories, and the Warlords of Okaara first appeared in person in TALES OF THE NEW TEEN TITANS #4. (Ah, the days when Pérez was drawing two comics a month...) And what light is it? It sure looks like orange light, representing greed, hence the "No! It's mine!"--which I believe we also saw back in DCU 0.
Pg. 18:
That would be Salakk, not Saalak; created by Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton, he first appeared in 1982's GREEN LANTERN #149. Kilowog, the big guy in the middle panel, was created by Steve Englehart and Joe Staton, and first appeared in 1986's GREEN LANTERN CORPS #201, but stole my heart with the cover to GREEN LANTERN CORPS #208. I cannot for the life of me remember what the Lantern who looks like a 100-sided die is named. [ETA: Chaselon. Thank you, rwe1138!]
Pg. 19:
Anyone want to guess what Hal's question was going to be?
Pg. 20:
Arx, created by Dave Gibbons and Patrick Gleason, first appeared in 2006's GREEN LANTERN CORPS #1.
Pg. 24:
The Red Hairball Lantern is apparently called Dex-Star, although if he's named this issue I overlooked it. I thought the Sinestro of Sector 3 was Bedovian, but I don't think the hairball victim here is him.
Pg. 30:
Saint Walker, not to be confused with Christian Walker, first popped up in the "War of Light" image in GREEN LANTERN #25.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Final Crisis: Submit
Very minimal annotations this time out. (Although the "two weeks" comment was helpful in updating the FINAL CRISIS timeline.)
Pp. 2-3:
Before he was Black Lightning, Jefferson Pierce was an Olympic decathlete, and over the course of this story we see him doing a few decathlon-type things--this, I suppose, would be one of the sprinting events...
Pg. 4:
...and this would be the hurdles.
Pg. 5:
As Evie points out, the "that's right" is a very blaxploitation gesture.
Pg. 15:
Jefferson's two daughters are Anissa (Thunder of the Outsiders) and Jennifer (Lightning of the JSA).
Pg. 22:
Here he is throwing the discus.
Pg. 23:
Jefferson was also a high school teacher for a while, and later the U.S. Secretary of Education under the Lex Luthor administration.
Who was the colleague he was trying to rescue? From FC #4, it looks like there were already a bunch of his colleagues at the Hall of Justice. (But he might not have known that; information-transmission is at a premium, obviously.) ETA: commenter Smurph indicates that it was probably Oracle.
The origin of "shoulder to the wheel" appears to be Aesop's fable of Hercules and the wagoner.
Pg. 26:
Suicide Slum was first named in STAR SPANGLED COMICS #7, although Kirby relocated it from NYC to Metropolis in JIMMY OLSEN #133. (Its official name is Hobb's Bay.)
"I learned it by watching you!"
Pg. 28:
Thunder, created by Judd Winick and Tom Raney, first appeared in 2003's OUTSIDERS #1. She seems to have gotten better after her brain injuries in recent issues of OUTSIDERS.
Incidentally, there's a real-world Omega Initiative!
Pg. 29:
Not exactly subtle to be burning a copy of Darwin... but this issue is not about subtlety. I'm wondering what the "S" painted on the window and the wall means, as opposed to the Justifier "J" we see in FINAL CRISIS #4 itself. [ETA: Several commenters have pointed out that it stands for "scapegoat"--see the Kirby image about three-quarters of the way down this page.]
Andrew Hickey points out that what Jefferson is saying echoes Gregory Bar Hebraeus's probably apocryphal account of Caliph Omar's order to burn the books of the Library of Alexandria: "they will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous."
Pp. 2-3:
Before he was Black Lightning, Jefferson Pierce was an Olympic decathlete, and over the course of this story we see him doing a few decathlon-type things--this, I suppose, would be one of the sprinting events...
Pg. 4:
...and this would be the hurdles.
Pg. 5:
As Evie points out, the "that's right" is a very blaxploitation gesture.
Pg. 15:
Jefferson's two daughters are Anissa (Thunder of the Outsiders) and Jennifer (Lightning of the JSA).
Pg. 22:
Here he is throwing the discus.
Pg. 23:
Jefferson was also a high school teacher for a while, and later the U.S. Secretary of Education under the Lex Luthor administration.
Who was the colleague he was trying to rescue? From FC #4, it looks like there were already a bunch of his colleagues at the Hall of Justice. (But he might not have known that; information-transmission is at a premium, obviously.) ETA: commenter Smurph indicates that it was probably Oracle.
The origin of "shoulder to the wheel" appears to be Aesop's fable of Hercules and the wagoner.
Pg. 26:
Suicide Slum was first named in STAR SPANGLED COMICS #7, although Kirby relocated it from NYC to Metropolis in JIMMY OLSEN #133. (Its official name is Hobb's Bay.)
"I learned it by watching you!"
Pg. 28:
Thunder, created by Judd Winick and Tom Raney, first appeared in 2003's OUTSIDERS #1. She seems to have gotten better after her brain injuries in recent issues of OUTSIDERS.
Incidentally, there's a real-world Omega Initiative!
Pg. 29:
Not exactly subtle to be burning a copy of Darwin... but this issue is not about subtlety. I'm wondering what the "S" painted on the window and the wall means, as opposed to the Justifier "J" we see in FINAL CRISIS #4 itself. [ETA: Several commenters have pointed out that it stands for "scapegoat"--see the Kirby image about three-quarters of the way down this page.]
Andrew Hickey points out that what Jefferson is saying echoes Gregory Bar Hebraeus's probably apocryphal account of Caliph Omar's order to burn the books of the Library of Alexandria: "they will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous."
Final Crisis #4
Final Crisis #4
Q. How metal was this issue? A. ALL THE METAL. And I am far from the only person to have noticed that the neon gauntlets Darkseid is all but audibly clanging together on the portrait cover look like they say DC.
As usual lately, I am late to the mark. (And covering this issue before SUBMIT, although it clearly happens immediately after it. I'll try to fix up the chronology tonight or Friday.) David Uzumeri got to a bunch of stuff first, of course...
Pg. 1:
Carol Ferris, created by John Broome and Gil Kane, first appeared in SHOWCASE #22 in 1959.
Pg. 2:
The top panel is the London Underground. The cab is indeed probably in New York, but who's the passenger in the fedora? And should I recognize the cabbie?
Pg. 3:
That J might be for "Justifier" (see notes on the S-for-scapegoat in SUBMIT, above). The Ray appears to be the Ray Terrill version, who first appeared in 1992's THE RAY #1, created by Jack C. Harris and Joe Quesada (rather than the S.H.A.D.E. operative Stan Silver from UNCLE SAM AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS); he's a variation on a character created by the mighty Lou Fine, who first appeared in 1940's SMASH COMICS #14.
I kind of don't understand how Ray dragged the Tattooed Man in here...
Pp. 6-7:
The narration is Turpin's, apparently. The slaughtered Blüdhaven force includes Negative Woman, Director Bones and Count Vertigo, all Checkmate operatives.
Pg. 8:
This raises the question of who the "powerful, noble spirit" of Darkseid's previous fleshly incarnation was. The quotes around "incubation phase" are very Kirby.
Pg. 10:
Apparently Barbara did manage to unplug the Internet after all!
Pg. 11:
As David points out, the Ünternet was created by Kurt Busiek and introduced in ACTION COMICS #853. But who would the "highly placed informer in Libra's secret society" be?
Pp. 12-13:
Hawkgirl is fighting Silver Swan (III). The grid is: Ravager, Starman, Blue Devil (M.I.A., perhaps, because of REIGN IN HELL?), Huntress, The Atom, Enchantress (when was she injured?); Uncle Sam (corrupted how?... besides the obvious, I mean), Wildcat I, Wonder Woman (who should by rights be M.I.A., as David pointed out; maybe this is Hippolyta?), Superman, Batman, Cyborg (we don't know how he went missing), Martian Manhunter; Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, Hourman, Hal Jordan/Green Lantern, Dr. Fate (also maybe missing because of REIGN IN HELL), Power Girl, Wally West/The Flash; John Stewart (who now has a mysterious scar just like Hal did), Sandman, Black Canary, the Kingdom Come Superman (!), Robin, Red Tornado, Phantom Lady; Starfire (when'd she get captured?), Liberty Belle, Green Arrow, Black Lightning, Aquaman, Firestorm and Kyle Rayner. (Thank you, David.)
Castellan is Carl Draper's title as of 2007's CHECKMATE #17; Draper was Deathtrap, although here he apparently claims not to have been the Master Jailer, which he was pre-Crisis.
Pg. 14:
There was a Warmaker who appeared alongside Sarge Steel in SECRET AGENT #9 (check that Dick Giordano cover!), but this is the one from the International Ultramarine Corps, created by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter, who first appeared in DC ONE MILLION #2. Superbia is their city/HQ in the sky. And Watchtower 4 is Gorilla City; is that Freedom Beast or B'wana Beast?
Pg. 15:
Black Adam, created by Otto Binder and C.C. Beck, first appeared in THE MARVEL FAMILY #1 in 1945. (As for where his throne room is--why, it's on the cover of 52 #45, of course.) August General-in-Iron and the rest of the Great Ten, created by Grant Morrison and I think J.G. Jones, first appeared in 52 #6.
Pg. 16:
This leads directly out of SUBMIT. Yes, he looks like Metron now, with the circuit, but he also looks a bit like one of the Metal Men, don't you think? Remember, in Grant Morrison comics, bald men always save the universe!
Pg. 17:
Wonder Woman/Bernadeth is "Wunda," Giganta/Stompa is "Gigantrix." "Flash fact," I believe, was a phrase from Silver Age FLASH comics that explained some scientific (or occasionally pseudoscientific) principle; I forget which of the writers on Wally's series retconned it to be something Barry used to say to Wally by way of education. [ETA: thanks to commenter msinger for pointing me toward Morrison's use of "Flash Facts" in JLA #3--scroll down a bit to see it.]
"Original costume": Wally originally (briefly) wore a smaller version of Barry's costume, then switched to a predominantly yellow costume, which he was still wearing at the time of Barry's death. He's been wearing the red one ever since, but Barry obviously hasn't been around. [ETA: several commenters make the argument that this is more likely to be a reference to Barry having seen Wally's shinier '90s variation of the Flash outfit in his earlier returns--which raises the question of whether this version of Barry is younger or older than the one seen in his two previous returns.]
Pg. 20:
Uzumeri, you can't depend on me like that! The League were in a similar pose on the cover of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #4, and vaguely similar situations appeared on the covers of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #26 and JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #147, but none of those seem quite right. The version of J'onn in the bottle has his long head, which is doubly confusing...
Pg. 22:
Yes, I also want to see Morrison write Green Arrow forever.
Pg. 25:
For "day of holocaust," see SUPERMAN BEYOND #1.
Pg. 27:
I like the "speed force as life equation" idea--what happens when you plug 3X2(9YZ)4A into Self = Darkseid? "Sorry I was late": the running joke in the early days of Barry's FLASH series was that he was incapable of being on time to anything. Or maybe that's just a reference to this issue's ship date.
Pg. 29:
I don't get why Shilo's colored pink here (unless this particular heroic bald guy isn't actually him), but he's also gotten out of worse before--see SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY #1. Note also the Metron circuit appearing on the heroes' faces.
Q. How metal was this issue? A. ALL THE METAL. And I am far from the only person to have noticed that the neon gauntlets Darkseid is all but audibly clanging together on the portrait cover look like they say DC.
As usual lately, I am late to the mark. (And covering this issue before SUBMIT, although it clearly happens immediately after it. I'll try to fix up the chronology tonight or Friday.) David Uzumeri got to a bunch of stuff first, of course...
Pg. 1:
Carol Ferris, created by John Broome and Gil Kane, first appeared in SHOWCASE #22 in 1959.
Pg. 2:
The top panel is the London Underground. The cab is indeed probably in New York, but who's the passenger in the fedora? And should I recognize the cabbie?
Pg. 3:
That J might be for "Justifier" (see notes on the S-for-scapegoat in SUBMIT, above). The Ray appears to be the Ray Terrill version, who first appeared in 1992's THE RAY #1, created by Jack C. Harris and Joe Quesada (rather than the S.H.A.D.E. operative Stan Silver from UNCLE SAM AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS); he's a variation on a character created by the mighty Lou Fine, who first appeared in 1940's SMASH COMICS #14.
I kind of don't understand how Ray dragged the Tattooed Man in here...
Pp. 6-7:
The narration is Turpin's, apparently. The slaughtered Blüdhaven force includes Negative Woman, Director Bones and Count Vertigo, all Checkmate operatives.
Pg. 8:
This raises the question of who the "powerful, noble spirit" of Darkseid's previous fleshly incarnation was. The quotes around "incubation phase" are very Kirby.
Pg. 10:
Apparently Barbara did manage to unplug the Internet after all!
Pg. 11:
As David points out, the Ünternet was created by Kurt Busiek and introduced in ACTION COMICS #853. But who would the "highly placed informer in Libra's secret society" be?
Pp. 12-13:
Hawkgirl is fighting Silver Swan (III). The grid is: Ravager, Starman, Blue Devil (M.I.A., perhaps, because of REIGN IN HELL?), Huntress, The Atom, Enchantress (when was she injured?); Uncle Sam (corrupted how?... besides the obvious, I mean), Wildcat I, Wonder Woman (who should by rights be M.I.A., as David pointed out; maybe this is Hippolyta?), Superman, Batman, Cyborg (we don't know how he went missing), Martian Manhunter; Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, Hourman, Hal Jordan/Green Lantern, Dr. Fate (also maybe missing because of REIGN IN HELL), Power Girl, Wally West/The Flash; John Stewart (who now has a mysterious scar just like Hal did), Sandman, Black Canary, the Kingdom Come Superman (!), Robin, Red Tornado, Phantom Lady; Starfire (when'd she get captured?), Liberty Belle, Green Arrow, Black Lightning, Aquaman, Firestorm and Kyle Rayner. (Thank you, David.)
Castellan is Carl Draper's title as of 2007's CHECKMATE #17; Draper was Deathtrap, although here he apparently claims not to have been the Master Jailer, which he was pre-Crisis.
Pg. 14:
There was a Warmaker who appeared alongside Sarge Steel in SECRET AGENT #9 (check that Dick Giordano cover!), but this is the one from the International Ultramarine Corps, created by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter, who first appeared in DC ONE MILLION #2. Superbia is their city/HQ in the sky. And Watchtower 4 is Gorilla City; is that Freedom Beast or B'wana Beast?
Pg. 15:
Black Adam, created by Otto Binder and C.C. Beck, first appeared in THE MARVEL FAMILY #1 in 1945. (As for where his throne room is--why, it's on the cover of 52 #45, of course.) August General-in-Iron and the rest of the Great Ten, created by Grant Morrison and I think J.G. Jones, first appeared in 52 #6.
Pg. 16:
This leads directly out of SUBMIT. Yes, he looks like Metron now, with the circuit, but he also looks a bit like one of the Metal Men, don't you think? Remember, in Grant Morrison comics, bald men always save the universe!
Pg. 17:
Wonder Woman/Bernadeth is "Wunda," Giganta/Stompa is "Gigantrix." "Flash fact," I believe, was a phrase from Silver Age FLASH comics that explained some scientific (or occasionally pseudoscientific) principle; I forget which of the writers on Wally's series retconned it to be something Barry used to say to Wally by way of education. [ETA: thanks to commenter msinger for pointing me toward Morrison's use of "Flash Facts" in JLA #3--scroll down a bit to see it.]
"Original costume": Wally originally (briefly) wore a smaller version of Barry's costume, then switched to a predominantly yellow costume, which he was still wearing at the time of Barry's death. He's been wearing the red one ever since, but Barry obviously hasn't been around. [ETA: several commenters make the argument that this is more likely to be a reference to Barry having seen Wally's shinier '90s variation of the Flash outfit in his earlier returns--which raises the question of whether this version of Barry is younger or older than the one seen in his two previous returns.]
Pg. 20:
Uzumeri, you can't depend on me like that! The League were in a similar pose on the cover of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #4, and vaguely similar situations appeared on the covers of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #26 and JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #147, but none of those seem quite right. The version of J'onn in the bottle has his long head, which is doubly confusing...
Pg. 22:
Yes, I also want to see Morrison write Green Arrow forever.
Pg. 25:
For "day of holocaust," see SUPERMAN BEYOND #1.
Pg. 27:
I like the "speed force as life equation" idea--what happens when you plug 3X2(9YZ)4A into Self = Darkseid? "Sorry I was late": the running joke in the early days of Barry's FLASH series was that he was incapable of being on time to anything. Or maybe that's just a reference to this issue's ship date.
Pg. 29:
I don't get why Shilo's colored pink here (unless this particular heroic bald guy isn't actually him), but he's also gotten out of worse before--see SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY #1. Note also the Metron circuit appearing on the heroes' faces.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #2
The big question about this series, obviously, is: when is Arm-Fall-Off Boy going to show up? I just read THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES IN THE 31ST CENTURY #16, an entire issue devoted to his legacy; I think his non-appearance thus far here needs to be addressed.
As for Lo3W #2 itself, both Michael Grabois and Tim Callahan have gotten to this issue already, so there may not be much left for me to do but plagiarize and synthesize. But let's see what I can add.
Pg. 1:
A fade-in from white, mirroring the endings of several incarnations and sub-incarnations of the Legion series.
This is Shikari, created by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Olivier Coipel, who first appeared in LEGION LOST #1--she's a variation on Dawnstar. She's an L(II)-era character.
Pg. 2:
The official name of Sorcerer's World is actually Zerox. Not kidding. (And it was established in 1987's AMETHYST #1 that Zerox was formerly Gemworld.)
The White Witch here, created by E. Nelson Bridwell and Curt Swan, first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #350; this is the L(I) version. We're seeing L(II)'s Dreamer rather than the L(I) White Witch's sister.
In panel 4, the speaker is the L(III) version of Star Boy, whose original version, created by Otto Binder and George Papp, first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #282. He's with the L(III) versions of Lightning Lad and Light Lass; the statue is of the dead version of Nura Nal/Dream Girl from that incarnation. "The light of the Legion": one of those prophetic phrases Johns likes so much.
Superboy-Prime, besides being the ultimate graf writer, is modifying the "L" of the Legion flight ring into his own S. Wow, Johns also likes stories about rings, huh? The power ring, the flight rings, the Flash costume ring...
"Keep your hands away": the return of the hand motif from DC UNIVERSE 0? Mordru, by the way, was created by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan, and first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #369.
Pg. 3:
Blok/White Witch and Wildfire/Dawnstar were couples. Of sorts.
Pg. 5:
Rond Vidar, here, was created by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan, and first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #349, as did Universo. Rond was revealed as a Green Lantern in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #50 in 1988, but at that point Green Lanterns were banned from all United Planets territory. Too bad he doesn't mean this Rip Van Winkle.
Rond's power ring was destroyed by Mordru in the course of the first long storyline in the Five Years Later LEGION. (That was followed by Celeste Rockfish absorbing Lantern energies, etc.)
It's probably also worth mentioning Xenofobe here. He was a 30th-century Green Lantern of space sector 2814 (at the same time as Rond? Who knows?), who made one appearance, in SUPERMAN #295. Which of course Michael has written about too, but the short version is that it's the first comic to tie together the Time Trapper and the Great Disaster/Kamandi timeline. Which sure sounds like it'd be relevant to FINAL CRISIS. In fact, it was supposed to have been reprinted in that SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE GREAT DISASTER collection that vanished from DC's publishing schedule a while back.
Pg. 6:
Weird that Mordru claims he killed Glorith (who was actually killed by the Time Trapper), Dragonmage (who's from post-Five Year Gap L(I) continuity, curiously enough) and Evillo; none of those happened on-panel, anyway. I guess 31st-century reanimatees aren't as impressively scary as Black Lanterns.
Pg. 7:
And here he's taking credit for turning the White Witch from "that hag into a beautiful mystic," which Dream Girl actually did in ADVENTURE COMICS #351. Rond's ring isn't magic, although Alan Scott's was... curious that Rond's "knight time" joke comes out the same week as the "naptime" bit in ROGUES' REVENGE #2.
Pg. 8:
As Michael notes, when did Rond beat Mordru before? (And of course a magician would use a Green Lantern's entrails for a spell involving willpower. Brrr.)
Pp. 9-10:
I'm not going to reproduce the lists Tim and Michael compiled here (especially since Michael noted the apparent continuity glitches of this scene). But doesn't Neutrax, in the upper left corner, look a bit Metronish?
Pg. 11:
Flashbacks to the Sinestro Corps War.
Pg. 12:
Prime helped Superman fight the Anti-Monitor back in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. The Legion code, as you might gather, prohibits killing.
Pg. 14:
The Persuader, created by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan, first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #352 (the same goes for Emerald Empress and Validus, later in this scene). I like Prime's "I read all about you"--of course he would have, in pre-Crisis comic books...
Pg. 15:
Yeah, I guess Rokk has indeed given up his relationships--see Night Girl's perturbed expression in the background, beneath that spectacular beehive.
Pg. 16:
The "lethal force enabled" thing happened in the course of the Sinestro Corps War. Lazon, created by Gerry Conway and Joe Staton, first appeared in SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #253 (ditto for Titania, seen on the next page). Storm Boy, created by Jerry Siegel and John Forte, first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #301.
Pg. 17:
Black Mace, created by Jim Shooter and Win Mortimer, first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #374. Beauty Blaze, created by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan, first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #355. Earth-Man, formerly Absorbency Boy, created by Cary Bates and Mike Grell, first appeared in SUPERBOY #218.
Pg. 18:
As Vidar, Universo had been a Green Lantern; THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #295 revealed that the Guardians de-ringed him when he tried to see the origin of the universe (and that ring was later passed down to Rond Vidar). As Tim points out, the "snap" bit alludes to Projectra killing Nemesis Kid in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #5 in 1984.
Pg. 19:
As Michael notes, Rond had a daughter with Laurel Gand, not a son.
Pg. 21:
Here's that lightning rod from "The Lightning Saga" again... and Chameleon Girl, created by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen, first appeared in THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #287.
Pg. 22:
And now we're on Oa, where there's apparently a statuary devoted to great Lanterns of the past, as well as Guy Gardner. Ah, Mogo. Has any other throwaway six-page gag story ever had that kind of afterlife?
Pg. 23:
Curious that the original Happy Harbor cave headquarters of the JLA, subsequently used by the Doom Patrol among others (and apparently terraformed after that by the Martian Manhunter in 52 #24) has been returned to the way the JLA had it. ("Curry, Arthur" was Aquaman).
For more on this particular crystal ball, see notes for DC UNIVERSE 0, pg. 5, panel 9.
"The Subs' satellite" is the former JLA satellite (now occupied by the Legion of Substitute Heroes), which I guess didn't become Brother Eye after all.
Pg. 24:
Hooray for the Time Institute! And it's the return of the Legion Espionage Squad, or something like that... Mon-El is of course a Daxamite, as is Sodam Yat.
Pg. 25:
The Tornado Twins are Barry and Iris Allen's children Don and Dawn (that must've made things fun around the house); the "three-Legion" story involving them has never been told.
FROM BEYOND THE UNKNOWN was an actual DC series, reprinting earlier DC science fiction shorts. That Statue of Liberty can't catch a break.
XS here is Jenni Ognats, the daughter of Dawn Allen from L(II); she was created by Mark Waid, Tom McCraw and Jeff Moy, and first appeared in LEGIONNAIRES #0 in 1994. Gates, created by Mark Waid, Tom McCraw and Lee Moder, first appeared in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #66.
The "kra-KOOOM" is exactly the same sound effect we've seen for Flash-related lightning in ROGUES' REVENGE, I believe. But it's curious that the crystal ball exploded before the scene from DCU 0 in which it's intact.
Pp. 26-27:
L(III) on the left, L(II) on the right, other folks' annnotations have done the heavy lifting here.
Pg. 28:
Jazmin is Kid Quantum from L(II)--created by Tom McCraw, Tom Peyer and Lee Moder, she first appeared in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #82, based on an earlier character from the same run, created by Tom & Mary Bierbaum and David A. Williams, who first appeared in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #33. She also made a one-panel cameo in INFINITE CRISIS, being found by Shikari on Earth-247 (ha ha). The guy in the iron mask talking to her is Ferro from L(II), an updated version of the character created by Jim Shooter and Sheldon Moldoff who first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #346.
Pg. 30:
Beg pardon, but doesn't "S" have a minimum of four points?
Pg. 31:
Ooh, a black power battery, just like in DCU 0! The clear coffin Rond Vidar is in looks a lot like Lightning Lad's coffin from ADVENTURE COMICS #308, doesn't it?
Pg. 32:
Ah, Sodam Yat--further proof that Alan Moore's merest whims can rattle the ground of the DCU for decades. He's a Daxamite Green Lantern, created by Moore and Kevin O'Neill, who first appeared in 1986's GREEN LANTERN ANNUAL #2; he's subsequently become a major character in GREEN LANTERN CORPS (and taken on the Ion identity). A version of the character identified as Sodal Yat beat Superman to death in Moore's never-realized "Twilight of the Superheroes" proposal.
As for Lo3W #2 itself, both Michael Grabois and Tim Callahan have gotten to this issue already, so there may not be much left for me to do but plagiarize and synthesize. But let's see what I can add.
Pg. 1:
A fade-in from white, mirroring the endings of several incarnations and sub-incarnations of the Legion series.
This is Shikari, created by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Olivier Coipel, who first appeared in LEGION LOST #1--she's a variation on Dawnstar. She's an L(II)-era character.
Pg. 2:
The official name of Sorcerer's World is actually Zerox. Not kidding. (And it was established in 1987's AMETHYST #1 that Zerox was formerly Gemworld.)
The White Witch here, created by E. Nelson Bridwell and Curt Swan, first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #350; this is the L(I) version. We're seeing L(II)'s Dreamer rather than the L(I) White Witch's sister.
In panel 4, the speaker is the L(III) version of Star Boy, whose original version, created by Otto Binder and George Papp, first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #282. He's with the L(III) versions of Lightning Lad and Light Lass; the statue is of the dead version of Nura Nal/Dream Girl from that incarnation. "The light of the Legion": one of those prophetic phrases Johns likes so much.
Superboy-Prime, besides being the ultimate graf writer, is modifying the "L" of the Legion flight ring into his own S. Wow, Johns also likes stories about rings, huh? The power ring, the flight rings, the Flash costume ring...
"Keep your hands away": the return of the hand motif from DC UNIVERSE 0? Mordru, by the way, was created by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan, and first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #369.
Pg. 3:
Blok/White Witch and Wildfire/Dawnstar were couples. Of sorts.
Pg. 5:
Rond Vidar, here, was created by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan, and first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #349, as did Universo. Rond was revealed as a Green Lantern in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #50 in 1988, but at that point Green Lanterns were banned from all United Planets territory. Too bad he doesn't mean this Rip Van Winkle.
Rond's power ring was destroyed by Mordru in the course of the first long storyline in the Five Years Later LEGION. (That was followed by Celeste Rockfish absorbing Lantern energies, etc.)
It's probably also worth mentioning Xenofobe here. He was a 30th-century Green Lantern of space sector 2814 (at the same time as Rond? Who knows?), who made one appearance, in SUPERMAN #295. Which of course Michael has written about too, but the short version is that it's the first comic to tie together the Time Trapper and the Great Disaster/Kamandi timeline. Which sure sounds like it'd be relevant to FINAL CRISIS. In fact, it was supposed to have been reprinted in that SHOWCASE PRESENTS THE GREAT DISASTER collection that vanished from DC's publishing schedule a while back.
Pg. 6:
Weird that Mordru claims he killed Glorith (who was actually killed by the Time Trapper), Dragonmage (who's from post-Five Year Gap L(I) continuity, curiously enough) and Evillo; none of those happened on-panel, anyway. I guess 31st-century reanimatees aren't as impressively scary as Black Lanterns.
Pg. 7:
And here he's taking credit for turning the White Witch from "that hag into a beautiful mystic," which Dream Girl actually did in ADVENTURE COMICS #351. Rond's ring isn't magic, although Alan Scott's was... curious that Rond's "knight time" joke comes out the same week as the "naptime" bit in ROGUES' REVENGE #2.
Pg. 8:
As Michael notes, when did Rond beat Mordru before? (And of course a magician would use a Green Lantern's entrails for a spell involving willpower. Brrr.)
Pp. 9-10:
I'm not going to reproduce the lists Tim and Michael compiled here (especially since Michael noted the apparent continuity glitches of this scene). But doesn't Neutrax, in the upper left corner, look a bit Metronish?
Pg. 11:
Flashbacks to the Sinestro Corps War.
Pg. 12:
Prime helped Superman fight the Anti-Monitor back in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. The Legion code, as you might gather, prohibits killing.
Pg. 14:
The Persuader, created by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan, first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #352 (the same goes for Emerald Empress and Validus, later in this scene). I like Prime's "I read all about you"--of course he would have, in pre-Crisis comic books...
Pg. 15:
Yeah, I guess Rokk has indeed given up his relationships--see Night Girl's perturbed expression in the background, beneath that spectacular beehive.
Pg. 16:
The "lethal force enabled" thing happened in the course of the Sinestro Corps War. Lazon, created by Gerry Conway and Joe Staton, first appeared in SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #253 (ditto for Titania, seen on the next page). Storm Boy, created by Jerry Siegel and John Forte, first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #301.
Pg. 17:
Black Mace, created by Jim Shooter and Win Mortimer, first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #374. Beauty Blaze, created by Jim Shooter and Curt Swan, first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #355. Earth-Man, formerly Absorbency Boy, created by Cary Bates and Mike Grell, first appeared in SUPERBOY #218.
Pg. 18:
As Vidar, Universo had been a Green Lantern; THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #295 revealed that the Guardians de-ringed him when he tried to see the origin of the universe (and that ring was later passed down to Rond Vidar). As Tim points out, the "snap" bit alludes to Projectra killing Nemesis Kid in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #5 in 1984.
Pg. 19:
As Michael notes, Rond had a daughter with Laurel Gand, not a son.
Pg. 21:
Here's that lightning rod from "The Lightning Saga" again... and Chameleon Girl, created by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen, first appeared in THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #287.
Pg. 22:
And now we're on Oa, where there's apparently a statuary devoted to great Lanterns of the past, as well as Guy Gardner. Ah, Mogo. Has any other throwaway six-page gag story ever had that kind of afterlife?
Pg. 23:
Curious that the original Happy Harbor cave headquarters of the JLA, subsequently used by the Doom Patrol among others (and apparently terraformed after that by the Martian Manhunter in 52 #24) has been returned to the way the JLA had it. ("Curry, Arthur" was Aquaman).
For more on this particular crystal ball, see notes for DC UNIVERSE 0, pg. 5, panel 9.
"The Subs' satellite" is the former JLA satellite (now occupied by the Legion of Substitute Heroes), which I guess didn't become Brother Eye after all.
Pg. 24:
Hooray for the Time Institute! And it's the return of the Legion Espionage Squad, or something like that... Mon-El is of course a Daxamite, as is Sodam Yat.
Pg. 25:
The Tornado Twins are Barry and Iris Allen's children Don and Dawn (that must've made things fun around the house); the "three-Legion" story involving them has never been told.
FROM BEYOND THE UNKNOWN was an actual DC series, reprinting earlier DC science fiction shorts. That Statue of Liberty can't catch a break.
XS here is Jenni Ognats, the daughter of Dawn Allen from L(II); she was created by Mark Waid, Tom McCraw and Jeff Moy, and first appeared in LEGIONNAIRES #0 in 1994. Gates, created by Mark Waid, Tom McCraw and Lee Moder, first appeared in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #66.
The "kra-KOOOM" is exactly the same sound effect we've seen for Flash-related lightning in ROGUES' REVENGE, I believe. But it's curious that the crystal ball exploded before the scene from DCU 0 in which it's intact.
Pp. 26-27:
L(III) on the left, L(II) on the right, other folks' annnotations have done the heavy lifting here.
Pg. 28:
Jazmin is Kid Quantum from L(II)--created by Tom McCraw, Tom Peyer and Lee Moder, she first appeared in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #82, based on an earlier character from the same run, created by Tom & Mary Bierbaum and David A. Williams, who first appeared in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #33. She also made a one-panel cameo in INFINITE CRISIS, being found by Shikari on Earth-247 (ha ha). The guy in the iron mask talking to her is Ferro from L(II), an updated version of the character created by Jim Shooter and Sheldon Moldoff who first appeared in ADVENTURE COMICS #346.
Pg. 30:
Beg pardon, but doesn't "S" have a minimum of four points?
Pg. 31:
Ooh, a black power battery, just like in DCU 0! The clear coffin Rond Vidar is in looks a lot like Lightning Lad's coffin from ADVENTURE COMICS #308, doesn't it?
Pg. 32:
Ah, Sodam Yat--further proof that Alan Moore's merest whims can rattle the ground of the DCU for decades. He's a Daxamite Green Lantern, created by Moore and Kevin O'Neill, who first appeared in 1986's GREEN LANTERN ANNUAL #2; he's subsequently become a major character in GREEN LANTERN CORPS (and taken on the Ion identity). A version of the character identified as Sodal Yat beat Superman to death in Moore's never-realized "Twilight of the Superheroes" proposal.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge #3
Again, there's not a lot to annotate here--as opposed to Lo3W, which I won't be able to get to for a day or two. I'll note that the whole thing appears to be happening on day 5 of the timeline below, since the ultimate unsolicited e-mail hasn't happened yet.
Pg. 1:
Fairly close to an accurate quote--and Twain again! The actual sentence, from Twain's Autobiography, is: "That idea pleased me; indeed there is more real pleasure to be gotten out of a malicious act, where your heart is in it, than out of thirty acts of a nobler sort." And yes, it was Weather Wizard's brother's observatory, as everyone but me figured out.
Pg. 2:
You know, describing them as "blue-collar" is pushing it, given that Mardon's brother appears to have had his very own observatory.
Pp. 4-5:
I'm out of the country at the moment and don't have my back issues at hand: when did the Top build Speedrebro in the observatory?
Of what state is Central City the capital? I mean, I realize the DCU U.S. is so big it's got two presidents at any given time...
I love Mick's "Can I burn it? Huh? Can I burn it?" routine.
Pg. 6:
Inertia's real name is Thaddeus Thawne, and who wouldn't turn to a life of destruction with a name like that?
Pg. 7:
Zoom's motivation is kind of fantastic, but it always makes me think of that routine from the Sacred Wars: "You know what builds character, don't you? Conflict! PRAISE conflict!"
Pg. 12:
Mirror Master not only killed the Pied Piper's parents in (I believe) FLASH #174, but framed him for it. Guess McCulloch is a homophobe too.
Pg. 13:
Why does Libra think that's blasphemy? It was established--by Desaad, I believe--in COUNTDOWN #10.
Pg. 14:
Wasn't Iris Allen taking care of Josh for a while? How'd he go from that to "bouncing around"? (According to Josh's Hyperborea page, Chyre had wanted to adopt him too.)
Pg. 19:
Persuasion doesn't quite cut it as Libra's power, especially since we've seen so many people resist him (like Luthor, for instance). It also doesn't quite make sense why Libra utters his little expository speech here about speedsters being "the breakers of the Bleed"...
Pg. 20:
"He won't have a gun" is a callback to FLASH #197, I believe. Grodd growling is from the sequence where Hunter was crippled in FLASH #193.
Pg. 21:
"Honor among thieves": the formulation goes back to Cicero, but one of the first documented uses of something similar in English is from Peter Motteaux's early-18th-century translation of Don Quixote: "The old proverb still holds good, Thieves are never rogues among themselves."
Heat Wave established last issue that he can melt the Flash's boots. What was the first story where he did that, though? [ETA: Kris Weberg points out in the comments that it was FLASH #266.]
Pg. 24:
"Year": really? Let's check the chronology--specifically, the DCU Timeline. The "year" would have to begin with the death of Bart, which coincided with "The Lightning Saga," which appeared to begin around U.S. Thanksgiving time. That coincided with the first dozen or so issues of COUNTDOWN, but COUNTDOWN didn't take place over a year--more like a few months--and SALVATION RUN, which takes place over the course of about five weeks, starts midway through it. So it's been a brutal five months for them, let's say.
Pg. 25:
Zoom "was to be the messenger of Darkseid"? A guy with boom tubes needs messengers?
Pg. 28:
"The one place no speedsters will look": wait, what?
Pg. 1:
Fairly close to an accurate quote--and Twain again! The actual sentence, from Twain's Autobiography, is: "That idea pleased me; indeed there is more real pleasure to be gotten out of a malicious act, where your heart is in it, than out of thirty acts of a nobler sort." And yes, it was Weather Wizard's brother's observatory, as everyone but me figured out.
Pg. 2:
You know, describing them as "blue-collar" is pushing it, given that Mardon's brother appears to have had his very own observatory.
Pp. 4-5:
I'm out of the country at the moment and don't have my back issues at hand: when did the Top build Speedrebro in the observatory?
Of what state is Central City the capital? I mean, I realize the DCU U.S. is so big it's got two presidents at any given time...
I love Mick's "Can I burn it? Huh? Can I burn it?" routine.
Pg. 6:
Inertia's real name is Thaddeus Thawne, and who wouldn't turn to a life of destruction with a name like that?
Pg. 7:
Zoom's motivation is kind of fantastic, but it always makes me think of that routine from the Sacred Wars: "You know what builds character, don't you? Conflict! PRAISE conflict!"
Pg. 12:
Mirror Master not only killed the Pied Piper's parents in (I believe) FLASH #174, but framed him for it. Guess McCulloch is a homophobe too.
Pg. 13:
Why does Libra think that's blasphemy? It was established--by Desaad, I believe--in COUNTDOWN #10.
Pg. 14:
Wasn't Iris Allen taking care of Josh for a while? How'd he go from that to "bouncing around"? (According to Josh's Hyperborea page, Chyre had wanted to adopt him too.)
Pg. 19:
Persuasion doesn't quite cut it as Libra's power, especially since we've seen so many people resist him (like Luthor, for instance). It also doesn't quite make sense why Libra utters his little expository speech here about speedsters being "the breakers of the Bleed"...
Pg. 20:
"He won't have a gun" is a callback to FLASH #197, I believe. Grodd growling is from the sequence where Hunter was crippled in FLASH #193.
Pg. 21:
"Honor among thieves": the formulation goes back to Cicero, but one of the first documented uses of something similar in English is from Peter Motteaux's early-18th-century translation of Don Quixote: "The old proverb still holds good, Thieves are never rogues among themselves."
Heat Wave established last issue that he can melt the Flash's boots. What was the first story where he did that, though? [ETA: Kris Weberg points out in the comments that it was FLASH #266.]
Pg. 24:
"Year": really? Let's check the chronology--specifically, the DCU Timeline. The "year" would have to begin with the death of Bart, which coincided with "The Lightning Saga," which appeared to begin around U.S. Thanksgiving time. That coincided with the first dozen or so issues of COUNTDOWN, but COUNTDOWN didn't take place over a year--more like a few months--and SALVATION RUN, which takes place over the course of about five weeks, starts midway through it. So it's been a brutal five months for them, let's say.
Pg. 25:
Zoom "was to be the messenger of Darkseid"? A guy with boom tubes needs messengers?
Pg. 28:
"The one place no speedsters will look": wait, what?
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Final Crisis: Revelations #3
And we're back! Hey, wasn't there just an issue of REVELATIONS last time? Well, yes, and according to the original schedule we were supposed to get FC #4, Lo3W #2, ROGUES' REVENGE #3 and SUBMIT between then and now. Oh well. There's very little to annotate this time out--this is a very straightforward/non-metatextual issue--but next week we get the Geoff Johns double-header, so I imagine I'll be linking up a storm.
Pg. 1:
"Kane, Betty" has the same hairstyle as Bette Kane, a.k.a. the Flamebird of present continuity (see, e.g., 2000's BEAST BOY #4). That character's derived from Betty Kane, the Bat-Girl who first appeared in BATMAN #139 in 1961. So this might signify something, or it might just be a little Easter egg.
The antithesis of life, in case you were wondering, is stepping on multiple kinds of MP3 players in a single panel.
Pg. 2:
"Claire Coeur" would be bad French for "clear heart."
Pp. 10-11:
I don't know of any DCU "Westbrook" (or town with a name along those lines) that's a suburb of Gotham City. And once again the Cain plot leaps forward substantially in time while the Montoya plot advances a few hours at most...
Pg. 15:
Why does Cris still think that Jake is the son of his who died?
Pp. 16-17:
This is a little splotchy, but I think I see Midnight, Bane, a Man-Bat, Mystek, a very tall Jawa, Commissioner Gordon, Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy in the crowd here. (Note: I am wrong about a couple of those. But corrections/additions are welcome.)
Pg. 18:
Hey, is that the Crimson Avenger at the left of the third panel? Or maybe it's the Black Lantern Crimson Avenger, since he apparently died in DC COMICS PRESENTS #38. Or it's the Black Lantern Jonah Hex Purple Crimson Avenger, judging by his mouth and costume. Or there's just something I'm missing, which is the likeliest scenario.
Pg. 19:
Catwoman seems to be lurking in panel 4. Cool.
Pg. 21:
The interpretation of Genesis going on here is enough of a stretch that I'd go so far as to call it a total inversion: the mark of Cain was actually an act of mercy. If you don't believe me, read the actual passage in the translation Claire is quoting. God passes sentence on Cain (to be "a fugitive and a vagabond," and "cursed from the earth"); Cain says "my punishment is greater than I can bear," because his life is now in danger from anyone who finds him; God responds by putting the mark on Cain, to protect him, stipulating that "whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." (The Spectre is not mentioned in the original text.) Cain goes off, gets married, has a kid and starts a city. Hardly something he'd want to take vengeance for, even though there's been a perfectly good comic book about getting revenge on God before.
Pg. 22:
Okay, when exactly was Renee at the Checkmate castle after the Big Button-Pressing? And now Cris worries about Malcolm... Daria was Renee's girlfriend in the GOTHAM CENTRAL days.
Pg. 1:
"Kane, Betty" has the same hairstyle as Bette Kane, a.k.a. the Flamebird of present continuity (see, e.g., 2000's BEAST BOY #4). That character's derived from Betty Kane, the Bat-Girl who first appeared in BATMAN #139 in 1961. So this might signify something, or it might just be a little Easter egg.
The antithesis of life, in case you were wondering, is stepping on multiple kinds of MP3 players in a single panel.
Pg. 2:
"Claire Coeur" would be bad French for "clear heart."
Pp. 10-11:
I don't know of any DCU "Westbrook" (or town with a name along those lines) that's a suburb of Gotham City. And once again the Cain plot leaps forward substantially in time while the Montoya plot advances a few hours at most...
Pg. 15:
Why does Cris still think that Jake is the son of his who died?
Pp. 16-17:
This is a little splotchy, but I think I see Midnight, Bane, a Man-Bat, Mystek, a very tall Jawa, Commissioner Gordon, Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy in the crowd here. (Note: I am wrong about a couple of those. But corrections/additions are welcome.)
Pg. 18:
Hey, is that the Crimson Avenger at the left of the third panel? Or maybe it's the Black Lantern Crimson Avenger, since he apparently died in DC COMICS PRESENTS #38. Or it's the Black Lantern Jonah Hex Purple Crimson Avenger, judging by his mouth and costume. Or there's just something I'm missing, which is the likeliest scenario.
Pg. 19:
Catwoman seems to be lurking in panel 4. Cool.
Pg. 21:
The interpretation of Genesis going on here is enough of a stretch that I'd go so far as to call it a total inversion: the mark of Cain was actually an act of mercy. If you don't believe me, read the actual passage in the translation Claire is quoting. God passes sentence on Cain (to be "a fugitive and a vagabond," and "cursed from the earth"); Cain says "my punishment is greater than I can bear," because his life is now in danger from anyone who finds him; God responds by putting the mark on Cain, to protect him, stipulating that "whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." (The Spectre is not mentioned in the original text.) Cain goes off, gets married, has a kid and starts a city. Hardly something he'd want to take vengeance for, even though there's been a perfectly good comic book about getting revenge on God before.
Pg. 22:
Okay, when exactly was Renee at the Checkmate castle after the Big Button-Pressing? And now Cris worries about Malcolm... Daria was Renee's girlfriend in the GOTHAM CENTRAL days.
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