Superman

It's been a while since our last "Guess the context" game, hasn't it?

The next image is guaranteed to elicit some "What. Just...What." reactions. Please, keep it clean and "uncrass" while trying to guess the whats and whys and whatthehecks.

So Superman gains his powers from the yellow sun, which in turn strengthens his skin, and muscles. But is this really realistic? What would happen if it was real?

And I mean stuff like who belongs to what generation, and how old is each age group.

Personally I think the "DC is about legacy" slogan was mostly 90's marketing propaganda, fueled by the success of Mark Waid's Flash. Definitely DC wasn't kind to their legacy heroes before or after that decade. The different Supergirls, Batgirls, Robins and Titans have often been fridged and served as mega-event cannon fodder. But I digress.

Regardless, I think DC has messed up their legacy characters, and -unsurprisingly to those who know me- I think the roots of that mess can be traced back to the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Personally, should DC approach me and task me with the unenviable chore of straightening their universe up, this is what their generations would look like.

Earth-Two First Generation: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, JSA... In their fifties or sixties.

Earth-Two Second Generation: Power Girl, Huntress, Fury, Silver Scarab, Infinity Inc. In their mid twenties.

Main Earth First Generation: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Green Lantern Corps, Vixen, Batwoman, Black Lightning, Steel... Mid-thirties. Superman, Batman, Hal Jordan or Barry Allen should be in his early forties at most.

Main Earth Second Generation: Supergirl, Batgirl, original Titans and New Teen Titans... In their early twenties. Babs should be a little older than Kara and Dick.

Main Earth Third Generation: Kon-El, Cassandra Cain, Cassandra Sandsmark, Stephanie Brown, Stargirl, Bart Allen, Jaime Reyes, younger Titans and Young Justice... In their mid to late teens. Jon Kent and Damian Wayne should be in their early teens, at most.

Thoughts?

So season 2 so far took a bit of time to get going and this whole episode just crackled with action, originality and style. It was so good I put down my phone to watch it! Anyway without giving too much away if you watched the previous episode this one is totally disorientating and if you didn't ever watch titans before you can watch this as a standalone to find the answer to the question what would happen if lex and Clark had a baby. I note there are not many posts about titans so I hope it's getting the ratings as it definitely deserves them.

The recent rumors regarding DC replacing five or six of their biggest guns at once, which can negatively affect characters like Jon Kent, have made me ponder about why some characters are successfully replaced whereas other legacy characters fail and are forgotten.

Of course, there're many reasons why a character succeeds, fails, or succeeds for a while before failing. Maybe they had potential but they weren't given enough chances. Maybe they were put through a string of terrible runs. Maybe the revolving door of creative teams with little to no interest on building on foundations set by former writers makes almost impossible flesh their world out. Maybe editorial didn't know what to do with them. O maybe -and this is a possibility which hardly anybody wants to face- they aren't good enough of a character.

Keep in mind, though, Morth Weisinger used to say (or at least I think he said) there're no bad characters. There're bad writers and worse editors. Whatever else you think of the man, I think he was right. Batman was nearly cancelled once (Maybe twice?). X-Men was cancelled.

So, why some replacements are widely accepted whereas others fall by the wayside? Why some fans feel Superman cannot be replaced whereas Flash fans bicker over who the real Flash is (Jay Garrick, obviously)?

After much pondering, I think I have narrowed it down. Leaving aside creative reasons -and obvious exceptions to the rule-, I think legacy characters are more liable to be regarded as the real deal when they have been born in early ages when the mythos were being expanded; they have been around for more than ten years; and they have headlined her own title or backup strip.

Why? Well, when you've been born in the formative early years/decades, people will usually respect your seniority, at the very least, since you have been around since almost the beginning. If you've been around for decades since your creation, fans usually come to regard you as a permanent fixture (Have you noticed how Marvel's "super-heroes shouldn't be married" creatives leave Reed and Sue alone most of the time?)

And it's easier earning a lot of fans if you have been born during those times when comics were read by hundreds of thousands of kids. Especially if you have been around for several decades headlining your own adventures, which means you'll be not forgotten for the next generation of readers.

Moreover, being born early means more chances to show up in other media. Increased exposure often results in increased number of fans, increased sales of merchandise, and editorial favoring you over other options.

Let's examine some examples:

* Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman have been around since the late thirties/early fourties, headlining their own books. Even though they've been replaced every so often, their substitutes (Mon-El, Azrael, Donna) have been very short-lived. Hence, most of fans think Clark, Bruce and Diana are the real SM, BM and WW, and replacing them is non-negotiable.

* Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, Al Pratt... Either they had no solo books or they were cancelled within nine years. The original JSers were limboed for a while during which their original fanbase -which wasn't enough to sustain them- moved on. They are generally well-liked but not considered the REAL GL or Flash.

* Barry Allen was created in 1956 and headlined his own book for twenty-six years. Wally West was created in 1960, and headlined the Flash book for... a long while, too (I'm not sure how long since if I'm not wrong Wally was missing or replaced several times before Barry's return). This is because there's a Flash Fanbase War. Both characters have been around for long that every one is THE Flash to many, many readers. Barry fans were told "Shut up and get over it" by Wally fans during twenty-three years, and Wally fans aren't happy that their positions have been swapped.

* Green Lantern. Again, Alan's book was cancelled because of low sales after nine years and he was limboed in a time when the audience moved on. So, his fanbase wasn't a threat to Hal Jordan when he was created ten years later. Hal was the main GL during thirty-five years, which is because his fanbase was large, loud and wouldn't be silenced. Kyle Rainer had the deck stacked against him because of the circumstances leading to his becoming the newest -and only- GL, his book lasted only ten years before being cancelled, and he lost importance as soon as he stopped being the sole GL in the cosmic neighborhood.

* Supergirl. Lucy of Borgonia was limboed after one issue. Super-Girl was limboed after one issue. Kara Zor-El was created in 1959, and until her death twenty-six years later she headlined her own backup strip and even her own books (short-lived, but bear with me). Neither of her replacements lasted so long. Seven or eight years, at best. Kara was -grudgingly- brought back fifteen years ago, and during that time she has starred in her own book(s) as well as series, cartoons, movies and her own show (and even during the eighteen years she was The-One-Shall-Be-Never-Mentioned she made several cameo appearances). The fact that DC's new timeline appears to ignore the existence of other Supergirls sounds like DC thinks they can dismiss their fans safely.

* Batgirl is a more complicated case. Bette Kane was created in 1961 and dismissed shortly after. Barbara Gordon was created in 1967 and completely eclipsed Bette. Babs' adventures were Detective Comics' backup strip until 1982, and she was also a regular in two immensely popular media, the Adam West's show and Batman: TAS. Because of all this, Barbara had gained a sizable fanbase among comic and non-comic fans who regarded her as THE Batgirl and didn't care for her Oracle identity. However, her successors became popular enough on their own right in a relatively short time (well, Cass did. Steph was created seventeen years before becoming Batgirl) than DC finally got to acknowledge their stints wearing the Batgirl cowl.

* Green Arrow is in the same place as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Olliver Queen was created in 1941. Did someone truly believe back in 1994 Connor Hawke would be able to replace him permanently?

There're more instances worth of looking over (like, you know, the original sidekick Robin whom I've completely skipped over), but I think it's enough for now.

So, what do you think?

I'm asking this because after the announcement of Brandon Routh playing Superman in the Arrowverse I've seen people all over the place arguing if Superman Returns retconned Supergirl, Superman III and IV out of continuity.

I know SMR was supposed to be a sequel to Superman II which would ignore the rest of the Donnerverse, but the Wiki allocates its own continuity to that movie.

Please, could someone tell me what is the official word in the subject? SMR is officially the sequel to SMII? Or it is out of continuity due to underperforming?

Hi, guys. I'm already back. Did you miss me?

You didn't have to laugh so hard, you know.

I've been catching up with comics a bit. I've... thoughts on several developments. Some of them may not be nice thoughts.

But I don't want my first post-vacation post to being negative, so let's play another OoC game again.

So, what is happening in the image below? Why are Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne sharing a bed? Why do they seem pissed off?

No, the real question isn't: "Why are they wearing clothes?"