All posts by Roscoe Coaltrane

Krona. Metamorpho. Jax-Ur. No surprise there. Though I’m hoping Metamorpho picks up with this year’s Superman live action debut. Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern did next to nothing for Krona apart from produce an action figure.

Yeah, especially the Earth 4 Multiversity Dr Manhattan.

Without his powers, Superman has some fighting skills, but I don’t recall him being Chuck Norris or anything. He’s fought Muhammad Ali; but has he every had a no-powers fight against someone that’s an expert in Klurkor?

Vague disappointment that Superman isn’t more proficient in the Kryptonian martial art. Do I recall him overpowering Faora? He certainly couldn’t beat her in a fair fight.

I think the most dangerous hero is Captain Atom. How many times has he gone critical and destroyed worlds and universes?

The Joker has had the chance to wipe out existence; at this point everyone says “Emperor Joker”, and he didn’t take it.

In the Dark Multiverse, Joker had a long term plan to continue his existence with his “dying breath” strategy, that created TBWL - and even He wasn’t ending existence when he had the power.

I would think that, even if Joker was threatening to end existence; in the end his reality bomb would say “April Fool.”

Exactly, LV. This is why I like the ‘in his head’ interpretation of Joker. He always *is* in Manhattan; there are no Wayne’s. So it’s not a DCU movie. It’s in Fleck’s head. It’s Taxi Driver, but De Niro is the one getting shot.(Spoilers!)

And did you like the film?

The colour and mood changes between the ‘clean’ sane world/ asylum of Manhattan and the dirty world/Arkham of Gotham are right out there for all to see. It’s not as obvious as the colour changes in the Wizard of Oz or Jane Campion’s Piano; but they are there.

So for me, I can either enjoy Joker as a bit of smart cinema; or use my take on the film to say “Phew. At least it’s not the DCU.”

For sure. I love it particularly as a movie about mental illness; rather than the Joker. I subscribe to the “the DCU was all in his head” analysis of the film.

Owlman and Scarecrow are the only non-powered individuals in the mix, which makes them both relatable and the most resourceful.

I’ve got to say Owlman, since he thrives in a world where ‘Doom’ prevails and might-makes-right. His deviousness and resourcefulness keep more powerful ‘allies’ at bay, and you’re never really sure of his true motivation.

Someone more powerful like Ultraman wears their motivation on their sleeve, but Owlman is more of a cypher.

Superboy Prime has an interesting backstory, but he’s usually trotted out when an indestructible villain is needed to threaten all of creation. I will concede that his occasional return to a troubled youth is an interesting turn; but I always think of him as being someone that comes out when Sodam Yat or the Anti-Monitor needs a good beating.

I’m certainly not in favour of combining all the different main continuities. Whether they all ‘count’ now or not, they can’t be combined without major conflicts.

Eg: Did Krona create the Multiverse; or did he burn it with entropy? Who’s hand did he see? What order were the Phantom Zone criminals projected into the Zone? When did Dr Xadu/ Kru-El escape? Was it Dr Xadu or Kru-El? Who is trapped in the Source Wall? Is there a Source Wall? The different answers can’t co-exist.

More importantly, as someone who enjoys reading older continuity, it’s important for me to have a database that reflects the continuity that I’m reading. I already have occational difficulty separating Earth-One and New-Earth info; never mind throwing in the different versions of Prime Earth; while I’m enjoying the Silver and Bronze Age.

What was the first “Superman gone wrong” story? I’m sure that there were a few Golden age stories where Superman “goes bad” though that was usually to entrap a gangster; or the effects of Kryptonite past it’s expiry date,

The first series I can think of that dealt with it was “Marvelman” (which was later changed to Miracleman.) That series protagonist was still a Supe.

Was The Boys the first series where maskless everyday joes were the heroes and the antagonist was a Superman? It’s a great idea because it puts the readers in their own shoes - in a world where Supes need to be stopped.

It’s much more relatable and certainly isn’t going away. We cheer for Butcher, despite his obvious flaws, in the same way we cheer for Vigilante or Lobo. What a bunch of c—-.

A little more obscure, but there’s also Iain Glen from Titans.

It sounds like the role of old Bruce Wayne might have been included as a gift specifically for Val Kilmer. Now that he’s no longer with us, the role might dry up.

When the Court of Owls decides that it’s time.

We might as well vote on the answer to 1+1; an infinite Multiverse is not in question. The real question is:

Is there really a mathematically infinite number of universes, or just an uncounted number? Like the recent misuses of the word “literally” to mean its opposite; “infinite” is misused to mean “a lot”.

Four dozen? Maybe two score.

And I can only guess that Lex is cornering the cake market. And he must have cut them with his Battle Array Laser-Knife Glove.

What would the crossover with Hunger Games look like? They’ve got some high-tech machinery, but fascism is still very fragile in Earth-J.Law: all stick and no carrot. Even the Zoo Crew would sort President Snow out. So the JLI would sort it fairly quickly.

Or would it be more enmeshed; like each district would put forward their DCU Champion? We already had that and it was called Countdown:Arena, or Convergence.

What about DC/Transformers? Would the classic vehicles (Batmobile; Supermobile; Invisible Jet) be retroactively revealed as Autobots? The Hall of Doom would be Megatron or Unicron?

This is all fancasting anyway. 😢 Reality is that I am not a fan of crossovers. The universe is complicated enough and different Earths have very different physics. Maybe I could see the Zoo Crew meet Usagi Yojimbo. Maybe. But Pokemon physics is way different than DC. Maybe Pokemon/ Scooby Doo.

I guess that I just like boundaries. The Source Wall was there for a reason, my friends.

And where do the Court of Owls fit in? Especially after i) Doomsday Clock and ii) the Infinite Frontier?

And me.

It all makes sense, but the weirdest thing about the naming conventions (naming the first Earth “Two”) is moving way forward to Multiversity; where the Gentry identify their last victim as “Multiverse-2”. Either the Gentry identify their own home multiverse as ‘2’; or that was the second multiverse they’d ravaged and the DCU was going to be ‘Multiverse 3’.

Why would you name your own universe (or Multiverse) anything but Number One? I understand Jay Garrick calling his universe “Earth-Two” because Garrick is the nicest guy. But the Gentry are evil Hands, I would assume, and not just fulfilling some cosmic function like an tesseractic David Bowie.

As brief as it was, I like the implication of Earth-0; which to me is that there is an entire Bizarro universe; rather than just a few beings or simply a planet. An entire backwards universe.