Kistler's Crisis Afterthoughts

This is part of my Crisis Files and refers to the crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE CONTINUITY

Let’s focus on the positive first. The Crisis was a great story with some serious scope to it and very exciting battles. It was a cool showcase for lots of characters, some of the dialogue was perfect, and the art was fantastic.

My major problem is that I think the story should have been a bit better planned. After the Crisis, there was an issue of All-Star Squadron in which an android named Mekanique was apparently holding back the effects of the Crisis. When she finally let them go, reality made its final adjustments and memories were altered so that even the heroes who were there at the dawn of time no longer remembered how the universe used to be.

This explained some anomalies between the last issue of the Crisis and what became Post-Crisis continuity. For instance, Lori Lemaris was killed in front of readers and was laid to rest in the last issue, but a few years later in the Superman comics it was revealed that she was alive and well.

So minor gaffs were explained away. But there was still the problem of poor planning. Such as the fact that, after the Crisis, Wonder Woman was rebooted as a new hero who'd never been around before. This elimated her history with the Justice League of America, meaning that Black Canary was not retconned to have been the first female member of the team instead.

More confusing though, Donna Troy was still said to have been a founding member of the Teen Titans years earlier. So now, Wonder Girl PRECEDED Wonder Woman. Also, Post-Crisis, Superman started his career as an adult and was never Superboy. But this meant that parts of the history of the Legion of Super-Heroes were now in question since they'd had many team-ups with Superboy.

I’m not putting this all at Wolfman's feet. He’s a fine writer and did a great job. I just think that DC should have given him more time and that the editors and writers should have all determined beforehand just whose history was going to be re-written and how. That way, issue #11 could have been a true introduction to the Post-Crisis universe. Instead, it shows us a unified Earth that is not what we see in the months afterwards.

Also, about a year or so after the Crisis was over, Wolfman and Perez put out the two-book History of the DC Universe, as recorded by Harbinger on her "Monitor Tapes" that were mentioned in the main series. It was exactly what it said, a chronological rundown of the history of the DC universe, showing how the unified Earth worked, what heroes appeared when, what aliens live where, etc.

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History of Green Lantern - Part 2

This is part of my Green Lantern Files and is continued from Part 1. This section covers Hal's adventures in the 1970's and early 80's, up to Crisis on Infinite Earths, and also discusses the introduction of John Stewart.

HARD-TRAVELING HEROES

The 1970s was a changing time for comics. As the Comics Code Authority began to lessen in power, writers were allowed to bring back beloved horror-type characters such as vampires and werewolves. They also began seriously touching on social issues. Part of this was because the comic book audience was getting older. People who had read comics in the 60's when they were kids had not just gone away. Remarkably, many of them were still reading into their twenties and beyond. Some were now actually working as comic book writers and artists themselves. If the audience was older, the stories needed to reflect that and be a bit more sophisticated.

As DC writers started looking at tackling social problems that were more relateable and, in some opinions, "more realistic" than what comics where famous for, many came to believe that the heroes of the DCU needed to follow suit. Instead of surrounding them in hyperbole and always making sure they were powerful enough to solve any problem, it was believed they needed to become somewhat more grounded. Limits needed to be established and certain questions would have to be addressed.

Naturally, Hal presented a problem. How did you do down-to-earth stories with a space cop armed with one of the most powerful weapons in the universe? What's more, a lot of the more successful stories were those dealing with characters who questioned themselves or felt out of place with society somehow. Yet not only was Hal always described as "honest and without fear", he had, by this time, become less the cocky pilot and more a level-headed, by-the-book hero who was hailed as among the greatest and most resourceful of the Green Lanterns. Writer Denny O'Neil described Hal's basic premise as being "the best cop who ever lived." So why would he question himself or his place in society all of a sudden?

DC decided to emphasize the man behind the ring by causing disruptions in his civilian life, with problems a power ring wouldn't be able to solve. He lost his job at Ferris Aircraft and wound up having to take work as an insurance claims investigator. When that didn't seem to be working out, he later became a traveling toy salesman and found himself sort of dating a woman working for the competition.

But these stories weren't really grabbing readers. So Denny O'Neil came on to give the book his own spin. When he took over the title, he added Green Arrow as a new regular guest-star. Originally, Green ArrowAKA Olliver Queen had been a rich playboy who had adopted a super-hero lifestyle half out of boredom, equipping himself with trick arrows, an arrow-cave, an arrowmobile and an arrowplane . But in recent stories, he had lost his fortune and most of his equipment. Now relying on real arrows as much as he did on trick arrows, Ollie took to the streets and had become a hero of the common man.

In O'Neil's first issue, Hal was patrolling the streets and came onto what he thought were criminals attacking an innocent man. Green Arrow showed up and told him he was fighting the wrong people, not just here but in general. He declared that Hal was so concerned with alien conquerors and super-villains that he was ignoring the common people who desperately needed help against social evils such as corrupt landlords, corporate criminals and drug kingpins.

The most famous scene of the issue was when, later on, Hal was approached by an elderly black man who said that he'd heard tales of Hal working for blue-skinned aliens and that he worked alongside orange-skinned aliens. And yet, he pondered, what had the Lantern done to help the black-skinned people of his own world?

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Kistler's History of General Zod

This essay features the history of General Zod as he has been interpreted in various stories and media. He is a Superman foe so feel free to also check out my Superman Files if you wish.

OUR VILLAIN IN A NUTSHELL

General Dru-Zod, descendant of the legendary Kryptonian conqueror Admiral Dru-Zod, was a patriot who believed his world was the greatest in all the universe. He was also merciless and unforgiving, an attitude he engendered in those who followed him in Krypton's military guild.

When the great scientist Jor-El attempted to warn the Council of Science that Krypton was dying and needed to be evacuated, the Council wouldn't listen, unwilling to leave their perfect world or risk being contaminated by the "lesser races" of the universe. They also forbade public announcement of this possible impeding destruction. Zod decided that the Science Council was unfit to lead Krypton, allowing xenophobia to condemn the rest of the population to death.

Zod led an insurrection against the Science Council but were finally defeated. Sympathizing with Zod and not wishing to see more death, Jor-El asked that he and his followers not be executed. The Council agreed to send them to the Phantom Zone instead, a twilight dimension Jor-El had discovered which was used to imprison the worst Kryptonian terrorists, but only if Jor himself acted as jailer. Before being exiled into the Zone, Zod swore vengeance against Jor-El and his entire bloodline. In the Phantom Zone, Zod existed only as an ageless spirit, unable to physically interact with his fellow prisoners, left to wallow in his hatred and resentment towards the planet he had tried to save.

When the planet Krypton blew up not long afterward, its prison was accidentally projected into the Zone but a freakish accident ensured that time could pass within its walls. Thus, Zod was able to become a physical being once more and he and Ursa had a child, Lor.

Meanwhile, the son of Jor-El grew up on Earth and became the hero called "Superman." Superman learned of Zod through data-recordings and later fought an alternate version of the villain in a parallel dimension. Years after that, Superman fought a maniacal Russian super-human who had been mutated by Kryptonite and considered himself to be the heir of Zod, convinced that the villain's spirit spoke directly to his mind. This red-armored Russian later died in battle.

After years of abusing their child, Zod and Ursa learned how to use him to escape the Phantom Zone. The General led a small army against Earth and so Kal-El finally met and battled the true Dru-Zod for the first time. After several battles, Superman and his allies finally defeated Zod's forces and exiled them all back into the Phantom Zone.

But Zod is not an evil that ever truly goes away. And he will not rest until the son of Jor-El, and all of the universe, swears obedience as they kneel before Zod.

That the basics. Want to learn how this character evolved over the decades? Read on ...

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Kistler's History of Superman - Part 4

This part of my Superman files and continues from Part 3. It covers the rejected proposal Superman Plus and shows how much of the Superman comics since then have been influenced by it, through the events of Infinite Crisis and up to today.

SUPERMAN PLUS: THE REJECTED REVAMP

So we talked about how starting in the late 90s and early 21st century, mainly under the writing of Jeph Loeb, the Superman titles began to work their way back towards several Pre-Crisis ideas. Some folks embraced this, some thought it was silly and wanted to keep things such as Krypto away from their comics.

But let's backtrack a bit. This new wave of Pre-Crisis love and updated takes was actually a soft-sell version of a much more radical revamp that had been proposed to DC in 1998 by a group of avid Superman fans. These fans were Mark Waid (writer of Kingdom Come and the biggest Superman historian you will ever find), Grant Morrison (who rocked a lot of socks off with his work on JLA, Animal Man and The Invisibles), Mark Millar (who would go on to make a lot of waves writing the Ultimates for Marvel, as well as his own creation Wanted), and Tom Peyer (who had done fine work on the third New Gods volume and wrote the hilarious and poignant Hourman comic).

These four got together and decided they wanted to remake Superman. It had all started when Grant Morrison and Mark Waid had met a man dressed as Superman at the San Diego Comic-Con. Morrison and Waid began speaking to the man and he, very naturally and very casually, answered questions in character as Superman. Morrison later went into more detail about it:

"I can say here and now that the Superman proposal by Waid, Peyer, Morrison, and Millar was the best, most thoroughly worked-out take on a major character you are ever likely to see. It was Superman Plus. I wrote most of it after meeting the Man of Steel at 2am opposite the Sheraton in San Diego - a true shamanic moment.

"He was wearing the best Superman suit I've seen and looked fantastic as Superman, a cross between Chris Reeve and Billy Zane, so we asked him if he'd answer some questions which he did in the character of Superman! It was like a possession. I'd say to the guy, 'So how do you feel about Batman?' and he'd come back with 'Well, Batman and I don't really see eye to eye on a lot of things. He's so hung up on the darkness in everyone's soul and I just don't see it that way...' and so on. He spoke to us for about an hour and a half.

"The thing that really hit me, wasn't so much what Superman was saying as how he was sitting. He was perched on a bollard with one knee drawn up, chin resting on his arms. He looked totally relaxed...and I suddenly realized this was how Superman would sit. He wouldn't puff out his chest or posture heroically, he would be totally chilled. If nothing can hurt you, you can afford to be cool. A man like Superman would never have to tense against the cold; never have to flinch in the face of a blow. He would be completely laid back, un-tense. With this image of Superman relaxing on a cloud looking out for us all in my head, I rushed back to my hotel room and filled dozens of pages of my notebook with notes and drawings."

And so, Morrison called up Waid, Peyer and Millar and they put together their proposal for revamping the Man of Steel, making him more powerful and yet more emotionally interesting than they believed he had been for years. A major idea was that rather than try to ignore things from past continuity that seemed silly, the Superman comics would embrace them and update them, embracing the absurdity and emphasizing the fairy-tale like atmosphere of certain Superman stories from the 50s and 60s.

The intro the the proposal was as follows:

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DC Hero and Villain Teams

This list includes the various teams of super-heroes and super-villains that inhabit the DC Universe. This does not include large organizations such as the Green Lantern Corps or Checkmate. Those entries can be found elsewhere.

This list is constantly being updated and is still under some construction.

Birds of Prey - Soon after she began operating as the computer hacker/information broker Oracle, Barbara Gordon came to believe it would be wise to rely on other heroes to act as her agents, outside of her regular association with the Batman and his own allies. After a brief partnership with Power Girl went sour, she began working regularly with Black Canary. Later on, the vigilante Huntress joined them as a trio.

Months after this, Oracle began regularly working with a larger team of female heroes whom she began to refer to as her Birds of Prey. Members would come and go depending on the needs of the mission, with the core members being Black Canary, Lady Blackhawk and Huntress.

Originally, Oracle operated out of Gotham City. Later on, she and the Birds of Prey were based in Metropolis. Most recently, they moved the operation to "Platinum Flats", California.

The Brotherhood of Evil - Originally, this group was formed by the villain known as the Brain so that he could exact revenge against Dr. Niles Caulder. The Brain blamed Caulder for his condition of being a disembodied brain trapped in a life-support system and likewise he swore revenge on Caudler's team the Doom Patrol, seeing them as Caulder's "children." Soon enough though, the Brain's goals expanded to include gaining super-human power and achieving world domination. The group once relabeled itself the "Society of Sin", but soon went back to its original name.

Although the group has gone through several changes and had several members over the years, the Brain and a gorilla he made intelligent named Monsieur Mallah have always been present in each incarnation.

The Doom Patrol - Stunt man Cliff Steele suffered an accident and only survived thanks to Dr. Niles "Chief" Caulder, who transplanted his brain into a robot body, making him Robotman II. Caulder then recruited Rita Farr (Elasti-Girl), an actress who had gained size-changing abilities she had difficulty controlling, and Larry Trainor, a pilot whose body had become radioactive and host to an energy creature called Negative Man. Now seen as freaks, Caulder suggested the three use their abilities to help humanity. The Doom Patrol focused on strange and bizarre phenomena that did not show up on the radar of most super-heroes.

When most of the original team was believed dead, a new Doom Patrol was started by a woman called Celsius. This team acted as more of a public super-hero team but disbanded after Celsius' death.

Later, the founders reformed the Doom Patrol with new members, and again focused primarily on bizarre phenomena and space/time anomalies. After one of the new members turned on the team, the group disbanded. A corporate sponsored super-hero team later called itself the new Doom Patrol, but they were short-lived.

Later on, after Caulder had successfully brought Rita back to life, the original team reformed, with a few additions. Due to revelations concerning Caulder's original motives in forming the first team, he is no longer the leader. The Doom Patrol tends to keep to itself, out of the view of other heroes.

Fatal Five - Five super-criminals who decided to join forces in the 30th century. These criminals are the cyborg Tharok, the mindless giant Validus, the magic-wielding Emerald Empress, the atomic axe-wielding Persuader, and the criminal Mano, whose touch causes destruction. The Fatal Five ruthlessly seek power and dominion and have often fought the Legion of Super-Heroes.

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