Pop Culture Chronicles

Convergence Tie-ins

It seems that fans of the pre-52 universe or pre-crisis multiverse are destined for disappointment if I'm correctly interpreting what I've been reading. It seems the heroes of previous worlds brought back for Convergence will only be brought back for closure. They will, it seems, be called upon to go back to their oringinal times and experience the same deaths, or be retconned out of existence, as before. And here I was hoping they'd be given another chance and that the 40 cities plucked from dead worlds and brought together on Telos would have a future. But it sounds as if it's the same old stuff like when the Golden Age Superman and Lois were brought back in Infinite Crisis only to die again. Just a nod and honorable mention of a past that is never to be again. 

I still hope I'm wrong. Like other fans, I would love to see the old and new multiverse exist side-by-side. But if DC does bring all these characters back only to wrap up their stories and kill them off again, I wonder if that is some kind of metaphor on DC's part. Maybe they're making a statement of how fans of the old DC must allow their old heroes to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Again, I hope I'm wrong. 

All that being said, here are the two-parter titles starting in April that interest me because of either a retro or Bat-Family connection:

Week One: Early 2000s characters [after multiverse ended with the first Crisis] versus the Flashpoint characters:

Superman by Dan Jurgens. Superman and Lois married and expecting their first child. Let me guess. They'll have to sacrifice a bright future together so that the New 52 can continue. I hope I'm wrong.

Batgirl. Stephaine Brown, Cassandra Cain, and Red Robin versus Flashpoint Catwoman. Will this be the comeback or the ultimate send-off of the two interim Batgirls? 

Nightwing and Oracle by Gail Simone. Will Dick Grayson and a still paralyzed Barbara Gordon take their relationship to the next level? Nightwing and Oracle versus Flashpoint Hawkman and Hawkwoman. 

Titans. Starfire, Donna Troy, and Roy Harper.

Justice League. Supergirl, Zatanna, and Jade at Jessie Quick's baby shower face a threat from Flashpoint Aquaman.

Batman and Robin. Bruce Wayne, Damian Wayne, and the Red Hood.

Week Two: 1990s characters versus the Kingdom Come characters:

Batman: Shadow of the Bat. Batman teams up with Azrael Batman.    

Justice League International. Collides with the Kingdom Come world. 

Catwoman. Versus Kingdom Come Batman.

Superboy. Connor Kent versus Kingdom Come Superman. 

Harley Quinn. versus Captain Carrot. What?!?!?!?

I'll put what interests me about weeks 3 and 4 of April in my next post. 

Kingdom Come Influences

DC Comics' 1990s Kingdom Come series was not only influenced by DC's Golden Age history, but the series has been quite influential on subsequent DC projects. I'll first mention some of Kingdom Come's influence on the mainline DC universe and then I'll mention some of the Golden Age concepts that inspired parts of the series.

Kingdom Come's Influence:

Earth 22 - In the new and rebooted multiverse that followed events of 52, it was revealed that the Kingdom Come story actually took place on Earth-22. Of course now that the entire multiverse has been rebooted with the new 52, who knows?

Red Robin - The first character to don the Red Robin costume was Dick Grayson, formerly Robin, of the Kingdom Come universe. In this reality he was married to Starfire (now deceased) and their grown daughter is Nightstar. The Red Robin mantle in the mainline DC universe has never belonged to Dick Grayson, but the first Red Robin was Jason Todd in Countdown to Final Crisis # 17 where Todd dons the costume as he fights alongside the Batman of Earth 51. The current Red Robin of the new 52 universe is Tim Drake, another former Robin. 

Ibn al Xu'fffash - In Arabic this means "son of the Bat." It was revealed in Kingdom Come that Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul had a son. In the mainline DC universe he is the latest Robin, the boy wonder Damian Wayne. In Kingdom Come there is a romantic spark between Bruce Wayne's son and Dick Grayson's daughter. In Justice Society of America, volume 3, # 22, they are shown twenty years later with two children attending the Earth-22 Batman's funeral. 

Red Arrow - Roy Harper, the former Speedy, all grown up. He made his first appearance as Red Arrow in Kingdom Come # 2.

Maxine Hunkel - The altar ego of Earth-22's Red Tornado. Maxine's New Earth counterpart is the granddaughter of Mathilda Hunkel, the original Red Tornado. Maxine first appears in Justice Society of America, volume 3, # 1 and she adopts the name Cyclone in the third issue. It remains to be seen, as far as I know, what and where her place will be in the new 52 multiverse.  

Atom Smasher - The godson of the original Atom, Al Pratt. Atom Smasher was known as Nuklon in the first Infinity Inc. series.  

Wildcat - In Kingdom Come he is a man-panther possessing the spirit of Ted Grant, the original Wildcat. On New Earth the man-panther version turns out to be Grant's long lost son. He at first shares the name Wildcat with his father, joining the JSA in Justice Society of America, volume 3, # 4. Upon switching to the JSA All-Stars team, the man-panther changes his code name to Tomcat. It remains to be seen where his place will be in the New 52 multiverse.

Lightning - Jennifer Pierce, the metahuman daughter of Black Lightning, first appeared in Kingdom Come. Her New Earth counterpart was first introduced in Justice Society of America, volume 3, # 12.  

Blue Beetle - The Kingdom Come Blue Beetle wore an armored battle suit which I suspect might have served as inspiration for the Jaime Reyes version of the character in the mainline DC Universe.

Influences Upon Kingdom Come:

The Flash - The Flash of Earth-22 wears a helmet similar to that of Jay Garrick, the original Flash.

Red Tornado - The oringal Red Tornado of Earth-22 is Mathilda Hunkel, active and armed to the hilt in Kingdom Come.  

Bulletman / Bulletgirl - Formerly of Fawcett Publications, this duo was very popular in the 1940s. The Fawcett heroes were purchased by DC Comics in 1972. Of the notable appearances of this duo are Justice League of America # 136-138 and the Power of Shazam series in the 90s.

Living Doll - Appearing on Superman's shoulder in Kingdom Come #3, she is the daughter of Doll Man and Doll Girl, a Golden Age duo purchased by DC from Quality Comics. 

Phantom Lady - Another Golden Age character purchased from Quality, she appears in Kingdom Come as a literal phantom resembling Bettie Page.

Huntress - An African version of the Golden Age character, Paula Brooks.

Vigilante - Based on the Golden Age motorcyle cowboy, the Kingdom Come version is part robotic with a Gatlin gun for one of his arms. 

So there we have my rundown of charaters from Kingdom Come that I find particularly intriguing due either to their Golden Age inspiration, or to how they have subsequently inspired groups like the Justice Society and the Batman Family whose origins date back to the Golden Age.

Kingdom Come: Earth 22

I don't know if anyone reads this blog and after a three month hiatus I'm sure some have given up on it. All I can say is that it's been a busy summer and I hope to get back to it now. Speaking of getting around to things, I just got around to finally reading the Kingdom Come mini-series published by DC comics in 1996. I've owned half the series that long and tracked down the additional back issues a couple of years ago. I finally read the whole series in a couple of sittings.

Most fans, according to reviews I've read, seem to either love or hate Kingdom Come. I happened to love it since I am so retro and there is a lot here for a retro fan to enjoy. If you've read this blog for any length of time then you know that for many years I have grieved the loss of the original Justice Society of America who were revived as residents of Earth Two in the 60s and 70s when we saw annual JLA/JSA crossovers in the pages of Justice League of America.

The JSA really got the shaft in the aftermath of Crisis on Infinite Earths since the multiverse was merged into one earth and the Golden Age Superman and Batman were retconned out of existence. But I loved the idea of an alternate earth where the heroes in mainstream continuity had older and more experienced dopplegangers in another universe. I enjoyed imagining the possible futures of the more modern incarnations of DC heroes.

One of my favorites was the older, graying-around-the-temples Superman of the Golden Age. The closest DC has come to filling the vacuum left by this character was the Superman in Kingdom Come. Here is an elseworlds story outside mainline DC continuity. It's a possible future of the DC heroes who in this series are older than their mainline counterparts. The big three, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are all older in this reality, retired from public life,  and a new generation of metahumans now roam the earth, but their brand of justice is vigilantism. They make a big mess of things leading the big three out of retirement to make sure the lawless metahumans are stopped before things get worse. Heroes remaining committed to the original ideals of the "never ending battle" are recruited to help the big three.

So other than older dopplegangers including a Superman who resembles the Golden Age hero, what did I like about Kingdom Come? Well, first that it was drawn (painted) by Alex Ross who is one of my favorite artists. Now that he works for Dynamite Entertainment he does a lot of plotting and covers, but I miss his interior art work. But I love Alex Ross because his characters always look so real. While not an extremely educated critique, that is, in a nutshell, what I love about Ross. From every fold in the clothing to the wrinkles on the facial expressions, I just love Alex Ross' work. It's no secret that Ross is often inspired by real (and imaginary) people for crowd scenes and such. But I suppose that an artist has to get his inspiration from somewhere.

So there is no telling who will be making a cameo in a Ross production. But on my first reading through Kingdom Come I was so caught up in the big picture of the story that I missed a lot of the cameos. After reading the wikipedia article on Kingdom Come, I went back through and looked for all the characters I missed. It was like hunting for Waldo of the Where's Waldo fame, but I think I found most of the "hidden" characters. Here are the ones that most interested me:

- The Gotham street gang stopped by Bat-robots in issue one bear enough resemblance to Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids to be their Kingdom Come dopplegangers. The Fat Albert of this universe has obviously failed to be the moral influence of the Albert we all know and love.

- In the second issue Phil Sheldon, identified by the eye-glasses and eye-patch combination, appears at the Justice League news conference. He was the narrator in Ross' Marvels over at the other company.

- The second issue nightclub scene has a lot of cameos. These include Ross' nod to retro music with lookalikes of Tommy and the Acid Queen from Tommy and the Village People. By the third issue a colorfully clad group of young men at a Justice League meeting bear striking resemblances to The Monkees. Also on hand are robotic members of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. A character named King Marvel looks like a blend of Captain Marvel, Jr. and Elvis Presley, which is fitting since I hear that Elvis' hairstyle was influenced by Cap, Jr., a childhood hero of the king of rock and roll. I can only guess if that's where Elvis got the idea for the capes, but I notice that King Marvel's cape looks like one Elvis would have worn. In the KC reality I think it was the King who influenced the Captain. 

- Also at the nightclub are Zan of the Wonder Twins as a waiter and Marvin, both from the Super Friends 70s TV series. I also managed to spot the Shadow, Sherlock Holmes, and Rorschach.

- Carrie Kelly from Dark Knight Returns waits tables at Planet Krypton.

- I understand that the epilogue of the graphic novel version includes cameos of Alex Ross, Mark Waid, and even Stan Lee. But I don't have the graphic novel version.

Those are the cameos that grabbed my attention. In my next post I'll write about the subsequent influence of Kingdom Come on the mainline DC continuity and especially on the JSA.              

Superman in the 90s

I collected most Superman and Batman titles throughout the 90s. I hardly read any of them since there just wasn't time during that phase in my life. So for the last two years I've been catching up on reading the Superman titles from that era. I got the first few issues of the second Superman series when it began in 1987, but then dropped it until Superman died in issue # 75. From that issue, dated January 1993, I collected the title until Spring of 1999. I've been able to fill most missing issues from bargain bins at comic shops.

Throughout most of the 90s fans could get weekly installments of Superman's adventures with cross-continuity across four regular titles including:

• Superman
• Adventures of Superman
• Action Comics
• Superman: The Man of Steel

Right now I'm up to 1995 in my reading. Having gone from 1993 to 1995 with these four Superman titles, I've been through the Funeral For a Friend, Reign of the Supermen, Resurrection, and Dead Again story arcs. I've just finished Superman # 100 which began the "Death of Clark Kent" storyline. The Superman titles were characterized by the following features at this time:

• The engagement of Clark and Lois
• Perry & Alice White's adoption of an African-American youth
• Metropolis P.D. officers Maggy Sawyer and Dan Turpin
• Superman's mullet phase
• Comics Code approved

The creative teams included Dan Jurgens who did both story and pencils for Superman until after issue # 100 when the pencils were handed to others. Brett Breeding's inks were a nice compliment to Jurgen's pencils making them one of my favorite 90s Superman teams. This was during Superman's long-hair (or mullet) phase which lasted until about 1997. Jurgens and Breeding didn't overdo the long flowing mane thing like some others did, which in retrospect looks so ridiculous and dated. 

By the mid-90s Adventures of Superman was written by Karl Kesel who did a decent job, but I was not overly impressed by the art of Immomen and Marzan. They were quite good with human anatomy, female facial features, and city scapes. But the way they drew Superman just didn't do it for me. The hair was too long and the face too weak (if that makes any sense). In the team-up issue 522, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman are done quite well.

Action Comics had the team of Michelinie, Guice, and Rodier. The writing was okay, but the art team for this title was some of the best for this era in Superman's history. Superman's hair was a bit wild though.

Louise Simonson did the writing for Superman: The Man of Steel. The art team was Bogdanove and Janke. This title includes some of my favorite writing and least favorite art from this era. 

DC will soon be paying homage to the Superman of the 90s with the series of DC Retroactive one-shots in September. One of the titles will be Superman-the 90s which reunites Simonson and Bogdanove. 

I'll write more about Superman in the 90s as I continue to read through it. I'll eventually get around to the Batman titles.