Late-2013 DCU Happenings
Apr. 21st, 2014 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroI got ahold of a stack of pamphlets, mostly stuff cover-dated Jan-March 2014 (#25-28 of first wave New 52 books).
Green Lantern - A villain named Relic revealed that the various rings were powered by a “reservoir” beyond the Source Wall that was nearly drained, so Kyle sacrificed himself to refill it. (Except he didn’t—he’s busy meeting X’hal in his own book but the rest of the Corps seems to think he’s dead.) Hal, now in charge of the Corps, decides they should limit and police all use of colored light. Oa was destroyed and Mogo was revived. The Blue Corps was destroyed. Guy took over the Red Lanterns. Now Durlans are trying to discredit and destroy the Corps.
Superboy / Teen Titans – The team is in the 30th century and Kon-El (killed during the “Return to Krypton” storyline) has been replaced by Jon Lane Kent (the future son of Superman who Kon-El was cloned from by Harvest, who wants to kill all metahumans). Bart is revealed to be an evil freedom fighter from the future who had been put in a temporal witness protection program. Raven has joined the team, and is clearly an evil agent of Trigon. Basically, sooner or later the team is going to have a massive multi-issue battle with itself.
Superman / Supergirl – Apparently they took a trip back to Kypton when it existed, but Superman just wanted history to stay on its proper path. Supergirl is making friends with Dr. Veritas, fighting Lobo (who apparently is trying to find an imposter using his name—what other book did Lobo appear in?), and joining the Red Lantern Corps. Superman is looking for ways to suck psychic energy out of Lois before it kills her and also raising a baby monster from an underground kingdom. And dating Wonder Woman. Oh, and New 52 Lana Lang is awesome.
Earth-2 – Life really sucks on Earth-2. Superman is back and working for Darkseid as the second invasion of earth begins. Steppenwolf’s death destroyed a continent. Batman is back as a mysterious metahuman. Lois Lane is in the Red Tornado’s body. New heroes of all races and creeds keep popping up and many of them seem to be getting killed. Never a dull moment!
Stormwatch – The previous iteration of Stormwatch had imploded and ended on a rather messy note. Apparently an alien race called the Kollective removed those events from the timestream and a different Stormwatch came into being, including Jenny Soul, the Weird, and a technologically-shackled Lobo. A mysterious AI is trying to drive the team to actively fight the Kollective before Earth is destroyed by them.
Justice League / Forever Evil – The latest massive crossover is an attack by the new Crime Syndicate. Most of the Justice League is trapped inside Firestorm, except Cyborg, who’s robotic half gain sentience and separated itself (he gets himself rebuilt and recruits the Metal Men); and Constantine’s team, who are fighting a consolidation of humanity’s evil called Blight. (Also, this attack is why the Titans are lost in time.) The Rogues and various other villains are actively fighting the Syndicate. Credit to the writers and editors in that they built a giant crossover that gives everyone something different to do—versus the repetitive nature of the stories in something like Blackest Night.
Swamp Thing – New-52 Jason Woodrue (aka the Floronic Man) is now “Seeder”, but mostly up to his old tricks melding science, magic and the Green. New-52 Mr. E makes a brief appearance, apparently being an albino with carved-out eyes who speaks with a New Orleans accent and makes “deals.” The Parliament of Trees are dicks and take a page from the Guardians of the Universe. This segment, at least, is much more action-oriented than the classic Swamp Thing was—it’s a superhero book more than a horror book.
Animal Man – Animal Man’s son is dead, his marriage is on the rocks, and his daughter is the true avatar of the Red; but when Brother Blood tries to steal her powers, Buddy makes it back from a trip to space in time to rescue everybody.
Fairest - This seems to be where the non-Willingham Fables writers are putting all of their Fables fanfiction, tying in past storylines and continuing to milk this particular franchise cow. Did you know that Prince Charming survived? And all of his exes are badasses?
Batbooks – I caught most of the “Gothtopia” crossover, in which Gotham is the happiest, kindest, brightest city on Earth and all the heroes are chipper, bright-colored versions of themselves. (It’s the Scarecrow’s doing via hallucinogenic gas, in case you were wondering.)
Green Arrow / Green Team – I just don’t care.
The Movement – Gail Simone presents a mostly-original ragtag group of misfits (which is by far the most diverse group in the DC lineup, approached only by the Earth-2 crew), who are part of some sort of political movement and whose stories would be more interesting if I didn’t have a totally random assortment of issues. I’ll be looking for the trade.
Green Lantern - A villain named Relic revealed that the various rings were powered by a “reservoir” beyond the Source Wall that was nearly drained, so Kyle sacrificed himself to refill it. (Except he didn’t—he’s busy meeting X’hal in his own book but the rest of the Corps seems to think he’s dead.) Hal, now in charge of the Corps, decides they should limit and police all use of colored light. Oa was destroyed and Mogo was revived. The Blue Corps was destroyed. Guy took over the Red Lanterns. Now Durlans are trying to discredit and destroy the Corps.
Superboy / Teen Titans – The team is in the 30th century and Kon-El (killed during the “Return to Krypton” storyline) has been replaced by Jon Lane Kent (the future son of Superman who Kon-El was cloned from by Harvest, who wants to kill all metahumans). Bart is revealed to be an evil freedom fighter from the future who had been put in a temporal witness protection program. Raven has joined the team, and is clearly an evil agent of Trigon. Basically, sooner or later the team is going to have a massive multi-issue battle with itself.
Superman / Supergirl – Apparently they took a trip back to Kypton when it existed, but Superman just wanted history to stay on its proper path. Supergirl is making friends with Dr. Veritas, fighting Lobo (who apparently is trying to find an imposter using his name—what other book did Lobo appear in?), and joining the Red Lantern Corps. Superman is looking for ways to suck psychic energy out of Lois before it kills her and also raising a baby monster from an underground kingdom. And dating Wonder Woman. Oh, and New 52 Lana Lang is awesome.
Earth-2 – Life really sucks on Earth-2. Superman is back and working for Darkseid as the second invasion of earth begins. Steppenwolf’s death destroyed a continent. Batman is back as a mysterious metahuman. Lois Lane is in the Red Tornado’s body. New heroes of all races and creeds keep popping up and many of them seem to be getting killed. Never a dull moment!
Stormwatch – The previous iteration of Stormwatch had imploded and ended on a rather messy note. Apparently an alien race called the Kollective removed those events from the timestream and a different Stormwatch came into being, including Jenny Soul, the Weird, and a technologically-shackled Lobo. A mysterious AI is trying to drive the team to actively fight the Kollective before Earth is destroyed by them.
Justice League / Forever Evil – The latest massive crossover is an attack by the new Crime Syndicate. Most of the Justice League is trapped inside Firestorm, except Cyborg, who’s robotic half gain sentience and separated itself (he gets himself rebuilt and recruits the Metal Men); and Constantine’s team, who are fighting a consolidation of humanity’s evil called Blight. (Also, this attack is why the Titans are lost in time.) The Rogues and various other villains are actively fighting the Syndicate. Credit to the writers and editors in that they built a giant crossover that gives everyone something different to do—versus the repetitive nature of the stories in something like Blackest Night.
Swamp Thing – New-52 Jason Woodrue (aka the Floronic Man) is now “Seeder”, but mostly up to his old tricks melding science, magic and the Green. New-52 Mr. E makes a brief appearance, apparently being an albino with carved-out eyes who speaks with a New Orleans accent and makes “deals.” The Parliament of Trees are dicks and take a page from the Guardians of the Universe. This segment, at least, is much more action-oriented than the classic Swamp Thing was—it’s a superhero book more than a horror book.
Animal Man – Animal Man’s son is dead, his marriage is on the rocks, and his daughter is the true avatar of the Red; but when Brother Blood tries to steal her powers, Buddy makes it back from a trip to space in time to rescue everybody.
Fairest - This seems to be where the non-Willingham Fables writers are putting all of their Fables fanfiction, tying in past storylines and continuing to milk this particular franchise cow. Did you know that Prince Charming survived? And all of his exes are badasses?
Batbooks – I caught most of the “Gothtopia” crossover, in which Gotham is the happiest, kindest, brightest city on Earth and all the heroes are chipper, bright-colored versions of themselves. (It’s the Scarecrow’s doing via hallucinogenic gas, in case you were wondering.)
Green Arrow / Green Team – I just don’t care.
The Movement – Gail Simone presents a mostly-original ragtag group of misfits (which is by far the most diverse group in the DC lineup, approached only by the Earth-2 crew), who are part of some sort of political movement and whose stories would be more interesting if I didn’t have a totally random assortment of issues. I’ll be looking for the trade.
