DCU : The Original Universe

comics rock. talk about them here. now. or just go to the "corn" section and wack off. i'll understand. i'll just sit here and read my spider-man comics.

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RoIIo Tomassi
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Re: DCU : The Original Universe

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I'm slowly finishing several Flashpoint miniseries. Still missing a dozen or so issue from seven of them. But I read three more completed minis. I guess because these books were unfettered by any kind of continuity, before or after, editorial let their writers run wild. These are some gratuitously violent books.

The Outsider. After a nuclear holocaust or meteor or something decimates India, this ugly stone faced guy named the Outsider solidifies his hold on the criminal empire there. During the three issues, he kills Mr. and Mrs. Terrific, kills Isis, depowers Black Adam and takes his country, sells J'onn J'onzz to the Russians, and then kills him in the final issue after he escapes and comes back for revenge.

Legion of Doom. After Heatwave burns Jason Rusch alive because he wants to be part of Firestorm, he's sent to prison(the prison being the Legion of Doom Skull from the cartoons). Plastic Man sneaks into prison inside Cluemaster's intestines(crawling out through his mouth and killing him after he's inside). Then Heatwave and Plas round up a bunch of fellow prisoners and overthrow the guards. Including Ray Palmer, who's tiny head Heatwave pops like a grape. They try to crash the floating head prison into Detroit, but Cyborg stops them and Plas is double crossed by Heat and he melts him. At the end Heatwave is back in his cell and his new cell mate dies while barfing up Plastic Man who kills Heateave.

Citizen Cold. Leonard Snart is the "hero" of Central City. He kills Mr. Freeze and flirts with Iris Allen. Wally West finds out Citizen Cold is really wanted felon Snart, so Cold kills him. Then all the Rogues break out of prison to try and kill Cold by holding his sister hostage. She dies in the scuffle, Cold finds them and kills them all. Then Iris finds out he killed Wally and uses his own Cold gun on him.

So yeah. Bloodthirsty damn comics.
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Re: DCU : The Original Universe

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Back into the 'B' box, read all then Birds of Prey oneshots before the ongoing series started, as well as some early issues of the 1999 ongoing.

Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey The verrry first oneshot from 1996. Oracle sends Dinah to figure out why some decent humanitarian guy's humanitarian projects are getting blown up by terrorists. Shocking Twist! He's the head of the terrorists and he's doing it to himself for fraudulent money reasons.
Birds of Prey:Manhunt. The followup mini from late 1996. Black Canary teams up with Catwoman and Huntress and fight Shiva and some terrorists.
BoP:Revolution. oneshot from 1997. Oracle sends Black Canary to the island of Santa Prisca to save some kidnap victims. She ends up helping a Cola company overthrow the island's dictator.
BoP:Wolves. Another oneshot from 1997. After a falling out, Babs and Dinah aren't speaking to each other. Babs meets a nice guy during a carjacking and invites him back to her place, but he's really part of a gang looking to loot her apartment so she kicks their asses. And Dinah meets her ex husband who has pilfered drug money from his mob clients. The girls reconcile after coming to the conclusion men are jerks.
BoP:Batgirl. Oneshot from 1998. Babs is back as Batgirl?? Nope, it's some chick villain trying to get her to reveal Batman's secrets through hypnosis. Babs beats the shit out of her.
BoP:The Ravens. Part of the Girlfrenzy series of oneshots from 1998. This actually has nothing to do with Oracle and Dinah. It's about a team of chick villains led by Cheshire trying to steal a macguffin bomb from some AIM rip offs.
BoP 1-3, 15-16. The first three issue of the ongoing have Canary rescuing more kidnap victims off another Carribean island nation. In 15, Babs starts dating Ted Kord. In 16 Joker tries to blow up New York and Oracle confronts him for the first time since getting shot.

I am missing issues 4, 8, and 17 and then I will have every BoP issue ever(not counting DCnU).
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Re: DCU : The Original Universe

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The 2010 Azrael series starring ex-cop and ex-Batman Michael Lane. I'd previously read issues 1-5 a few years ago and totally forgot what happened. Apparently Lane's sister in law was possessed and killed her husband and Lane's sister. So, having killed both his siblings, Lane found this incredibly hot and started sleeping with her.
Okay, so we pick up with issue 6-18. 6-9 were by Nicieza and fairly forgettable. I just read them yesterday and can't recall the plot. There are these killers based on the deadly sins and they want to recruit Azrael as the eighth sin. Or kill him. 10-18 were by David Hine and went into this whole DaVinci Code tangent where Lane is the last descendant of Jesus and the blood on the shroud of Turin has Christ's DNA that will prove it. Lane, being a devout Catholic, thinks its all bullshit. He also gets recruited by Râ's Al Ghul.
The series ended prematurely and the story arc actually concluded in the main Batman book. Which I need to go find and reread now.
The Hine issues were decent reads, but I don't usually go for all the heavy religious kerfuffle in books. Fabian's stuff was boring.

Also read some mid 90s Catwoman issues. Mostly average Chuck Dixon fare with art by the sorely missed Jim Balent. The highlight was a two parter where a Hollywood producer hires Selina to steal a script from a eccentric Lucas/Cameron type auteur. Turns out there's no script and the guy has been writing it as he goes. The guy dies in a car crash trying to run over CW. So she stays up for 72 hours banging out a shitty script to turn into the first guy (since the auteur is now dead and nobody can prove otherwise). The guy turns around and sells it back to the studio as the dead guys last film and it makes a billion dollars. Selina only got paid a couple 100k to "steal" it. Hilarious irony!
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Re: DCU : The Original Universe

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I am now commencing with the epic Flash series from 1987 that ran(pun not intended, but I approve) for 247 or so issues. First some background; Mike Baron and Butch Guice started the series post-Crisis and gave Wally some restrictions, most notably he needed to consume massive calories to keep up his super speed and he could barely break the sound barrier.
William Messner-Loebs came on as writer around issue 17 and stayed until issue 61.
Mark Waid came aboard as writer with issue 62 and had a VERY impressive run until 129! Wow.
Then Grant Morrison and Mark Millar wrote a years worth of issues before
mark Waid returned with issue 142 and stayed until 159.
Then a couple fill in writers before Geoff Johns took over with 164 all the way through 225!
After a few issues by Joey Cavalieri, Waid came back yet again!
Then the book was cancelled in favor of a relaunch Flash book starring Bart Allen(aka Impulse) who then died after issue 13 and this series resumed a year later and limped along with a couple different writers until 247.
Then Barry came back in Final Crisis and got his own series which was subsequently ended after a dozen issues for the "New 52" poopapalooza.

The book also had a pretty consistent art team as well. After Guice left the book, Greg LaRocque came aboard and stayed for all of Wm. Messner-Loebs run and well into Waid's run.
Mike Weiringo came aboard on issue 70 and stayed for awhile.
Next was Phil Jiminez who took the book well past issue 100. Jim Cheung had a couple fill in issues along the way.
Brian Augustyn started with issue 118 and did most of Waid's issues note before and after the Morrison/Millar year.
Paul Ryan and Pop Mhan did art for M/M
And Scott Kolins did Johns run up through issue 200.
And Howard Porter did most of Johns issue up to issue 225(a few guest artists helped here and there).
I'm too lazy to look up the artists towards the end of the series as they started rotating in and out on six issue arcs. Daniel Acuña did Waid's final run.

Now, I have the first 20 issues and Waid's run from 62-100 from twenty years ago. I dont remember much other than Wally won the lottery during Baron's run. And Waid introduced Impulse during his and Ringo's run.
I also got a read John's run a few years ago and bought everything after that as it came out.
So what I'll be reviewing here is most of Messner-Loebs run (23-60) and then everything from 101 thru 163. Just the stuff I've got in the last couple years that completed my run of the whole series (except a few annuals I'm still hunting for).
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Re: DCU : The Original Universe

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So here's the majority of Bill Loebs' run on the Flash. He started with issue 15, but I'm starting with issue 23. There's one fill in issue by Len Steazewski. And Greg Larocque did the art for every issue except the fill in. Which made me look up Greg because after his Flash run ended he did a few indy projects at Image in the late 90s and then disappeared. He's a solid artist, I wonder why work for him dried up.

23. Flash teams up with retcon-Golden Age vigilante called The Clipper to fight Abra Kadabra. Mason(the Clipper) becomes Wally's roommate and a main supporting character for the rest of Loeb's run.
24-25. Wally lost his powers during the Invasion! Crossover. These issue are about his scientist buddies Tina McGee trying to recover them. They do and Flash runs across the country in ten seconds, leaving a devastating path of destruction in his wake.
26-28. His friends travel to NM to search for the missing Flash. Also get involved in a kidnapping scheme. Linda Park, the future Mrs. Wally West is introduced as an intrepid reporter following the story of the missing Flash.
29. Fill in by Strazewski and Meihm. Flash and Phantom Lady fight Meryln in Casablanca.
30. Here's an eerily creepy one. Flash stops a gunman from shooting up a movie theatre. Yeah. That's what I thought. Sept 89 cove date. Which means it probably hit stands in June or July.
31. Flash fight some weird energy vampire.
32-35. The Turtle traps Wally in a sensory deprivation environment and he "meets" a disappointed Barry. But its really just his subconscious. Eventually all his friends come and rescue him.
36-39. Wally joins a cult. Linda gets possessed by Seamus O'Doyle. The leaders of the cult are eventually outed as con artists. (duh)
40. Flash fights Dr. Alchemy and grows closer to Linda.
41-43. Kilg%re, the sentient super computer returns.
44. Housecleaning issue where lots of little supporting character subplots get resolved.
45-47. Grodd returns and possesses all the animals in Keystone. Vixen and Rex the Wonder Dog help Flash stop him.
48-50. Vandal Savage returns and kills Flash. Who then gets better and comes back in issue 50 with a shiny new costume and better Flash powers.
51. Ermm. There's a "Lady Flash"? Apperently she's some Russian chick.
53. Superman and Flash team up to save Jimmy Olsen. Also, this is the issue where Pied Piper casually came out to Wally.
55. War of the Gods crossover.
56-57. Deceased villain The Icicle leaves Wally his money in his will. The Icicles family doesn't like that. Also, the letters page has LOTS of letters about issue 53.
58-60. Mostly Loebs wrapping up his loose ends as his tenure on the book wound down.

After Bill Loebs left this book he went on to write Wonder Woman for awhile. I found his stories to be entertaining and he did a lot to beef up Wally's supporting cast with characters like Chunk, Connie, Wally's mom, Mason, the McGees, Pied Piper, and of course Linda. And Greg Larocque is a solid artist.

Next up is Waid and Jiminez' post issue 100 run. I believe issues 95-100 were a mini event that totally revamped Wally's origin and brought up the notion of the "Speed Force" that all Flashes tap for their powers. But it's been decades since I read it.
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Re: DCU : The Original Universe

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Okay, Flash 101-118. I discovered it wasn't Phil Jimenez on art, but Oscar Jimenez. And had lots of fill-in help throughout this run. Also, Brian Augustyn stepped down as editor and started as co-writer with issue 116.

101. Wally and Linda deal with Flash's new Speed Force powers after the events of issue 100.
102. Mongul shows up in Keystone and Wally has to beat his ass. He and Linda continue to have issues.
103-104. Linda's ex husband shows up and gets killed. A chemical company president is trying to summon vagina-faced demons from another dimension. Flash stops them. Robinson guest arts.
105. Flash fights Mirror Master. Ron Lim does art.
106. Wally's crazy ex-GF Frances Kane(aka Flamebird) shows up and tries killing Flash and Linda with her magnetism powers(?)
107. Flash teams up with Capt. Marvel Shazam to fight ShadowThief in a Underworld Unleashed crossover issue.
108-111. Dead Heat crossover event with Impulse. A super speedy badguy named Savitar wants the Speed Force all to himself. A bunch of fast heroes finally defeat him, but Johnny Quick dies, and Flash gets thrown into the 64th century, setting up...
112-117. Race Against Time arc. Wally's in the future trying to get back to the Present. And John Fox, the Flash from the 27th century arrives in the present to hit on a grieving Linda and try to stop a new Ice Age being started by Dr. Polaris and Abra Kadabra. Eventually Wally shows up stops them but Linda gets frozen. Jimenez gets art help from Tony Castrillo whos style is very reminiscent of John Byrne. I'm gonna have to see what else he's done. Also early Jim Cheung art assist in the later issues.
118. Aftermath of RAT. Robot Police show up from the future to arrest Fox. Wally uses his Flash powers to thaw Linda for a happy reunion.
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Re: DCU : The Original Universe

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Flash 119-129. Co-writers Waid and Augustyn welcomed new penciller Paul Ryan aboard for these 11 issues. Paul Ryan would eventually stop drawing comics and run for Vice President in 2012. No, I'm kidding. Different Paul Ryan.

119. Final Night tie in. Flash stops looters and whatnot while the sun burns out.
120-121. A third party candidate has the 1996 presidential election all but locked up. But it turns out his Veep running mate is secretly former Flash rogue The Top. I guess nobody vetted him? Anyway, Flash and Piper stop the badguy from assassinating his own running mate and the guy graciously abdicates.
122. Keystone kicks Flash out because insurance rates are outta control from all the bad guys he fights and damage it causes. So Flash becomes the hero of Santa Marta, CA and just commutes to work from Keystone everyday.
123-124. Some badguy Mysterio ripoff is trying to trick Flash with elaborate holograms to impress other villains. Flash defeats him.
125-126. Major Disaster comes to Santa Marta to destroy it with an earthquake and tidal wave. And succeeds. Flash's new hometown is wrecked and flooded.
127-129. Hell on Earth. Neron, the bad guy from Underworld revives all the dead Rogues and has them attack Keystone, where Flash is no longer welcome. Wally calls in the JLA to help but they are unsuccessful. So Wally and Linda have to make a deal with Neron to sell their love(wow! Hello, One More Day!) to stop the rogues. But their "love" infects Neron with kindness and he agrees to reverse all the destruction if they'll take it back. Romantic happy ending for Waid's final issue(for now).

Next up is Morrison and Millar's year on the book, before Waid and Augustyn return.
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Re: DCU : The Original Universe

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Here are Grant Morrison and Mark Millar's year long "fill-in" on the series. Waid always intended to return, he just needed to recharge his creativity after almost 70 issues. Morrison was showing his fondness for Silver Age absurdity even back in the late 90s. It should also be noted that Grant's wildly succesful JLA relaunch had just happened a few months previous, so he was DCs golden boy at the time. Anyway, here's what they did.

130-132. Emergency Stop! Wally breaks his leg and is confined to a wheelchair. The other speedsters fill in for him, fighting against a possessed super villain Suit called The Suit that attaches itself to victims and uses their powers as its own. Eventually Wally builds himself a uniform made entirely of Speed Force that allows him to runon his broken leg and defeats the villain.
133. Wally fights Mirror Master. One clever moment is when MM tricks Wally into running through a prism at light speed, thus breaking him into multicolored Flashes. Tell me that's not totally a Silver Age gimmick.
134. A day in the life of Jay Garrick as he fills in while Wally's leg is healing.
135. Part 3 of a crossover with Green Lantern and Green Arrow.
136-138. The Human Race. Some all powerful aliens force Flash into a cosmic foot race against other aliens. The loser's planet gets destroyed. Wally outfoxes them.
139-141. The Black Flash. Millar went solo for this arc and Pop Mhan came aboard as penciler. The Black Flash (the avatar of death for super speedsters comes for Wally and takes Linda instead. Flash outraces the specter to the end of time where "death" as a concept ceases to exist, thus tricking him out of existence. He then returns with Linda, but they don't explain how. Also, it was weird for me that the Rogues, complete with shackles and armed officers of the law escorting them, would be allowed to attend Linda's funeral. And also speak at it. Does that make sense?

Waid was back with the next issue.
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Re: DCU : The Original Universe

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Finished up the rest of Waid's second run on Flash (142-162)and am now caught up with the entire run. Just have some Flash related minis to read. Anyway, here's what happened.

142. Wally and Linda get married!! Except on the final page a villain kidnaps Linda and erases her from everyone's memory. That sucks.
143-144. We are introduced to Cobalt Blue, the big Baddie from the upcoming Chain Lightning saga. He is, get this, Barry Allen's identical twin! Who was switched at birth with the Thawne's stillborn baby! I'm not kidding!!!
145-150. "Chain Lightning" Blue Cobalt and his descendants begin a centuries long vendetta against Flashes through the years to the 30th Century where Barry lives. Wally teams up with various Flashes through time to stop them. Eventually Wally "disintegrates" much like Barry did during Crisis. A mysterious new Flash shows up on the last page.
151. A fill in issue by Casey and Roleau. Kid Flash teams up with a good gorilla from Gorilla City.
152-159. The most ambitious story Waid told. The mysterious new Flash is an older Walter West from an alternate timeline where Linda died back in issue 100. Battling Kadabra across two realities, Walter teams up with our Wally and Linda to get back to our dimension. Superb story telling.
Wally and Linda finally get married!
160. Wally and Linda's honeymoon.
161. Fill in issue by MacGreal starring GA Flash Jay Garrick.
163. Waid and Augustyn's final issue. Flash teams up with Captain Shazam Marvel.
164. Another fill in by MacGreal and art by Lim. Wally has less than one second to save Superman, Batman, GL, and Aquaman from booby trapped bombs all over the planet. He does it. Damn, he's fast.

Geoff Johns took over with 165.
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Re: DCU : The Original Universe

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Here's a pet peeve of mine: when artists with little or no experience on a character draw the costume wrong. Specifically the facemask. Chris Bachalo did it a few years ago on Captian America by adding a noseguard. On Batman it's fine because it's always been there. On Cap? No.
Same thing for the Flash.
I'm reading a Flash prestige book and Seth Fisher drew the Flash with a noseguard on his mask and it just looks wrong. Also, anything I read by Fisher just reminds me he threw himself off a roof in Japan. So then I don't really think about the book I'm reading and instead think about Fisher's suicide. By the way, Wikipedia is very diplomatic about his death. If you read it, you'd think he slipped off the building or something, instead of deliberately nosediving off it.
But anyway, artists should know what the costume looks like before they draw it.
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Re: DCU : The Original Universe

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A noseguard on Cap? What, is he fucking retarded? Cap's not the goddamn Batman!
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Re: DCU : The Original Universe

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It's very disconcerting.
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Re: DCU : The Original Universe

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I can't see how he used enough reference material to know the chest was chain mail, but not to notice the obvious lack of a nose guard.
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Re: DCU : The Original Universe

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And here's Fisher's Noseguarded Flash.

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Re: DCU : The Original Universe

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I finished up my big pile of Flash comics. A few stray issues from the end of Wally's series, a couple oneshots, and a couple mini series.

Flash 231, 240, 246. Nothing worth mentioning.
Flash 1,000,000. Part of Grant Morrison's fever dream crossover.
Flash 80 Page Giant 1. From 1998. Several short stories featuring, Wally, Jesse Quick, Jay, Impulse, John Fox, etc. This also brings up another pet peeve o' mine. When writers write themselves into the story as characters. Mark Millar writes the final story as the newly hired writer on the Flash comic and he "meets" Wally to discuss story ideas. Such a pretentious douche story cliche. Ugh.
Time Flies. The aforementioned Prestige Book written by John Rozum and drawn by Seth Fisher.
Flash + Nightwing oneshot. Dick and Wally head to New Orleans on vacation to solve the murder of an eccentric billionaire. The entire thing turns into an alien invasion. It started good and then lost me.
Flash/Green Lantern: Brave and the Bold. Six issue mini from 1999. At a point when both Barry and Hal were dead, Mark Waid did a nostalgia book set at various points in the past where the original Flash and GL team up. In hindsight, not as special since both of them are back and Wally never existed. But still a fun, decent read.
Flashpoint. Not the giant douchey crossover that wrecked the DCU. This was a 3 issue Elseworlds book from 1999 drawn by Norm Breyfogle. Set in an alternate world where Barry saved JFK, and stopped the VietNam war and the Cold War. JFK has become president for life and the space program made it to Mars in the 90s. Pretty cool premise.
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