thanekos (thanekos) wrote in scans_daily, @ 2009-07-06 16:58:00 |
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Current music: | Return of Jackie and Judy- Tom Waits |
Things to Know About The 52
...well, 51 after Prime fought Monarch, but still.
These 52 worlds in the Orrery of Worlds or what have you are so, so very different from the ones we know, and we've only gotten glimpses at them.
There is an Earth where Steve Trevor is a putz, but then that was kind of expected.
and then gets killed by Nathaniel " I AM THE MONARCH " Adam. (this is from Countdown: Arena, where he's basically setting up a tournament between various super-figures to build his own personal strikeforce, with the leftovers being used as reserves/generics for his army of killing Monitors.)
But on to a more striking difference. Like, say, an Earth with a Superman that has a harder edge?
Jellybeans, Mister President? do we want to know?
so, yeah, Monarch bamfs him and a bunch of other guys up to his hangout to have a fight. The first fight... multiple Nightshades, fighting for the right to... join Monarch. Yeah.
I gotta wonder what he was thinking.
" Okay, lessee, totally want a Superman, a GL, a Starman, right.... Batman'd be good to, so'd a Wonder Woman... and a... Nightshade? Did I write this down correctly? Wait, why do I want a Blue Beetle? Was I drunk when I came up with this idea? "
I guess Nightshade's power levels could justify that, but why the fuck would you want a Blue Beetle? He's been shown to have many drudges, so it can't be for the tech support. Anyhow, next fact: there is an alternate universe Shade (you know one of the Nightshades had to take that name) with an absolutely priceless rageface.
that is perfect rage, female!Shade. perfect.
the winner of this fight is Nightshade of Earth-13, who's married to her universe's Captain Atom. Awkwarrrrrrd.
so then it becomes the Batmen's turn to fight, and after disposing of a vampire!Batman, the two remaining Bats have this convo:
of course, Vamp!Bats interrupts that to come from behind and win. However, he ends up vamping Batman from Earth-40 (Liberty Files Batman), who will be a minor thorn in Monarch's side because his awesome allows him to not be a total slave to his desires.
remember terse!Superman earlier? well, it turns out Monarch recruited some of the.. cagier sons of Krypton. they tend to go at each other.
Commie!Superman, Patriotic!Superman, and WTF!Chris Kent, everybody! It'd be a really cool sitcom, you can't deny it. that's a Ray Palmer, by the way, who then blasts the Supermen.
because he is a Ray. because the universe just can't miss the opportunity to cause a pun to happen. see, he used to be the Atom, but then things happened.
anyhow, the Rays are up next (Nazi Ray, Doctor Palmer, and Apollo... which, writer Keith Champagne has said, is because Monarch more-or-less thinks one superhuman with light powers is the same as another, not because of any HE'S A RAY)
Dr. Palmer beats both Nazi!Ray and Apollo, tricking the Nazi into escaping the fight (and Monarch, consequently, into killing the escapee), and Apollo...
(yeah, Apollo's got a case of radiation crazies... but still, it's a cool takedown.)
now that's a cool Ray, right there. a mix of tech and biological abilities. how Clockwork King.
and the GL swearing by Darkest Night? Earth-Fawcett Comics's GL. No, seriously. An Earth primarily home to the Marvel Family has a GL. I can only assume he shows up to, like, cart Mr. Mind off to space prison every now and then.
so the Beetles fight, and the one that wins is a ravenous swarm of scarabs or something. one of the Beetles leaves something behind- a vest he'd found and been working, a dimensional teleport device that could save them. So a sub-plot thread is laid...
and next up on the block is the Lantern fight. as one of them is Bruce Wayne, they've got a cunning plan... which blows up in their faces, because they forget Monarch has mad crazy power, and the only one left standing is the one from a Batman Beyond-esque Earth.
so stuff happens, and it turns Liberty!Batman was vamped. After slaughtering some of Monarch's grunts, he makes his way down to the reserves, seemingly to have a snack...
a Batman with a sense of humor. my word.
so then the Flashes and the Starmen fight, while those standing try to figure out what to do..
which they finally do by giving an alternate Captain Atom, Tim " Breach " Zanetti, the harness from earlier and telling him to go bamfing around the multiverse for help.
to distract Monarch, the contentious Supermen stage a fight, and we learn Chris Kent's abilities are weeeeeeeird:
... yeah.
vamp!Earth-40!Batman lays out their plan, as Johnny Quick and Starwoman triumph...
Quantum-Storm is an entity with the combined abilities of Firestorm and Captain Atom. That is a very scary thought.
the wonder women then fight, with New Frontier!Wonder Woman taking the.. not really coveted spot as one of Monarch's strikeforce.
time's ticking down, as we come to the Supermen fight... and the Supermen hash out their differences.
then they get down to business, while Earth-40 Bats launches an attack to free Monarch's reserves... and gets vaped for his trouble. Monarch then reveals that... well, all of this has been planned.
so he wanted to make sure he could lock down the possible ways any resistance would occur? clever. no need for the ted kord crack, though. bit over-the-top.
so zanetti, who's monarch's plant somehow, then brings in as many captain atoms as he can find, and monarch kills them all... which, if that's what he was programmed to do, speaks to monarch's issues.
especially this.
he was practicing that speech for days, wasn't he?
anyhow, zanetti has a change of heart, gives the surviving superman (patriot!supes) the harness, and is killed by monarch. patriot!supes frees Monarch's reserves, but Monarch has his army already... which he will do not a lot with, if Countdown was any indication.
kinda ended up summarizing Countdown: Arena, didn't I? weird.
okay, to make up for that.. snapshots of other people in the multiverse, as seen through the eyes of Monitor-later-Monarch henchwoman Forerunner.
like... conqueror!J'onn!
nazi Justice League! (I expect their power ring wielder is off somewhere being the subject of a Leni Reifenstahl film.)
magic!Oracle.
and nazi Batman!
It's a wild and wacky place, the multiverse is...