I’ll have to recheck - but the fact that his homeworld was destroyed does not mean he was from a parallel Earth. Need more.
Would this help, CG? Pariah’s universe was the very first one that was destroyed. In fact, he’s the one that created the anti-matter wave.
Believe me, I’ve been scouring the net, myself - even came upon that linked site already. I’m just uncertain as to whether its explicit in the text or not. Certainly, it’s an idea a lot of people seem to share.
Superman/SHAZAM! #2: Love the two meetings. The art is growing on me.
Plastic Man #17: Pretty funny. Love the drunk teens. Makes me miss college a bit.
Inf-Cri #2: Hey, Supes. Parallax is on the phone. This ain’t gonna end well. Nice to see PG actually happy. I’ll admit it: it teared up a bit.
This was the aspect of the issue that interested me most. Ok, I love Power Girl too, and I want her to be happy. But YIKES, Old Superman! Now I’m even more pumped to see where all this is going. We were discussing the issue last night and I agreed with my husband when he said it looks like they’re setting him up to be an antagonist, though not an outright villain. He’s obviously misguided, but his heart is in the right place. Paved with good intentions and all that.
I was way too tired to read anything else last night, but I’ll get caught up.
I agree with you, cbawlmer, about Grampa Supes.
I have a question. In the OMAC series, right after the kryptonite had been stoled. Supes is asked if PG should be informed, brecause it (kryptonite) affects her too. Supes replies something like “Sometimes. She hasn’t been herself lately.”
So, was that a foreshadowing of the revelations in IC #2? What I mean is, does PG realizing what happen have some kind of effect on her personality before it actually happened? Ripple across time effect, so to speak?
The implication is that PG has always been a little “in flux” because of the way she was pigeonholed into the universe; the apparent reason it has been worse lately seems to tie into Supergirl’s return. I think all will be made clear in future issues of Infinite Crisis.
I got:
The Question Returns #1 – a one-shot from 1997, to add to my Question collection. Not very good, though. In fact, now that I’ve finally collected and read them all, I think the majority of Denny O’Neil’s late-'80s Question series wasn’t very good… and I’m a huge fan of the character!
Infinite Crisis #2 – OK, I hated this. I’m HATING this, I should say. I don’t really give a shit about the Golden and Silver Ages, and don’t care to see them brought back. Boo freakin’ hoo, naughty things happen in this continuity, people are mean to each other! If you ask me, comics (particularly from DC) have generally gotten better since 1986, and I don’t care to see the last 25 years retconned away to make everything old new again. I don’t want to see them undo Robinson’s Starman or Brubaker’s Catwoman or Giffen and DeMatteis’ Justice Leagues. Peepaw Superman and Meemaw Lois Lane aren’t MY Superman and Lois Lane (hell, I don’t even like the current ones that much!), and if this story is about a forced return to the values and ideals of yesteryear, this fan will take it as a sign that he has outgrown comic books altogether.
I really don’t think that’s where they’re headed at all. See the above posts comparing PeePaw Superman to Parallax (a little bit; it’s obviously not a direct parallell…yet!).
Yes.
To clarify, PG has sometimes been vulnerable to kryptonite, sometimes not. I think the uncertainty started even before Infinite Crisis buildup started at all.
Regarding Kal-L, I don’t think he’s so much “misguided” as being outright manipulated. Alexander is showing him only the worst parts and events of the DCU, and I think he’s also Society Lex, somehow. They have the same eyes.
Also, I think Geoff was putting fans’ words in Kal-L’s mouth with the whole “It’s too dark and getting darker” thing. He’s done it before with Batman playing the part of “the guy who refuses to accept Hal’s redemption” in GL: Rebirth.
Look, right now they’re criticizing how dark the DCU has gotten – but I believe the series will end up validating the post-Crisis universe (hey, does this one even have a name? Earth-0? Hmm…)
This is a sequel, not an undoing, of Crisis. Since it would be basically impossible to reboot the DCU based on the Earth-2 universe (which hasn’t been the dominant DC Universe since 1950 or so in any case) without losing virtually all the characters that people know from the DCU, that’s really not a possibility. Remember, they want to provide this story as a jumping on point, not a jumping off point – which is precisely what a true “this is the end of the universe” scenario would be.
Superman-2 is going to try to change the foundation of the Universe, and fail. But in failing, he’s going to somehow make a lasting impact on the Universe that will send the DCU into a new and interesting direction. Mark my words.
In addition to Tengu’s cite, lemme also point out that Pariah, in CRISIS 7, said that he destroyed all life in his universe ("…I set off a chain reaction that destroyed my Earth, my Galaxy, my universe!" and we see, on panel, his Earth being destroyed) and woke the Anti-Monitor up. As a result, the Anti-Monitor started destroying more and more positive matter universes until only the five merged Earths remain. He can’t be from Earth-1 for both reasons (Pariah destroyed all life in his universe by starting the Anti-Matter wave and his universe was destroyed by the anti-matter wave before the 5 remaining earths were merged.)
Huh…looking back one page from the above cite (which I remembered) there’s an even better one that I didn’t remember where Pariah makes it even clearer. Speaking to a bunch of multi-Earth heroes (every major world but Prime is represented*) he says “I come from the Earth, not your Earths, of course, but another.”
Fenris
*Err…interesting group: Lady Quark, Superman E1, Superman E2, Blue Beetle, Alex Luthor, Harbinger, Captain Marvel and Uncle Sam. Hmmm…
Great cite, Tengu - Thanks!
You’re right. Alex and Lex-Society have blue eyes. Lex-Mockingbird has green eyes. Of course, this ties in with one of my aforementioned theories…
I love when I have a book handy to cite. 
Teen Titans 29 - Pretty solid issue, in general, but the best part was Gar talking about Elasti-Girl.
By the way, when did Dr. Psycho’s place get taken by Marty Allen?
Is it perhaps possible that, instead of Superman-2 following in Parallax’ footsteps and failing, that he might actually *succeed * instead? Could this be where the whole ‘missing year’ event that I’ve heard tell of somehow fits in? Perhaps the current continuity fails due to the inability of the major heroes to cooperate, and the rest of the ‘missing year’ revolves around the new Pre-Crisis (???) continuity shaking itself apart in some apocalyptic fashion? I’m vastly out of the loop as far as the gossip on this series goes, so perhaps my guess is patently ludicrous. Be gentle.
Personally, I find it kind of hard to swallow that the ‘original’ Superman would conceive or sanction any kind of plan to erase the universe, even if it is to save his wife; after all, this is a guy who could have won WWII by flying into the past and killing Hitler in junior high if he’d wanted to. I sincerely hope there’s more to it than that. I thought it was sort of a nice, affectionate touch to the original Crisis that those four characters were allowed to escape ‘unscathed,’ so to speak, into an extradimensional Valhalla as the door was shut on the old continuity; I’d be kind of disappointed if the one lasting result of this whole runaround was to irrevocably befoul this one last tiny remaining fragment of happier times, which really hasn’t been doing anyone any harm over the last couple decades.
Speaking of which: what’s the deal with this whole ‘extradimensional Paradise’ thing anyway? Is there more to it? I find it hard to believe that Superman’s idea of Heaven is an iceberg… Even his Fortress at least had furniture and pretzeled I-beams and stuff. And if they’ve been watching the post-Crisis universe mature all this time, why aren’t Superboy-Prime and Alexander adults by now? Why is Lois still wearing that tatty purple housedress from 1986, except that sometimes it’s green? Or am I just taking this device too literally?
One thing’s for certain, though; something that I’ve been convinced of for many years now, and which **IC2 ** makes very, very plain: *somebody needs to take Batman’s screen away. * Once again Batman is being a dick, and as usual it somehow seems to center around that big starship Enterprise screen of his. I seem to recall that when the whole OMAC thing got started, Batman spent most of his time with his ass planted in front of that screen. Oh, and say, where did he craft those plans to murder his teammates that got him kicked out of the JLA a couple years back? Why, it was that very same screen, wasn’t it? That screen does no one any good. Batman is supposed to be the Dark Knight Detective, not the Dark Mall Security Guard; all the time he spends in front of that screen is time that he could actually be out, you know, detecting things instead. However this Crisis turns out, it desperately needs to result in a universe where Batman has no screen.
Folks… either there’s a big-time screwup…
Or that isn’t Earth-2 Superman, Kal-L of the planet Krypton. Infinite Crisis #2 proves it.
One of the differences between Earth-1 and Earth-2 Superman is the location of his refuge. Earth-1 has the Fortress of Solitude… Earth-2 has a secret mountain hideaway… near Metropolis.
http://superman.ws/tales2/wife/?page=21
http://superman.ws/tales2/wife/?page=23
New Books for 11-09-05.
Have curiously little to say about this weeks comics,….
Anyone else read Teen Titans #29? I enjoyed the fact that Deux Ex Donna (well put, Ogul, MHW) stayed pretty much in the background this issue, and that center stage was firmly occupied by the showdown between Jason Todd and Tim Drake. It was good to have Johns back this issue: the dialogue was great. (No offense to Simone or Rob Liefield, but Johns has put such a stamp on these characters, that they just didn’t sound right scripted by others, least to me.) The only drawback this issue was the art. Daniels (refreshingly, in some ways) plain, straightforward layouts worked fine for the most part, but the ending really struck a false note to me. It might have worked a bit better if there was a framing sequence of some sort, a pull back to reveal Todd was relating the story to someone,… as it is, that last comment kinda fell like a brick from the sky.
Dunno,… anyway that was my impression.
The art in Infinite Crisis #2 was great! (Look at the detail! Jimenez, Perez, Ordway and Lanning MUST be working on oversized pages.) From what I could pick up of the central plot thread, having followed Johns and Connor’s excellent “Power Tripping” arc in JSA Classified I must say I was glad to see Karen Starr take center stage here, though like Luke Skywalker, she’s clearly in for some kind of oedipal struggle here, as Super-Darth tries to bring her over to the "dark side”. Not for the first time, do I wonder if she’s slated to die in this story line, like Super-Girl in Crisis on Infinite Earths, before her, to help resolve the conflict between the many Earths. Anyway decent start, … though with so many storylines feeding into this, you can see how this could end up one big mess. All it will take is one misstep.
100 Bullets #66] started really well this month. We get to see another side to Lono: the ruthless tactician. We always knew it was there: his every action reveals his cold hard cruelty, but it was interesting to see him express it verbally in an exchange with Augustus DeMedici. Then Azzarello tosses in a real shock, which left me wondering what was the point of this particular strike. Then the closing dialogue just flew over my head. I have to re-read this soon.
A new story arc, “Blaze of Glory” begins in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #197 (I must say I enjoy the fact that this title seems to have returned to it’s original anthology format of stories by different creators every few months.) This issue Will Pfieffer introduces a surprisingly interesting and sympathetic opponent for the Batman, one that is intelligent and resourceful, but shuns the usual gaudy gear and gimmicks one usually expects from bat-foes. My only complaint is an old one, regarding Chris Weston’s art. While I respect the man’s work, I still can’t ignore or overlook his tendency to put these oversized heads on some of his characters. It’s all the more noticeable given the detailed realism of his rendering style. While it isn’t an issue in his Enemy Ace or work with Grant Morrison, here it stands out and bugs me.
I particularly enjoyed the art on JLA #122 and Hawkman #46. Personally, I don’t mind the focus on B-Listers in this JLA story arc, particularly seeing GA and the Canary pair up again. The bickering is just part of the fun. Somehow I get the feeling the writers are trying to give Aquaman the makeover Simone pulled off with Catman in Villains United.) I am not familiar with the Randall fellow working on Hawkman, but for a first showing, he, Thibert and Wong (have they worked together elsewhere?) did a real nice job. As for the story, it started well, and I really enjoyed Hawkgirl’s snide comments about Batman & the OMACs, but then I got lost when we rewound back to the start of The Rann Thanagar War (actually I could say the same for the appearance of the Spectre in Teen Titans (or heck, was it JLA? I’m confused).
Ghost Rider #3 (or as Ogul or MHW put it, “Preacher-Lite”) was straightforward fun. I find it interesting that the Demon Scout, Hoss, might end up being the closest thing Johnny Blaze has to a friend this time around. He’s already getting most of the funny lines. That would be so Ennis, wouldn’t it?
I finally got to Wood’s DMZ last night.
Congratulations to Wood & Company on what for the most part was an intriguing, exciting read. It struck me as a much more “real” treatment of ideas Brubaker played with in his sadly truncated Deadenders series.
My one reservation is that the protagonists decision to stay in Manhattan struck me as a bit sudden, given what little we know about him so far. We needed to see a couple of scenes of discontent with his ‘normal’ life, or a rabid curiousity about life on the Island, something, to render that decision a bit more explicable. Hopefully next issue.
Wonk, notice my comment above. I think it’s fairly significant. Notice especially the page 23 point.