52 Shake-Up: Wally West

After DC's The New 52 happened, several mainstay characters were nowhere to be seen. These characters - Donna Troy, Spoiler, Cassandra Cain, and others - became the patron saints of all that fans considered wrong about the New 52. But none so more than Wally West.

Wally West had been around since the 50s, longer than most current comic book characters. Over that time, fans had seen him grow from Kid Flash to Flash, join the Justice League, get married, and have kids. In fact, by the time Flashpoint happened, Wally had been the Flash almost as long as his predecessor Barry Allen had been. And yet, for the first three years of the New 52, Wally was nowhere to be seen. Never even mentioned.

And then he was: in April 2014, in The Flash Annual #3, he finally showed up. Sorta:

Some fans argue that this isn't the real Wally West, just a new character that happens to have the same name. It's easy to see why: he has a different race, age personality, background, and costume than the Wally West people were asking for. No one can say for sure why DC decided to change the character so thoroughly, but one change CAN be explained.

See, around the time this issue was being made, they were also filming the pilot for the 2014 series The Flash. And in that pilot, Joe and Iris West look like this:

So DC wanted Wally West to look the same across media. And I know what you're thinking: maybe the Wests were cast as black because Wally is. And that would be a good point, except that, besides the producers saying it was the other way around, Iris HAD already appeared in the New 52, and she looked like this:

So they made Wally biracial to explain it.

Convergence: "Injustice: Gods Among Us"

This week saw the release of Convergence #0, the official kick-off to DC's summer event where remnants of destroyed alternate realities find themselves stuck together on one planet and fight it out (but please don't get that confused with Marvel's upcoming summer event where remnants of destroyed alternate realities find themselves stuck together on one planet and fight it out, Secret Wars). The last ten or so pages of the issue clarify who will be involved by giving a list of 41 worlds. Most of them are ones you'd guess: past versions of DC (Flashpoint, pre-Flashpoint, pre-Zero Hour, etc), possible futures (various version of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Kamandi, Hex, etc), older versions of alternate earths (Earth-4, Earth-S, Earth-X), and popular Elseworlds (Kingdom Come, Superman: Red Son, etc). Some are more surprising, like Sugar and Spike. And then, at the very end, is Injustice: Gods Among Us.

Injustice: Gods Among Us is a 2013 fighting game pitting heroes against villains and other heroes, and I hate it. The storyline is atrocious (it starts off with Superman killing The Joker after The Joker kills Lois Lane, and then Superman establishing a new world order with him as the high chancellor) and somehow the costumes are even busier than the New 52 versions, which is quite a feat.

I have no idea how Injustice made it as one of the 41 worlds when things like The Nail didn't, or why it's the only non-comics media world to be included, instead of something like Super Friends or the DC Animated Universe. But here we are.

And here's a page from the upcoming Convergence #1 that shows just how dire this stupid reality is.

52 Shake-Up: Lock-Up

"52 Shake-Up" is a series focusing on DC's New 52. Posts get a 52 Shake-Up tag if it's an already existing canon immigrant who now exists in the New 52 as well, or if it's a previously existing character who was changed so drastically by the New 52 to fit a version of themselves in another medium that they could be mistaken for being a canon immigrant.

It's always strange to see who will be a canon immigrant, and especially who will show up in the New 52. The following character was actually the first immigrant from Batman: The Animated Series (not counting Renee Montoya, who made it into comics before the show even started), even beating Harley Quinn, despite the fact that he only showed up in one episode. I wrote about him before on the Batman: The Animated Series Super Post, but I've moved his entry here:

Lock-Up

Lock-Up first appeared in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Lock-Up" (1994).  His first comics appearance was a cameo at the end of Robin #24 (January 1996), before getting a full appearance in Detective Comics #697 (June 1996).


Likewise, Lock-Up now fully exists in the New 52, beating such characters as Cassandra Cain, Donna Troy, Elongated Man, and most of the Justice Society. He first appeared in Batman: Eternal #3 (April 2014) as part of a gang of low-rent Batman foes, including Cluemaster, Signalman, and Firefly:

Appearance Spotlight: Superman's New S

As part of DC's upcoming "Divergence" initiative, they're dropping from 52 titles to 49 and majorly shaking up all of their books. New creators, new storylines, new costumes, new everything. As part of these changes, Superman (and Wonder Woman, but it's Superman we're talking about today) gets a new look, seen here on the cover of Superman/Wonder Woman #18 (June 2015):

As you can see, the new outfit is a callback to his appearance in the early issues of Grant Morrison's Action Comics run (2011-2012), but more important is the new shield, because it's a call back to something far older; namely, the Superman shorts from Fleischer Studios (1941-1943):

Character Spotlight: Brainiac (Animated)

In this month's Futures End #44 (March 2015), there's a scene where Superman punches Brainiac SO HARD that...something happens to him. The page shows multiple versions of him; I don't know if these are Brainiacs from alternate earths or from Hypertime or both, and I don't know if the're actually appearing or if it's more symbolic, but it doesn't really matter. What does matter is who shows up.

In front, we have the Brainiac getting punched. Behind him is the New 52 Brainiac (I don't know how they're different; I assume the Futures End Brainiac is from the future), then at the end is the original Brainiac from the 50s, ahead of him is the "New Look" Brainiac from the 70s, and in the middle - for whatever reason - we have the Brainiac from Superman: The Animated Series (1997).

I've mentioned this Brainiac before in regards to the importance of his head symbol, but this is the first time he's appeared in full. And again, this could be the Brainiac from either Earth-12 or Earth-50, or just from some alternate timeline where Superman: The Animated Series happened, or something else entirely (maybe it doesn't really mean anything and the artist just likes this style of Brainiac), but it's in there either way.

Character Spotlight: Lau

Mr. Lau is not a very important character. You probably don't recognize his name, and even once you see his picture, you may not know what he is or what he comes from. He appears in The Dark Knight (2008), as a mob accountant from Hong Kong. Overall he's a pretty weaselly guy, and after Batman goes to retrieve him from China, Lau ends up being burned alive atop a mountain of money by the Joker.

He's only appeared in one issue, but that's enough to count: Red Robin #23 (May 2011), where Lucius Fox meets with him as a diversion, much like what happens in the movie.

100!

I never thought it would happen, but I've finally reached 100 posts on this blog. I'd love to say that means I've featured 100 canon immigrants on the site, but a couple posts didn't have any and several had multiple entries, so who knows how many there really are. A lot more than 100, though, which in a way is even better!

I couldn't really think of a good way to commemorate the big 100, so instead I've decided to use it as a platform to help fill in some gaps on the site. With that in mind, here's a list of some things I've been looking for and never quite been able to find. If you have any of these things, drop me a line in the comments!


Pictures of
1. "Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!"
2. "A strange visitor from a distant planet"
3. "Faster than a speeding bullet, etc"
4. "mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper"
5. Farmer Brown - Streets of Gotham #4
6. Stalker - Batman Beyond (mini) #4
7. Aunt Harriet's last name - Detective Comics #373
8. Raza - Invincible Iron Man Annual 2010

Confirmation of
1. Batman: The Animated Series being the first time Scarecrow was portrayed as an Arkham employee
2. Superman: The Animated Series being the first time Lois used "Smallville" as a nickname for Clark (I don't doubt it, but an episode title and issue number would help a lot)
3. Batman's Giant Penny first appearing in a non-comics medium (I don't think this is true, but I've heard it mentioned)

Issue numbers of first appearances for
1. Any of Superman's catchphrases ("up, up, and away", "this looks like a job for Superman", "strange visitor from a distant planet", etc)
2. Superman's changing in a phone booth (I have Action Comics #345, but there may be an earlier instance)
3. Superman's ripping open his shirt to reveal the S
4. Wonder Woman's spinning costume change


And for a bonus, here's a panel I've never really been sure should count for the site or not, but either way it's a nice little reference to DC's The Super Dictionary (1978). From Superman #709: