The Book of Hsssh

Morrison's rebooted Superman, often called Superbro to differentiate from other Supermen, ended up dying, or getting absorbed into another Superman or whatever. Good ending is the one where you feel comfortable with leaving character and Final Days or Reborn storylines certainly weren't that. So lets try to find a better place to end things. Easy answer would be to say Action Comics #18, Morrison's run ended and thats where we end things. Or we could pick some random issue from Pak's run and say that this is where it ended. But where would be fun in that? Lets try to go forward as much as we can before we hit the wall. So obviously Final Days ain't it, what else was being published at around same time? Maybe lets start with what wasn't. As the New 52 initiative (and Superbro with it) was ending some stuff got cancelled early or didn't get collected editions. In Superbro's case we got 5 issues that weren't published in monthly format and were added to...

Another mini-series that maybe should have had Multiversity label during Infinite Frontier era was Crime Syndicate. I enjoyed Forever Evil event and CSA characters in it, but unfortunately Johns ended up killing most of them because... Watchmen forced him to I guess. Anyway, since then DC had multiple soft reboots/retcons so I guess someone decided that CSA should get some focus again. First obvious change is the name, America was dropped. In recent years DC has preferred Justice League name over the classic Justice League of America so I guess it makes sense to drop it for Earth-3 version of the team as well. There were many other changes and sadly this was the only one that I was fine with. Without going too much into pointless details biggest changes are new Flash and Superwoman. I was not really a fan of Busiek introducing black Power Ring, but at least I could understand the logic behind it. This time Superwoman is... Donna Troy. She pretty much acts same as Lois Lane did so what ...

Technically Beryl was created during Morrison's JLA run, but I think that she became a bit more well known in the pages of Batman. Her "communication powers" also got eventually downplayed (or removed entirely) so I feel like she is definitely more of a Batman character than JLA's. Her appearances in Morrison's JLA and Batman are obviously must reads for any fan of Morrison, but is there anything else worth checking out? There was Knight and Squire miniseries by Cornell and Hodgkins. It fleshes out their partnership and tries to expand DC universe in UK by introducing (and re-introducing) various characters. Nothing spectacular, but solid stuff and it is not like we can be very picky for content with Beryl. After that there was a guest appearance in Batgirl #22. Again, nothing spectacular, but solid stuff that is worth checking out. As a bonus it works as a set-up for Stephanie getting involved with Spyral in Morrison's Batman Inc. storyline.  A bit of a side ...

Before Flashpoint happened Metal Men didn't really move lots of units, but since Didio is a big fan of them it was only a matter of time before they appeared in this "new" continuity. So how was it and can we trace any of it back to Morrison? I don't know if it was a push from Didio or it was Johns' idea, but Metal Men got their first appearances in New 52 JL book. And it is not a random appearance, but they get a decent amount of pages for 2 part story with Cyborg during Forever Evil event. So you know, high profile debut all things considered. Technically Tina appears several issues earlier in JL #18, but I'm not a fan of Trinity crossover (and the road to it) so I'd say that issue can, and probably should, be ignored. Anyway, Cyborg was removed from Titans environment and he needed new allies and enemies. For enemies we got Grid and Metal Men helped Cyborg overcome it. This was basically their origin story so there wasn't anything Morrison related, ...

Young Justice was a popular team book back in the day. It featured a new generation of DC's teenagers and was written by PAD. Probably everyone who follows DC comics knows that. So what Morrison has to do with it? For most people Young Justice and PAD are joined at the hip. But the entire thing started with Dezago and he was supposed to write the ongoing before he was replaced, for one reason or another, by PAD. But before getting replaced he did three important issues: Young Justice Secret #1 and JLA: World Without Grown-Ups #1-2. Secret one-shot introduces... Secret. Character that would later become a regular, but from what I know has nothing to do with Morrison. More relevant is World Without Grown-Ups issues because they have "special thanks to Morrison" in their credits. So supposedly Morrison had plans for JLA Jr. story arc. DC editors probably had plans for launching something like Young Justice for a while as well. So probably both sides decided (or editors decid...

Morrison's Batman run ends with Batman Incorporated special where other creators tell some stories about these characters. Morrison starts and ends the book with Batman wondering if he should archive the project. He decides against it. So what happened with Batman Inc. after that?  Jiro makes an appearance in Batman Eternal #9, but it didn't lead to anything. It also looked like Tynion wanted to include Talon into the team (Talon #14), but that series got wrapped up like two issues later and the idea of Talon joining Batman Inc. was dropped. There is also Batwing: Futures End #1 one-shot that focuses on Lucas Fox Batwing and his adventure with Batman Inc. It is not a bad one-shot, but it is just a one-shot. And thats really it. Not much when you think about it? But I guess it makes sense considering that Snyder's Batman was hot new thing at the time so it probably made sense to spin things out of it instead. Things didn't really change till years later when DC had ran o...

On paper Aztek should have been a bigger deal. Written by Morrison and Millar? Playing a role in Morrison's JLA run? A cool idea in general? Sure he died at the end, but it is not like that has stopped anyone in comics. And yet it took couple of decades for Aztek to return. While original Aztek ended up dying we did see his potential successor, a female called Azteka, in the alternative timeline of Rock of Ages. So it is probably debatable if Orlando created a new character in his Justice League of America #20 or just continued what Morrison started. But regardless of that, was Orlando's follow up any good? To cut things short Orlando's JLA run wasn't good and issues with Aztek weren't an exception. Oh and yeah, DC (or Orlando?) decided to go with Aztek instead of Azteka for a female version of Aztek. To make matters worse Orlando's writing is very blunt in trying to make her look like a better hero than the original Aztek. I'm not sure if such strategy with...