DC comics Legacies part 1

Well part 1 features Supes and Bats.


Check out the newsarama link.

Superman: Most of these entries will have to carry some kind of designation as to whether they report on Pre-Crisis or current continuity. Frankly, there have been a lot of “imaginary” stories about the Superman legacy, including a great take from Superman Family #200 from 1980 that shows “Laura Kent”, the daughter of Clark and Lois, slowly realizing that she’s developing super-powers in her teen years. The Superman legacy also contains an added wrinkle in the form of Power Girl. How’s that? Read on.

In terms of “our” Batman, his legacy consists mainly of the veritable army of sidekicks, students, and allies he’s inspired. First is Dick Grayson, the original Robin; Dick graduated to the identity of Nightwing before recently assuming the mantle of Batman himself. The second Robin, Jason Todd, was killed by the Joker, revived during “Infinite Crisis”, and became the nefarious Red Hood. Robin number three, Tim Drake, has adopted the identity of Red Robin. The fourth Robin, Stephanie Brown, started out as young heroine Spoiler; after a period where she was believed dead, Steph re-emerged and eventually became the current Batgirl. The current Robin, Damien Wayne, is the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia Ah Ghul, the daughter of his enemy Ra’s Ah Ghul.

Part 2 involves Aquaman: read the newsarama article

Aquaman of Earth-2: Aquaman’s actually a surprisingly complicated case. The beginning is rather simple; the Aquaman that we would consign to Earth-2 appeared in 1941 and more or less ran until 1959. That Aquaman had a different origin. His father was a human ocean explorer, and that father “taught” Aquaman his powers after studying texts that came from Atlantis (though he was shown with gills at times). The Earth-2 Aquaman did pop up in “All-Star Sqaudron” in the ‘80s, but vanished from continuity after “Crisis on Infinite Earths”, replaced in his Squadron membership along with other major heroes in the new Earth continuity by the Young All-Stars (with Neptune Perkins being his analogue) and The Spider (who subbed for Green Arrow, post-Crisis).

Aquaman of Earth-1: The more familiar take on Aquaman kicked off in 1959. Lighthouse keeper Tom Curry saved a woman during a storm; she was Atlanna, an exile from Atlantis. They fell in love, and she gave birth to the son they named Arthur. As a toddler, Arthur’s abilities began to appear. Tom later married again, and the issue of that union was Orm Curry, Arthur’s half-brother. Orm would later become the villain Ocean Master, marking Aquaman as one of the heroes that can actually claim a villain as part of his legacy. Make a note of that villain part. We’ll see it again.

Superman/Batman Absolute Power

Re-reading this hardbound copy from my vault. Jeph Loeb and Carlos Pacheco takes us on a time traveling trip to the DC universe if Superman and Batman somehow goes rogue. It showed the importance of the 2 central characters to the whole DC Universe, what happens if 1 or both of them are gone from continuity.
It featured characters throughout DC history (well Earth-One history that is) from Sgt.Rock, the Haunted Tank, the DC western heroes, the JLA, the Legion to Kamandi.
Beautifully rendered by Carlos Pacheco(Flash, X-men).
This pre-Infinite Crisis story shows how the DC Universe could have treated the whole multiverse thingy without the Superboy superpunch explanation.

Review from grovel.org.uk:

In a complete reverse of the situation outlined in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Loeb uses this third volume in the series to put the super-duo into something of an alternate reality, where Batman and Superman are the rulers of the world. A group of super-villains from the future have travelled back in time to change history, avenging the death of Batman’s parents on the spot and plucking the baby Superman straight from Jonathan and Martha Kent’s clutches before they can pull him out of the space craft. As a result, Batman and Superman are brought up with very different values – Batman is no longer a whirlwind of vengeance and Superman misses out on an childhood instilled with honest farm-boy values. Instead, their new ‘parents’ bring them up to respect, enjoy and make the most of the power they hold over the world.

Superman/Batman 3: Absolute Power - BatmanLoeb takes us on a journey through a range of time warps, flexing his imaginative muscles as he goes: here’s Uncle Sam taking on the mantle of the Green Lantern; there’s Batman, travelling through time to arrive at the scene of his parents death to avenge them himself. An interesting enough set of dramatic dioramas, but not so stunning that they’re enough to create a good story in themselves.

The artwork is bold and colourful, but a little more traditional and unexciting than previous volumes. It’s solid enough but, much like the plot, leaves us shrugging our shoulders and wondering what the point is.

Loeb’s work is derivative but immaculately researched and planned, pulling on influences from across the DC Comics universe. And while it’s far from essential reading, fans will doubtless thrill at the alternative natures of the main characters when put through this string of alternate historical contexts. We just can’t help thinking that if you really want to see characters that are so very different, why not just create some new ones? Who knows, someone might even come up with the next Superman or Batman, rather than continually flogging these well-worn horses without actually taking them anywhere.