Week 6: Sent Forth from the Power
It's pretty clear that the Johns/Morrison/Rucka/Waid team has a comprehensive grasp on DC history, and therefore probably understands that whatever they create here will be part of an evolving canon as long as there's a company that owns it all. I mean, they remember Casey the Cop, who appeared in one-page gag strips in such classics as Detective Comics #233, the first mainstream comic to star a lipstick lesbian (heels not visible on this cover). They even remember Silverblade, the Cary Bates/Gene Colan limited series that I'd mercifully blotted out of my memory, and Sonic Disruptors, the limited series that abruptly got even more limited. So why are they giving us the not-quite-fully-baked Great Ten, who are close to being a terrific idea but still short of the mark?The problem with the Great Ten isn't really that they're all about look-how-Chinese-we-are--that never stopped the Freedom Fighters or Captain America from being interesting, and I'm dying to see more of the Accomplished Perfect Physician, the Ghost Fox Killer, etc. (I also only count nine of the Ten, since the Shaolin Robots are the August General's enemies, per the description that's circulated.) The problem, I think, is that another solid four hours of research and thought could have knocked down the dopey Orientalism factor considerably. I'd have loved them to be Chinese rather than "Chinese," if you see what I'm saying. To quote a wonderful comment that Little Light left on a previous entry here:
"In re the Great Ten preview--augh on Mother of Champions, and not just because her concept is, if unique, a little horrifying. I hate to be the one who points this out, but their notes on the colors of her costume--'yellow for the life-giving waters of the Yangtze'--is utter bullshit. It puts the Western four-elements scheme and made-up colors into pseudo-Chinese language and projects it right on, when anyone who was willing to crack pretty much any book that mentions Chinese cosmology ever--as someone designing costumes for a sometimes-mythologically-linked Chinese superteam ought--ought to have noticed that not only do the Chinese have an entirely different system of basic elements, a list of five that does not include air, but that they a: function completely differently than the Western set do and b: have very specific colors assigned to each of them, colors which have remained canonically stable since, oh, before the Han Dynasty. The designer has not paid attention to this, and that makes me wonder if they've done any research about Chinese history or anything much at all. The guy who supposedly works for the PRC government wears a Tibetan religious symbol? Does the Shaolin Robot pray? Is it too much to ask DC to do their homework when writing about other cultures? To talk to the Chinese-American intern in Accounting, who could maybe call her grandpa and ask real quick?"
(A bit of additional explanation here: Wikipedia's got a breakdown on the Chinese five-elements schema and their colors-- fire is red, earth is yellow, metal is white, water is black, wood is green.)
Plus Thundermind, who works for the PRC, not only wears a Tibetan religious symbol, his whole M.O. is straight out of Tibetan Buddhism--about the last thing the Chinese government would want to associate itself with. The "om mani padme hum" mantra does indeed mean something like "hail the jewel in the lotus," and a Siddhi is indeed a kind of psychic power in the Tibetan tantric Buddhist tradition. Morrison is not unfamiliar with this stuff, as those who've read The Invisibles know. Still, it'd have been nice if he could stick to some of the major Siddhis: Parkaya Pravesh is essentially (the pre-reboot) Deadman's power, Vayu Gaman Siddhi is maybe how Thundermind flies, Madalasa Vidya is Henry Pym's power (minus the part about the ants), Sura Vigyan is kind of a combination of Element Lad and Sun Boy, and Kanakdhara Siddhi is pretty much Scrooge McDuck's power. Giving people bright purple headaches is not really one of the classical Siddhis. Not to mention that Thundermind's name seems to be derived from a Gnostic poem.
It also bugs me a bit that the Great Ten's dialogue, even in translation, is rather like old yellow-peril-type supervillains--"flamboyant fools"? The Mandarin could have said that!
Here, by the way, is J.G. Jones talking a little about designing the look of the Great Ten. They do look pretty awesome, I have to say.
Two double-page spreads in one 20-page story (plus four mid-fight-scene four-panel pages)--no wonder there's no room for John Henry or Ralph or Montoya or the Question. Wasn't this comic supposed to have at least six starring characters? At least now we know we'll be seeing Montoya and her Kirbytech gun next issue...
More notes:
Pg. 1: Wow--Booster's really on the decline. Exploiting knowledge of the future for profit is one thing; Astroturfing an enemy is another...
Pg. 2: Not about dollar figures, but about action figures! Nice to see that the Martian Manhunter figure still has a curved head, though. For an issue in which chemical numbers are important it's odd that the razor company would be named after promethium, element 61, which is nasty, radioactive stuff. Did Booster manage to write Bill's name right on the check? Who's the woman washing dishes?
Pg. 4: See, this is what I mean about not thinking things through: it's a nice touch that the Great Ten's command center is called the Great Wall, but does the Great Wall itself need to be in the shot? (I know from reading this comic that the Great Wall is the one man-made artifact that's visible from space... at least in the DC universe. Apparently, that's not so in ours.)
Pg. 5: Why is the Celestial Archer's bow-string on the wrong side of his arm?
Pg. 6: Cheongsam orientation problem solved by not including that part of Ghost Fox Killer's costume on panel! Nicely done... but there has to be a better way of phrasing "waiting for the green light to flash," given the situation... and the Super Young Team! And monsters destroying Tokyo--but what was the Socialist Red Guardsman doing interceding in a situation involving Tokyo?
Pg. 7: "Green Lantern Point One"? Since when does the internal GL Corps 2814.1 classification get generally applied?
Pg. 10: You can't make a hard-boiled egg without splitting the atom. No, wait. I do like the idea that we're going to be seeing a monthly meeting between Morrow and Magnus, though.
Pg. 15: Celestial Archer really likes that underside-of-arm bowstring placement, doesn't he? Would there be any archers in the audience who can confirm that that would really hurt? Also, the Great Wall of China really isn't very close to the Sino-Russian border.
Pg. 17: Hmm: maybe he is waiting for World War III, given the next page. As it turns out, in classical DC continuity (yes, I did just write that), World War III happened October 9-28, 1986--that's where the Atomic Knights stories in Strange Adventures set it, until this rather wonderful comic concluded that plot. We may also be getting a reference to the Morrison Justice League storyline of the same name. Also: Skeets speaking to his ancestor is hilarious, but wouldn't Rip Hunter have thought of that, being a time traveler and all? And what's with "I hate time travelers"? Not only is Booster one, but Rip Hunter made the tech that took him to our time!
Pp. 18-19: Ah, here we go. These pages have already been extensively annotated elsewhere, so I'm not going to say too much about them. The one thing I can add is that the woman with the little hat and the glasses--I'd thought it was a boy with a yarmulke, but no--is not Ethel Rosenberg, as has been suggested in the otherwise very helpful Absorbascon, but Rosa Parks (see the photo it's based on here. The other pictures are of a Civil War re-enactment society, some Spanish ships or other, an Elvis impersonator, a tea party and the opening of Jurassic Park.
A few other things of note in this spread:
*Five-minutes-to-midnight clock imagery: wow, I've never seen that in a comic book before!
*How did the Time Sphere get broken? I vaguely remember some story in which that happened, but I bet somebody reading this knows better.
*The phrase "sonic disruptors" is scribbled out halfway through--a sly reference to the fact that the original Sonic Disruptors miniseries was supposed to run 12 issues and got cancelled with #7.
*If we're going to see all these characters owned by DC that have never specifically been tied into the DC Universe roped in here, can we please see the Seven Seconds from Thriller? Please please please please pleeeeease?
*I love the idea of The Question being an "it."
*Te, as several people have pointed out, is tellurium, element 52. (Au+Pb) is Gold and Lead. Might this have something to do with "dead by lead"--a reference to the weakness of Daxamites?
*Why are all the entries on the right-hand chalboard prefaced with sigma signs?
*I think we saw the "Curry heir"--Aquababy--in the splintered-crystal effect at the beginning of Week One.
*The last "El" would be the final descendent of the Last Son of Krypton, right? Do we know of any beyond Laurel Kent? Not counting All-Star Superman #2, of course.
*The real surprise here is that sword we see printed on something in the lower left-hand corner: who'd have thought that Snakes on a Plane would be part of DC continuity?
*As far as time itself being broken in the DC Universe (or, as the backup story has never bothered to spell out, the DCU): well, yes, yes it is.
Pg. 20: Is it me, or is there a serious lack of visual continuity from the previous page to this one? Where's the graffiti/puddle section of the messy but basically well-maintained lab we've just seen? And is all this Booster's fault because he did whatever-it-was-he-did during Infinite Crisis?
"History of the DCU: Part Interminable": The swipes of Maguire/Austin, Aparo, Bolland, et al. are at least competently executed. So why does Donna look nothing like herself on the second page? Is it that Jurgens can't draw her right if she's not crying?
(Incidentally, I've been enjoying everybody's comments immensely--thanks so much for reading this! Keep commenting!)
posted by Douglas Wolk @ 8:04 PM
18 Comments:
Ugh, I really was not happy with the snotty remarks about the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League in the "history of the dcu" section. Yeah, DC we get it - you're embarassed by the one time the Justice League was ever remotely interesting and fun for me. I get it. I got it when you killed off half the characters for shock value!
If I write for DC in 20 years, can I openly dis Geoff Johns' work in the pages of the comics?
Okay, you obviously have come up with a few things that I haven't but I caught a few other things.
First of a quick note of things found in the room....tons of clocks that all apparently stopped at 11:52. A LED that reads 00:52.
On the blackboard the are a lot of little circled 52's all heading toward earth. I have not counted them but I'm thinking there's enough to have 52 of them.
Now, on to the blackboard:
"The four horsemen will end her rain."
I think the first part points to Apokolips....but I I don't know about the second....Isis?
"Dead by lead."
I think we all have an idea but I think this refers to Dev-Em and not Mon-El. Dev was retconned into a Daxamite...this I think is foreshadowing on how he is defeated.
"Sonic Disruptors -> Time Masters -> Time Servants"
The arrows on the blackboard were drawn from each of these words to the next. This is important because T.O. Morrow (one could say he was a Time Master) had his room cleaned out for making a sonic disruptor out of a cell phone earlier in the issue. The time masters will become servants of time in order to set things right...at least that's my guess. Which is WAY different from yours.
"The Tornado is in pieces."
But we only know where his 'vox' is....
"The scarab is eternal?"
Obviously referring to Beetle's scarab....or is it an Eygptian reference (thinking of Adam and Isis). Maybe they're connected in a way we don't know yet?
"Where is the Curry heir?"
This likely refers to the new Aquaman, who for some reason I think is the son of the Golden Age Arthur Curry.
"te versus (au + pb)"
This one is easy. Te = Tellerium, Au = Gold, and Pb = Lead. This refers to Steel vs the Metal Men.... Why, do you ask?
Tellerium's dominant use is in the manufacturing of stainless steel. Something else to note, Tellerium has some of the highest efficiencies for solar cell electric power generation. I'm thinking Supernova is steel.
Also, Tellerium happens to look like Tin.....so it could be a red herring.
And I TOTALLY missed it's number. Good catch!
"The old gods are dead and the new gods want what's left."
They've been telling us to look to the sky's whenever Fourth World characters were brought up for a long time now. I've suspected the mechanations of Apokolips for a while but this seems fairly blunt in the way of 'clues'. Anyone remember Legends? They had a heavy hand in that....right after the last Crisis.
"Secret Five!"
Well.....Parademon's dead so they are at five. Plus, Knockout is from Apokolips.
"Don't ask the question, it lies."
Ask him what, exactly? Dunno. But I've seen it mentioned before that he is NOT acting in character ("Elf needs food...badly!") and I've also seen it mentioned he could possibly be Ted Kord. And there is a sense of a twisted logic to it seeing as they are both Ditko Charleton characters...
"Imortal Savage"
Rip can build a time machine but he apparently can't spell....unless this has some other significance. Do our heroes in space run into him? Or does this refer to Scandal who also is connected to Apokolips through her relationship with Knockout?
"When am I?"
This implies he's lost in our time. So is he from the future? Or the past?
"Others?"
Man, talk about a 'Lost' reference. Is he referring to other time-related heroes? Or the original Forgotten Heroes? I think the latter.
Notes/Books/Papers around the room:
"Find the Sun Devils."
Dane Dorrence was one of the Forgotten Heroes, which made me connect the dots to the 'Others' clue above.
"Silverblade"
No idea. Knew it was a Colan miniseries but couldn't remember if it was DC or not.
"Infinity Inc."
Yay!
"320 Kane"
3+2=5, 2+0=2.....5 2......
Okay, now I'm going to get into my theory...I think the tenth member of the Great Ten is....EGG FU! Look at those Morrow sequences again....then look at the Mission Control sequences. I thought it was a chair at first but nope, after rereading this issue again, I'm convinced it's him we side in the mission control area.
For those who aren't familiar with Fu, he was a originally a Wonder Woman villain created by CHINESE sleeper agents working for APOKOLIPS. Then he reprogrammed the Metal Men (who keep coming up, don't they?) Jonni DC, wiped him out from continuity and he has not been seen since. Please note that Jonni DC was reimagined from Johnny DC to a Continuity Cop in Giffen's Ambush Bug.
So, we have a Darkseid minion created by the Chinese with ties to continuity issues and the Metal Men, who with the clues above have ties to Steel.
I think it's been Fu under the direction of Darkseid who stole the scientists. For two reasons, the first being to create new superpowered beings (The Great Ten....) as superpowered human agents and the second to do whatever it was that has affected the timestream as part of Darkseid's larger plan. Obviously, it needs to be fleshed out more but that's the gist of it.
While I lot of The Great Ten are pretty shoddily thought up in terms of actual Chinese Mythology, my No Prize explanation for Thundermind's inclusion in the group is that it makes sense for an occupying nation to "mine" a country for its WMDs, in this case, a Superpowered Tibetan Monk. In my head, I imagine that they've taken his family hostage or something equally chintzy.
And Matthew, you know in 20 years I'll just write the opposite in Superman/Batman. ;)
Chuck Dixon is writing a Snakes on a Plane tie-in for Wildstorm, which, I guess, makes it as much DC Continuity as Spanner's Galaxy or Watchmen or Sonic Disruptors or any of the other things referenced in Hunter's lab. (Where's Atari Force and Ford Fairlane???)
I want to see B.D and the bucket O' Queeg make an appearanc, now.
I'm also intrested in the globe. "World War III, Why? How?", the entirity of China and Russia, and Iran underwater, and big red 'X's on odd places. I mark one as being vaugely in the vicinity of Uzbekistan (are any fiction DC places over there? Where's Khandaq?), and two more underwater ones probably at Tehran and Moscow. (North Korea and Myanmar would be behind the globe, so we can't tell if they're underwater.)
Prof,
Full props to you, if that was the case. I knew I had seen it somewhere else but couldn't remember where when I wrote it.
Just make sure I get the props for Egg Fu. Look at page 15 again, he's right there!
Idea: Sigma is the "summation" operator. Signifying the addition of a *series* of things. Miniseries? Maxiseries? Series of vignettes in *52*?
Dan Jurgens took over for Giffen/DeMatteis on Justice League, and I seem to remember everybody agreeing that it was... a Dan Jurgens comic. So finally he gets his revenge.
cameron said: "Who can find the Black Adam reference?"
I figured that was last week, with Halo's constant mutterings of "Lighting that can't strike twice."
one quick note- Jamie, I think you're confusing the Sea Devils with the Sun Devils. Dane Dorrance was a Sea Devil. The Sun Devils had a sci-fi miniseries that if memory serve s was out-of-continuity in much the same manner as Sonic Disruptors.
http://www.comiccovers.com/comiccovers-280/Sun%20Devils%20[DC]%20Mini%201/0001.jpg
That Jurgens dude is everywhere!
Oh, God, I think Jamie's right about Egg Fu being involved in this somehow.
For an issue in which chemical numbers are important it's odd that the razor company would be named after promethium, element 61, which is nasty, radioactive stuff.
DC-Universe promethium is a constantly-regenerating substance, introduced (I think) by Marv Wolfman in the early '80s, circa New Teen Titans #9 or #10. A bomb made of promethium would never stop exploding, whatever that means, so I suppose a razor made of promethium would never dull. I suppose it's DC's answer to vibranium or (Marvel) adamantium.
E,
You're right. I was confusing the two....wanting to see more there and all that. I realized that after I had posted.
Thanks.
Pretty much everything littered on the ground were old out of continuity stories.
On the subject of Promethium, I thought of something odd in the exchange between Bill/Bob, Booster and Skeets. Booster said to invest in their stock before the end of the day, then Skeets stressed they wanted to reschedule for tomorrow. Maybe it was the letter stressing that part of the speech but it just looked...odd to me.
On the subject of the Super Happy Youth (or whatever), if you reread that word ballon, they never state that the Great Ten were in Japan. only that the SHY made a mess of the situation there.
Jamie
If I write for DC in 20 years, can I openly dis Geoff Johns' work in the pages of the comics?
You answered a question that's been lingering in my mind too! I've grown very disillusioned with Johns, a feeling that was only compounded further when he started becoming a yes-man for DC and DiDio. I wonder if I could openly diss his work too?
Here, let me followup to another one...
if there's something to be learned from justice league international and justice league detroit, it's that if you plan on "diversifying" the dc roster (which i applaud), if you don't have the inside information or the research and education to make characters who are appropriate, believable and capable of being developed and thus cared for, you are, in a sense shooting yourself in the foot. i fear the cultural sensitivity dc has displayed in the great ten sets a poor tone for the appearance of the oft-maligned batwoman. what i have yet to get a clear answer on is how kathy kane feels about the character for whom she is the namesake being such a departure from the original concept.
You have a good point there, but, most important of all, diversification shouldn't be done at the expense of the characters who originated the roles, as is being done now with both Blue Beetle and certainly the Silver Age Atom: it appears that Dan DiDio's been doing something akin to resorting to stereotypes, by "picking on the little guy." From some of the news I've read so far, it would seem as though he's decided to blot out Ray Palmer -- and Jean Loring -- by otherwise ignoring the Mighty Mite's history. Put another way, it would seem for now that they're Kyle Rayner-izing the Atom. And that's exactly why I may not read the All-New Atom.
And as for Kathy Kane, if memory serves, she's the aunt of Bette Kane, aka Flamebird, isn't she? So just who is this imposter with her name anyway?
And the most insulting part about making the new Kane into a lesbian is -- been there, done that. There were a ton of other ideas they could've used, such as making Kane a European immigrant, could be Bulgarian, Armenian, French, or Danish, yet they chose something we've all heard of before, and which we really don't need more of.
So instead of coming up with something much more impressive than a lesbian, they had to go the publicity stunt route. Boring.
I'd love to see an American version of this whole Great 10 idea--heroes that of necessity are lame reminders of some cliched vision of national character-history. Of course, the Freedom Fighters were SORT of like this, but they didn't go all the way. Uncle Sam, yeah, but "Black Condor" should have been "the American Eagle" (basic Hawkman type), should be a guy who shoots cross-shaped vague mystical energy bolts by summoning "the power of Christ!", perhaps a John Henry or Paul Bunyon superstrong giant, someone whose power involved burying people in dollar bills (looking like the rich guy from Monopoly), a guy in a stovepipe hot called "the Great Emancipator" whose power is to break any locks or bonds, a Blob-like superfatguy to play off of our tendency to obesity...
Re previous posts:
Doug:
pg.7 "Green Lantern Point One" - I think the point of this is to distinguish Hal from John. Any similarity to his classification in the Oan register is purely coincidental.
The final two page spread:
Gold is element #79. Lead is element #82...thus Au+Pb=161. I have no idea what that means.
Didn't Lead die trying to contain some radioactive something or other?
Laurel Kent was revealed to have actually been a Manhunter who POSED as a Kent descendant.
Matthew:
I agree. It really pisses me off the way the PTBs at DC keep shitting all over the JLI. They saved the Earth quite a few times too!
Jamie: There are many many more than 52 circled 52's. Any way you count, there are more than 100. I didn't even bother. Note also, that there are some 52's which are not circled.
The Tornado has been in pieces many times before, and has always been rebuilt. Why are we to think that this time will be any different?
According to Week 8, Tellurium is not involved in the manufacture of Stainless Steel.
Jeff R.:
I noted earlier that according to previous location references, Khandaq is located in the Sinai desert between Egypt and Israel. It makes sense that it should be proximal to Egypt since Teth Adam and Khufu were very much interconnected.
Now my own comments and observations:
p.1 Why is Booster such a prima donna asshole?
p.2 That Kid has a Booster Gold comic...could we be far behind?
p.6 Ghost Fox women? Far-away homeland? Super young yeam?
p.7 Hal speaks in English, and his opponent answers in Chinese
p.9 Since the Chinese government has persecuted Buddhists and Nepalese, it seems odd that one of their superheroes should identify with same.
p.10 "All that other stuff?" Do scientists really talk like that?
p.15 Black Adam is telling Hal to retreat, yet he's trying to grab on to his ankle.
p.17 What are Time Capsule Minutemen?
52 reference: Midnight, January first, fifty-two b.c.
p.18-19
Man of Steel==John Henry Irons turning into Steel
Find the last "EL"==when do the metropolis trains stop running at night (jk)
Further time is different==could refer to the eradication of the time controllers and hypertime
it hurts to breathe==isn't that what the Bulleteer's husband said before he died?
Who is Super Nova?==SuperNova is definitely that guy who shows up in Week 8
Te versus (Au+Pb) => must have a further non-chemical meaning. look deeper.
Someone is monitoring. They see us. They see me. == It's Egg FU!!
Khimaera lives again. => Who is Khimaera? There was a villain named Chimaera, and three named Chimera, and Nightshade used Chimera as an undercover identity.
The Lazarus pit rises.=>This could refer to the resurrection of Lady Shiva
To me it looked like "Szo Kane" not 320 Kane. What that means, I have no idea.
History THE DCU Part 5
p.22
New continuity has Joe Chill, the murderer of the Waynes being brought to Justice.
Jason's subsequent return would have ramifications "IN YEARS TO COME?" The only ramifications would be those we JUST SAW!
p.24 Who are the Team Titans pictured?
I know it's a bit late, but I'll get back on track now.
hi - i know i'm late but i just came across this blog this week - it's great and has made me go back to reread everything so far.
Two minor points.
It actually says immortal savage on the board with the first 2 letters scribbled out so it reads 'mortal savage', and i reckon it says 520 Kane on the note on the floor - as in 520 Kane Street from the earlier issues.
I don't see the problem with the Chinese government using Tibetan Buddhism. It's like the Pentagon in Doom Patrol allying itself with crazy weird unAmerican stuff like telephone avatars and zen ladders.
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