#team phantom join justice league dark

[sleepy-writes-stuff]

DP X DC WRITING PROMPT #2

(Well this is surprising. Not really sure if this idea will make any sense, but here we go.)

(#) = Notes at the end of post

(*) = Just me building off of other ideas

✦

Danny, as Ghost King, gets summoned by the Legion of Doom(?) to help end the Justice League. Except for this summoning fic, they literally summon him off of a GIW lab table where he was being experimented on. Danny is bleeding, barely conscious, and having a really horrible time. This garners a split reaction. Some villains, while surprised, are indifferent. Others are horrified. Not really sure which villains would be which except maybe Lex Luthor(1).

When Danny gets patched up, Lex learns later on that day that he's one of the people responsible for helping pass the Anti-Ecto Acts. However, he only helped passed it to get the people who kept sending it to finally desist, thinking it was all a hoax/big joke and that it wouldn't really matter in the long run. Now he knows it wasn't just a big joke and now that he sees the results of that decision, he regrets it.

While the Legion of Doom isn't short on medical supplies, it's not a great environment for healing, villain or not. Plus, he's kinda useless for the reason he was summoned if he's this seriously wounded. So, he does something he's never done before. He tips off the Justice League about the injured teenage monarch and skedaddles back home and out of the way where he can also start figuring out a way to take down the Anti-Ecto Acts.

Meanwhile, Team Phantom (Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and Valerie. Maybe Wes too for extra humor? 👀) finally have a lock on Danny's location now that he's no longer in a GIW facility--they have ecto-signature blocking technology. They all suit up and get there way before the Justice League and have already taken out the villains still in the LoD HQ by the time they show up and are in the process of trying to transport Danny. The League are a combination of surprised, impressed, and concerned. They invite Team Phantom back to the Watchtower so they can help treat Phantom's injuries.

It's here that the League learns about the Anti-Ecto Acts and what had happened to Phantom to put him in such serious condition. Outraged, a team is organized to hit any GIW facilities and free any citizens of the Infinite Realms while Batman and a few others stay behind to help dismantle the Acts. Team Phantom manage to get the League to agree to have at least one of them on each team they send out, since they have more experience dealing with the GIW and ghosts alike.

With the combination of the League and Lex Luther (unknown to them), the Anti-Ecto Acts are dismantled and the captured ghosts are freed and Danny is all healed up, though still traumatized. His friends help him deal with it--Jazz plus Black Canary are especially invaluable in his psychological healing process. Meanwhile, the JL are incredibly impressed with how knowledgeable and well-trained they are for having no mentors to teach them. Even more so once they hear all the battles they've fought along side Phantom.

The JL come to a decision. They invite all of Team Phantom to join Justice League Dark, the JL subdivision for magic/the occult. After talking it over, they all agree to join.

✦

Thats where it ends unless you wanna continue it from there.

Notes:

(1) Which villains do you think would be sympathetic to Danny's condition? I don't know any of them well enough to pick. Do you think Lex Luther would actually feel sympathy for Danny? Small redemption arc? Do him and Danny meet again at some point on somewhat good terms?

(*) Maybe continue it with reactions from the Team from Young Justice? Maybe they're upset that some out of town teenagers got a JL invitation before they even got theirs? In response the JL have Team Phantom meet and train with Team YJ to get them to realize why exactly they were invited to join.

#dp x dc #dc x dp #dp x dc crossover #danny gets summoned by the legion of doom #danny is ghost king and gets kidnapped twice #the giw are big fat jerks #only some villains in the legion of doom are jerks #badass team phantom #team phantom join justice league dark #writing prompt #prompt #dp x dc prompt #sleepy-writes-stuff

[dcxdpdabbles]

DC X DP fic idea: Phantom's number 1 fan

Danny is used to his classmates cheering for him. Well, he's used to them cheering on his ghost side, but it's the same thing.

He's a small time celebrity in the eyes of Amity Park youth. Almost everyone as Casper High adores Phantom- even the A-listers.

Ironically enough, the A-listers are some of the few who claim to be in love with Phantom. Even Dash, after the quarter back publicly came out.

Almost all of them still pick on Danny, even now as seniors. He never quite fit in even after all these years. Still pushed into lockers, mocked by classmates and deemed the number one loser again and again.

He stopped trying to fit in years ago when he became a halfa and focused on being a hero. He's gotten better now, as ghosts are less likely to challenge him. Apparently, being able to beat Pariah Dark in single combat spooked many spirits.

He instead focuses on worldwide natural disasters. With the new power to create portals to the Ghost zone as a shortcut to any part of the world, he could jump to emergencies as simplyas walking through a door.

He took some field medic lessons from Frost Bite and was on his way.

He started with search and rescue during a Tsunami. Then earthquakes, tornadoes, and even lightning storms. His parents knew and were proud of him every time Phantom appear on TV. His friends encouraged him to pressure a medical career. Danny was seriously considering it.

No one besides those he loved knew he and Phantom were one in the same.

Life was good.

That is until one stormy night when Tim Drake came knocking. The other 17-year-old stood on his porch drenched to his socks, clutching a really well taken photot of Phantom and a manic glint in his eye.

"Can I have your autograph, Danny? Im your number one fan!"

Before Danny could even think of a response, Drake tilted forward, smacking face first on the ground.

If you were to ask Tim what was he thinking ge would say " I wasn't"

See, Tim had been one of the first Phantom rescued from the giant Tsunami that Riddler had unleashed on Gotham all those years ago. His heart had been the ghost ever since. And much like all other puzzles and mysteries, it didn't take Tim long to connect Phantom and Fenton.

Seeing as Danny Fenton wanted nothing to do with the Justice League or to join any other hero team he left him alone, admiring him from afar.

Then the mission Ra al Gul happened.

He had been running on fumes, and in Tim's sleep-deprived mind, the thought of stopping in Amity Park on the way back from a mission to ask for his long-time hero and crushes autograph was the perfect idea.

So he landed the batplane, switched in civilians and knocked on the door with his heart in his hand. And the three stab wounds on his back, his broken rib and black eye.

Thankfully Danny was willing to drag him inside for medical aid.

#dcxdpdabbles #dc x dp crossover #dead tired #Phantoms number 1 fan. #fanboy Tim Drake #Danny is a search and Rescue hero

[nelkcats]

My son wants to destroy the world, how do I stop him? - Search

It had been a few months since Phantom joined the League. Although he was more of an emergency contact they called in worse cases than a real member. According to the Justice League Dark, he was a ruler of another dimension so he couldn't be around all the time.

When Wonder Woman complained about his commitment to the team, Phantom frowned and called her hypocritical. Apparently Phantom watched over all the dimensions, so asking him to protect one in particular was stupid, or worse, selfish. Diana ended up very embarrassed after learning about it.

Then, it was strange for Phantom to stay beyond 5 minutes after providing his help, so Bruce was surprised to see the boy walking towards him looking extremely nervous and asking for a conversation. Bruce agreed out of curiosity.

The conversation took a strange turn when Phantom started praising his parenting skills (Bruce was proud of his kids clearly, but how the fuck did Phantom know his identity?), and complimented him on...Red Hood's self-control??? And what a good kid he was??

Apparently, Phantom had a son (Bruce was starting to believe in the "immortal" part that Constantine talked about), but he had a terrible temper and loved to destroy dimensions, for which he was often punished (Bruce was at a loss for words), Phantom assured him that no dimension that didn't deserve it was destroyed but he didn't know how to change Dan's approach.

The King insisted that he was fine with his son destroying dimensions as long as his grandfather authorized it, since they had forgiven him and those dimensions were finished anyway (Batman was grateful that his mask would not show his facial expression) but that destroying everyone would affect him in the long run and he was worried about him.

In the end, Bruce invited them to the mansion, or rather, invited Phantom to talk to Alfred and he told him he would bring his son. Bruce remembered that Jason would be visiting that day and wondered how badly the meeting would go.

#dpxdc #Danny asking for parental advice #he wants to be a good father for Dan and Dani #but doesn't know how to stop Dan from destroying everything #Jazz told him to talk with him #but that didn't work #so he ended asking Batman #dp x dc #dc x dp #Danny thinks Red Hood is the best example for self control #he only kill bad people after all #Dan destroyed dimensions that Clockwork authorized #He is angry and has a lot of repressed hatred #ghost king danny #dan phantom #Danny is a retired hero but helps JL sometimes #he is busy with the Infinite Realms and his kids so he told them to call only in emergencies

[inkandarsenic]

My new favorite HC is that the Infinite Realms is Faerie. Danny died and is brought back by the magic of Faerie, making him more half Fae than he is half ghost. He’s been raised by the Fentons, though, who believe that Faerie is the Ghost Zone and that they’re ghost hunters, and so Danny, Sam and Tucker all just assume that he’s half ghost.

The Infinite Realms, however, are in fact infinite, and most of the ghosts Danny fights are in fact the spirits of humans who died in a place where the barrier between worlds was exceptionally thin, like ley line intersections or natural portals. They don’t realize that Danny isn’t actually half ghost because halfas are so rare. When Danny defeats Pariah Dark, he becomes King of the Infinite Realms (King of Faerie) after which his Fae qualities begin bleeding into his human half too. (Liminal Sam, Tucker and Jazz meaning they also start having Fae qualities? Team Phantom making everyone just slightly uncomfortable because they’re just a little too inhuman. Like uncanny valley vibes, they’re all just a bit off, but they’re just vibing completely oblivious to it. Ellie is like Puck from midsummer nights dream. Team Phantom eventually all becoming more Faerie than human through exposure and connection to Danny.)

If we go DPxDC on this, the liminal Batfam being just slightly off the way Sam Tucker and Jazz are, something people chalk up to them being bats, but Jason coming back more like Danny, a little more unsettling than the others.

The Speedforce being another corner of the Infinite Realms, and the Flash Family sometimes smile just a bit too wide, sometimes laugh just a bit too brightly, sometimes when people are around them as they run, they get the inexplicable urge to join in and never stop. (Flash Family being like the Wild Hunt or like the dancing until you die thing.)

The first time Team Phantom meets the Justice League + Constantine, everything in Constantine is screaming to stay as far away as possible from them, but the Flashes and Bats just completely disregard his warnings. The Kents and Diana also ignoring him because their nonhuman physiology means they don’t have that instinct to run. Damian thinks being around Team Phantom feels like being around the League.

#dpxdc #dp x dc #dp x dc prompt #dp x dc au #danny phantom #liminal team phantom #sam manson #tucker foley #jazz fenton #danny fenton #infinite realms are faerie realms AU #batfamily #halfa jason #liminal batfam #liminal flash family

[kaidatheghostdragon]

Had this idea while replying to a bones prompt, that danny joins the justice league out of desperation or as a protective measure.

I've seen ideas where danny:

1. Doesnt know about the justice league because amity is cut off

2. Thinks the justice league ignores amity because its already got a hero

3. Resents the justice league for ignoring amity

4. Is grateful the justice league never showed up because they'd get overshadowed

5. Doesnt trust the justice league on the principle of being government sanctioned

6. Stright up believes the justice league supports the giw because of their inaction

But all of these hinge on the justice league acting first, instead of danny. What if danny is the one to approach the league? Maybe he wasnt going to at first, because of any of the reasons above, but lets face it, just because the league doesnt know about or is ignoring amity doesnt mean that everyone else is too.

Danny is, for good or ill, extremely fucking powerful. That alone is gonna turn a lot of heads. Gone are the days when danny's parents were the only ones targeting him. Hell, danny would consider narrowly escaping the GIW as simpler times. Put simply, there are a LOT of individuals and organizations that would be interested in danny, including, but not limited to:

- his parents

- vlad

- the observants

- the giw

- a large number of powerful ghosts

- possibly some demons

- random death cults

- dark sorcerers / anyone involved in dark magic

- lex luthor

- amanda waller / cadmus

- ra's al ghul / league of assassins

- court of owls / talons

- anyone involved in meta trafficking

- the reach

- darkseid

- other warmongering aliens

- probably plenty of others

Basically, danny is literally everyone's white whale, and he's sick of it. With all these different parties interested in danny, its kind of surprising that the justice league hasnt caught wind yet. Then again, if all of these organizations are covering their tracks, then thats like a dozen information walls erected around amity park.

(Put this way, crowning danny as the ghost king might be considered a mercy, because at least the threats that are aware that attacking him would bring the wrath of the infinite realms upon them would back off. Probably. At the very least, danny has an army to defend himself.)

Team phantom put together their brain cells and realized that with this many threats, danny's best defense is to make himself as publically visible as possible. Thus, he needs to join the justice league, get himself a (better) support system, and improve his public image. That way, if he disappears (again), someone other than sam, tucker, and jazz will actually notice.

#dpxdc

[ekat-fandom-blog]

Role Reversal AU

Basically, the heroes are villains and the villains are heroes or civilians.

There's a lot of information that I packed into this post.

Beings that aren't included in the swap are: Captain Marvel/Shazam/Champion Teth/Black Adam Captain N*zi (because fuck no is any n*zi going to be anything but evil. No Marvel mistakes with this au.) The Seven Deadly Enemies of Man Literally all of the villains trapped on/in the Rock of Eternity Orange Lantern The Blue Lanterns The Indigo Lanterns White and Black Lanterns Demons maybe Constantine? what do you guys think? Darkseid (good darkseid could be interesting tho) Doomsday Hfuhruhurr (aka Word-Bringer; an alien that collects brains from all over the universe to create an immortal hive mind called "The Union") Mongul 5th dimensional beings (they just like annoying people in general) Pariah Dark probably more

Some Heroes: Amity Park - Plasmius, Technus, Skulker, GIW, Maddie & Jack Gotham - Joker, Two-Face, Bane, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Ra's Al Ghul (the LOA is more like a secret watcher's society but more infighting in a friendly way) Metropolis - Lex Luthor, Cyborg Superman, Metallo, Parasite London - Cheetah, Giganta, Circe(part-time) Justice League (leaders) - Talia Al Ghul, Lex, Professor Zoom, Cheetah, Star Sapphire (Carol Ferris), Black Manta, Cyborgirl Justice League (general) - Poison Ivy, Gorilla Grodd, Captain Marvel, Red Lantern(Guy Gardner), etc.

Most villains who don't commit any violent crime are simply civilians in this au. (ex: Catwoman, Box Ghost, or Kite Man) Some villains - like Sivanna - become civilians while their family members become villains.

Some background info:

Danny dies and it pisses him off that his parents don't notice. Sam and Tucker agree and they become menaces to Amity Park. Maddie and Jack notice and decide that someone needs to reign in the troublemakers, which makes things worse. Then, the ghosts start noticing and they start sending a ghost to take care of the rogue ghost. Eventually, they find that Skulker and Technus are best suited to deal with the trio. Wolf and Cujo join the trio. Plasmius joins Skulker and Technus and they start trying to clone Danny to try to create an equal to fight against him. The clones are mostly viable because of the help of Technus and the Fentons. Team Phantom kill the clones except for Dani, who joins them. Jazz, while not evil, isn't good either. She just wants to prevent her brother from killing their parents. Because all the good guys are much less concerned with keeping civilians safe, there are a few casualties, which includes Jazz. Jazz notices that Team Phantom might be right about her parents, so she leaves Amity and eventually teams up with Zatanna. TLDR; Danny's mad at his parents and makes Team Phantom to cause chaos around Amity Park. Jazz leaves after she dies and joins Zatanna.

Zatanna (and her father) were low level thieves that were performing as stage magicians before Nabu's helmet turned Giovanni into Dr Fate. Zatanna became enraged at how he wouldn't give her father back and started murdering and stealing other magic user's powers and tomes in hopes of one day returning her father to her. After she found Jazz, who offered to help remove the helmet, she stopped murdering as many people. The two often help Klarion get in the way of Nabu's plans to get rid of anything he perceives as chaotic. While they happen to befriend Klarion, they never stop stealing.

Bruce becomes Owlman and is in charge of the Court of Owls. Tim, Dick, and Jason become Talons. Alfred is known as the Executioner. Barbara is a jewel thief until she loses the ability to walk thanks to falling off a roof while being chased by Joker. After, she becomes a cyber security threat that constantly steals, releases criminals from jail, and hacks into whatever tech the heroes use. Kate becomes a mob boss. Signal starts out stealing, but accidentally turns into a small time mob boss that works on the opposite side of the city. Commissioner Gordon is a corrupt cop who is firmly in Bruce's pocket. He sometimes fills in for Bruce during CoO meetings when Lucius can't. Cass is an assassin called Orphan that inspires more fear than (canon) Deathstroke. Steph got annoyed by how often her dad (cluemaster) was out of the house and became Spoiler - a villain similar to (canon) Riddler. Selena, while she's a civilian, also happens to be Bruce's street level informant.

Clark, while still having been raised by Martha and John Kent and becoming Superman, decides that being a hero is rather boring. While ruling the world sounds intriguing, he's seen many other villains that are just as competent as he is that want to rule. So he decides that he wants to be a complete (rather dark) nuisance. He ruins buildings by tagging them with his heat vision, freezes major water sources, cloned Lex and himself (technically it's a test tube baby but whatever) once, finds ways to steal everyone's stashes of kryptonite, and sometimes murders people. Kon or Conner lives with Lex part time and has two loving parents, both of which don't understand why he enjoys randomly jumping into their battles and fighting them both (causing as much property damage as possible). Lois helps keep criminal activity out of the papers and clocks Clark as Superman right away. She regularly publishes smear campaigns against the heroes and paints Superman in good light. Kara and her clone - Powergirl - regularly fight against Parasite and Cyborg Superman who constantly thwart their plans to take over the world (they're taking Lex's route).

Green Lanterns are like corrupt cops whose mission is to exert their will over others. Hal kills his dad's previous employer while Sinestro tries to stop him. Sinestro creates the Sinestro Corps and is much more like "our and others' fears fuel us and drive us to be able to save people" rather than "fear is true power and should be used as a way to control people". When Parallax takes over Hal, they become the ultimate hero but over time Parallax starts to become corrupted by his willpower and Specter jumps in to keep Parallax from becoming the ultimate evil. After a while Parallax decides that Sinestro is a much better host and both him and Specter leave Hal, who decides to take a long break doing petty crime before breaking the Green Lanterns out of prison. Carol, in the beginning, stops Hal and other Green Lanterns from committing crimes but eventually stops and focuses mostly on taking care of her business and the Star Sapphires. The Green Lantern's main enemies are the Yellow Lanterns, Red Lanterns, and the Manhunters. Blue Lanterns tend to avoid the Green Lanterns and work with the Manhunters.

Barry is super cruel and Eobard Thawne (aka Reverse Flash or Professor Zoom) came from the future to prevent him from destroying everything. Barry's backstory is either he killed his mom and pinned it on his dad, or he ran away from home a few times and his parents died while trying to find him. Thawne is very careful about avoiding Barry while he's a civilian, but is aware that he needs to be close in order to prevent Barry from destroying the timeline or murdering everyone.

Diana has plans on taking over the world of man and eradicating the men while leaving the women in order to create a perfect world for women. Cheetah, Giganta, and (to a lesser extent) Cerce understand that men are needed just as much as women are in order for the world to continue on.

~~~

Feel free to add your own ideas or use this for a fic!

#dc x dp #dp x dc #dcxdp #dpxdc #dc x dp prompt #dcxdp role reversal au #tw murder mention

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Aftermath of Arrogance

by Augustus_Rok The Justice League have arrived in Amity park a year after the opening of a portal by the Doctors Fenton. They come in believing themselves well informed, though the are aware of the broad sweep of scientific bias that will need worked through. Things go from rough for their inductee Red Huntress to worse, Valarie Gray when her promotion into the team causes the native and priorly misidentified Gate Keeper spirit to shift its, his, focus. On the other side of the equation, Danny's life is picked up and moved inches to the left as the Justice League fix the ongoing mistakes in the Fenton household, securing the portal against humans and ghosts alike, moving him and his sister into a local hotel under hero watch, shutting down the GIW, and putting his parents in a separate location. It's... Actually quite nice. Calmer. But as things progress, from letting his rogues lay siege to Valarie in a soft attempt to show just how little she can handle, to her joining Team Phantom, he finds that as Amity is brought under scrutiny properly the feeling of danger grows. Only this time instead of Pariah Dark emerging from his portal it seems the feeling is strongest on the edges of his city. He doubts it's any good. Words: 5466, Chapters: 6/?, Language: English Series: Part 1 of Tumblr based works, prompt fills, and dabblings Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen Characters: Danny Fenton, Valerie Gray, Barry Allen, Bruce Wayne, Diana (Wonder Woman), Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Vlad Masters Relationships: Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson, Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton, Danny Fenton & Vlad Masters, Danny Fenton & Justice League (DCU) Additional Tags: Ensemble Cast, Justice League goes to Amity Park, plans gone wrong, Ghosts, ghosts that act like fae, gate keeper Danny, JL recruit Valarie Gray-Red Huntress, Valerie Gray as Red Huntress, Identity Reveal, Secret Identity, Valerie Gray Knows Danny Fenton is Danny Phantom, Powerful Danny Fenton, Smart Danny Fenton, Eldritch Danny Fenton, Strategy & Tactics, Tired Danny Fenton, Mystery, Consequences, Introspection, POV Outsider, Accelerated Timeline, Timeline What Timeline, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence via https://ift.tt/oCrnLDg

#IFTTT #bruce wayne #batman #the dark knight #the caped crusader #gotham #dcu #dc #ao3 #ao3feed

[teamtargaryenapologinist]

Drabbles

Headcannons

One Shots

Babysitting on Halloween 

Summary: Damian goes trick or treating with you and your sister.

Series

Double Vision AU

Summary:   

growing up with the meta gene was tough, but luckily you had your aunt Dinah to guide you through childhood; she gave you the title Starling, for the way you mimicked her canary cry perfectly. eventually, she would introduce you to your future: the Justice League. first, you had to prove yourself on a team of other protégés lead by Dick Grayson, whom you fell a little too hard for.

after working with the team through your teen years, and managing a blooming romance with Grayson, the two of you break off from the others and decline an invitation to join the Justice League, preferring to travel your own path together. Nightwing & Starling become Blüdhaven’s dynamic duo.      

years later, you and your fiancé are called back to face the world’s greatest threat— the Justice League is fractured, and Superman now runs a power hungry, bloodthirsty Regime. even Damian has sided with the Kryptonian. you, Nightwing, Batman, and what’s left of the dwindling Justice League are all that stands between Kal-El and complete world domination.

the world on fire era: Dick Grayson and Starling are recruited by Batman after Superman kills the Joker and forms the Regime. all pieces during this era features Nightwing & Starling in an established, long standing relationship ( engagement ). this era will ( probably ) contain the most character death.    

the godfall era: Dick Grayson is dead, and Starling has fallen into the hands of his killer— his own adopted brother, Damian. now, you must not only come to turns with the loss of your love, but the theft of his title, and being forced to stand at Damian’s side. this era will contain the most noncon / dark elements.

Drabbles

Size - Kinktober

Headcannons

Message Received

One Shots

Series

Drabbles

Headcannons

One Shots

Open Wounds

Summary: You thought the grief of losing your husband would shatter you. And, in many ways, it did. Then, Bruce Wayne enters your life, determined to put the pieces of you back together.

Shovel Talk

Summary: It was the first time Bruce Wayne was introducing his partner to the world…and his kids. His very inquisitive, highly trained, pain-in-the-ass kids.

Mistakes Were Made

Summary: When you take the job as Bruce Wayne’s publicist, you’re prepared for some surprises but finding out he’s Batman isn’t one of them. The good news is you’re not fired. The bad news? Batman definitely needs some PR help.

Part 2

Series

Convenience

Summary: After his oldest friend loses everything, Bruce suggests a marriage of convenience that will benefit them both

Heroes and Villains   The Proposal   White Wedding   A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall   Phantom   Designs   The Car   Wrong Place, Wrong Time   Open Wounds   Something in the Way   Drive   Supercut   The Memorial   Revelations   All the Things She Said   Bruises   Mail Bomb   Aftermath   Family Secrets   For Reasons Unknown   Election Day   The Invitation   Remember, Remember  Inbetween Days   Back Home   This is the Day

Blurbs and Bonus Chapters

Father of Mine

Summary: With the tragic passing of her mother, Y/N learns to the truth of who her father is.

Part 1  Part 2

Bonus Chapters

Big Sis

This Game of Ours

Childhood

Secret’s Out

Trauma

Stomping Grounds 

Art & War

Exes

Thanksgiving

Talia

Aftermath of Bruce claiming Y/N as his daughter publicly

Nightmares and Missing Her

Smeared Lipstick and Hickeys

Lightly Kissing Their Scars

Near Death Experience

Playing with their hair to calm them down

if Jason got hurt or they couldn’t find him after a fight

Father of Mine + Bonus Content

Drabbles

Making Dirty Boys Blush

Headcannons

Message Received

One Shots

Series

Double Vision AU

Summary:   

growing up with the meta gene was tough, but luckily you had your aunt Dinah to guide you through childhood; she gave you the title Starling, for the way you mimicked her canary cry perfectly. eventually, she would introduce you to your future: the Justice League. first, you had to prove yourself on a team of other protégés lead by Dick Grayson, whom you fell a little too hard for.

after working with the team through your teen years, and managing a blooming romance with Grayson, the two of you break off from the others and decline an invitation to join the Justice League, preferring to travel your own path together. Nightwing & Starling become Blüdhaven’s dynamic duo.      

years later, you and your fiancé are called back to face the world’s greatest threat— the Justice League is fractured, and Superman now runs a power hungry, bloodthirsty Regime. even Damian has sided with the Kryptonian. you, Nightwing, Batman, and what’s left of the dwindling Justice League are all that stands between Kal-El and complete world domination.

the world on fire era: Dick Grayson and Starling are recruited by Batman after Superman kills the Joker and forms the Regime. all pieces during this era features Nightwing & Starling in an established, long standing relationship ( engagement ). this era will ( probably ) contain the most character death.    

the godfall era: Dick Grayson is dead, and Starling has fallen into the hands of his killer— his own adopted brother, Damian. now, you must not only come to turns with the loss of your love, but the theft of his title, and being forced to stand at Damian’s side. this era will contain the most noncon / dark elements.

[docgold13]

365 DC Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes - One Hero, Every Day, All Year…

October 12th - Deadman

Boston Brand had been a circus performer, daredevil and escape artist of significant renown. He called himself the ‘Deadman’ and wore a red costume with white, ghostly make-up during his performances. Brand was murdered in the midst of an act by a mysterious assassin known only as ‘Hook.’ 

Upon his death, Brand’s soul found himself confronted by the Hindu god known as Rama Kushna. The deity sensed that Brand’s spirit was not ready to rest and it bestowed onto him the ability to return to the mortal realm.

Brand was able to traverse the earth as an invisible phantom.  He learned that he had the ability to enter the bodies of others, taking them over completely, leaving the host’s mind in a state of stasis where they would have no memory of what had occurred whilst they were possessed. 

Once more known as Deadman, Brand used this power to attempt to solve his own murder; a mission he finally succeeds in and Hook was brought to justice. And yet, Rama Kushna sensed that Brand was still not yet ready to transcend to the beyond.  As such, Deadman has continued on as a ghostly hero investigating mysteries and righting wrongs. 

In his various journeys, Deadman has teamed up with a number of other heroes, including Batman, The Forever People, The Specter, Swamp Thing, Zatana and The Phantom Stranger. He later joined the Sentinels of Magic and has been a member of The Justice League Dark. Deadman first appeared in the pages of Strange Adventures #205 (1967).

#365 DC Comics Heroes #DC Comics #Deadman #Sentinels of Magic #Justice League Dark #cut-out #paper art

[vallerygallery]

Young justice season 4 theories

Alright so this is gonna be one heck of a post. I’ll be theorizing about what could potentially happen or who could appear.

Young justice season 4 has the title of Phantoms and we could have that be either a literal or figurative meaning. And considering it could be the phantoms of their past we could look towards the memorial the team had at mount justice. That considered we have the following as heroes who have passed away as far as they team is aware:

Wally West

Jason Todd

Ted Kord

Tula

So I have a few theories concerning each though the only one I feel doesn’t have much substance to come back is Tula. And other than these characters it could be more closely tied to the phantom zone and/or the legion of superheroes. Similarly, we could get an idea from some of the episodes considering the series was fully planned out before it aired. That being said I’ll make actions to this post.

Wally West

Ok so we’ve all been waiting for Wally to come back and I think it could happen one of three ways; he could be stuck in the speed force, have gone to a different dimension or wound up with the legion of superheroes. In any case we could see him come back faster due to an altered connection to the speed force and given that he’s been the slowest speedster here it could be a cool way to link him to the comics where he is reliably the fastest.

So if Wally is stuck in the speed force we could speculate that time passes differently or that the speed force refuses to let go of Wally. Both are possible and would explain why he just disappeared at the end of season 2. After all they say he would just cease. No other context given. Here it would be likely that Wally’s top speed is altered due to the time he spent in the force and could show some character growth. Otherwise he could have come to know about Bart’s future and is trying to correct it. If that doesn’t happen we could potentially see Wally having been trapped and trying to contact his teammates which could explain the sheer amount of Wally hallucinations and moments that we see in season 3. I honestly think that this could be something to be looking out for.

Having Wally go to a different dimension seems unlikely to me but we do know young justice is part of the multiverse occupying earth 16 so that could be a thing. Even if I’m not sure the writers would do this it had to be included. Also I feel like this is a lazy way out and too simple for what I’ve come to expect of young justice.

It could be a case of having Wally trying to do something similar to Bart and try and correct the timeline or simply go back. And even though Wally has never been part of the legion it isn’t far fetched to say he could be since at one point Bart was indeed a legionnaire. We could see the fatal five becoming allies to Darkseid, the light or both; similar to what happened between the reach and the light. Either way it could have Wally being a member and trying to save his own timeline or perhaps even Bart’s. Or if he didn’t maybe someone got out of the phantom zone since we hear Granny goodness refer a “ghost pit” which could refer to what we know as the phantom zone. So this could be a different take on why the legion is coming to this time.

Jason Todd

Given we’ve seen that Jason is alive I think it’s a given we’ll see him reappear at some point. Jason could appear in a story similar to under the red hood or what I think may be more likely is that we’ll see some relation between the league of shadows and one of the teams. Especially since we know Ra’s is no longer a memeber of the light. This could also tie in with the appearance of Cass Cain. I don’t think we’ll see Damian be robin but we could see him being a bigger part in Jason’s life.

Legion of Superheroes

At the end of season 3 we get a view of a legionnaire ring which leads basically everyone to think that they’ll be major players in season 4. So we could get an entire back and forth with the legionnaires. This could lead us to meet Kara Zor-El and Brainiac. And again we could see Wally returning with them or superboy going off to join them like he does in the comics. It might also be good to note one of the legionnaires is called phantom girl although I really doubt she’ll be the focus. I think that we’ll see the fatal five when the legion does appear and they could form an alliance with the light just how the light and the reach formed an alliance. Honestly I’m not sure where this would go cause I’m not super familiar with the legion so please tell me if you have more theories!

Greta Hayes (Secret)

There’s one seemingly throwaway episode in season 1 called secrets where we see Greta Hayes (secret) who in the comics has been a member of young justice. Moreover, she’s fought Klarion who is a current member of the light. ALSO her brother Billy Hayes (Harm) is allied with Darkseid which we know will continue to be important players in the future as they try and find the anti life equation.

Greta is also linked to the magic side of DC and we see further evidence or at least an Easter egg with Abel’s house of secrets which had it’s own run. Swap thing makes an appearance here and we could go as far as to link her to justice league dark. It also helps that she is a literal phantom in my opinion that we could get a storyline with her here. So if we got more magic users the story could unfold in a bunch of interesting ways.

Bart Allen’s Future

We’ve seen so little of the future Bart came to stop and they left it too open ended for me to believe they won’t continue with this storyline. So it could be the phantoms of Bart’s failed mission come to haunt him. We could go a step further and have this link to characters like Booster Gold (and by extension Ted Kord) or maybe Wally West. The writers might also link it to the meta human trafficking rings we see in season 3. Honestly they could use the Justice League Beyond or Future state timelines although I doubt the future state one being used. If they used the Justice League beyond would be similar to the episode in Justice league unlimited where they find themselves in an apocalyptic future. So we could be seeing an entirely different justice league maybe even. One that’s allied to a version of the legion of superheroes.

Ok so this is the end of the post but I’m in the middle of adding to these theories so PLEASE tell me if you want to add cause I really want to try and guess what will happen in season 4. Til my next young justice post... Stay whelmed!

#batfam #comics #dc comics #young justice #young justice phantoms #season 4 #Wally west #Jason Todd #legion of super heroes #bart allen #damian wayne #speed force #greta hayes #secret #phantom zone #keep binging yy #stay whelmed #i took too long on this #i wrote this instead of sleeping

[taiblogcomics]

I Can’t Pet Force You To Read This One, But...

Hey there, high school crushes. Well, it's finally here. Can you believe it? Yes, counting from the original Xanga site (which, yes, still counts. It's like our own Golden Age publication or apocryphia), this is our 10th anniversary of reviewing comics. That's fantastic. I'm excited, can't you tell? I can tell, since I'm writing this preamble a good two months before the actual anniverary~

So, last year we reviewed the absolute pile of dreck that is Heroes in Crisis. And while that was worth ripping into, I'd rather not spend the 10th anniversary hating on something. I'd like to do something actually meaningful to me. I've teased about this one for many years, probably for as long as I've been doing this blog, and I think it's time we stopped pussyfooting around and reviewed some Garfield. But not just any Garfield. It's finally time, my friends. This... is Garfield's Pet Force.

I dunno how many people will remember this one. Maybe you recall the direct-to-DVD movie adaptation from 2009, or at least advertising for it. I never saw it, but apparently it differs a bit. They also appeared a few times in those Garfield comics from back in the day. We even reviewed a couple (some were on the Xanga blog). But what we're looking at here are the original novellas published between 1997 and 1999. So yeah, these really are from my childhood. And since I've long espoused that Garfield was always funnier 20 years ago, this must be actual premium Garfield content, yeah? By golly, I hope so, because we got five whole books here today. So we should probably get into them~

Book 1: The Outrageous Origin

This is a classic sort of superhero cover. Standard team shot of poses, and that's fine for a first volume. In fact, that's great. Later editions of this would replace the lightning-filled gradient background with a pure white one, but I have this original version. We'll get to specifics about these characters in the meat of the story, but let's talk about the costumes for a bit. Very classic early-'90s sort of look, before the Dark Age kicked in. Reminds me a lot of Jim Lee's X-Men designs, actually. Making all your characters visually distinct is important in a team book. The heavy lean into secondary colours is unusual for heroic characters, but not unwelcome.

So we actually start with a cold open in the superhero universe. This is pretty much to introduce us to the characters as soon as possible, and thus I'll do the same for you here.

*Garzooka, team leader, super strong, has a razor-sharp claw, and can shoot radioactive hairballs from his mouth. That's... at least a unique power, I don't think anyone on the Justice League can do that~ *Odious, the dumb muscle with the accent on the "dumb". Possibly even stronger than Garzooka, and possessing a "super-stretchy stun tongue", an elastic tongue that can scramble the minds of whoever it adheres to. *Starlena, the team girl. She can fly, and she has a siren song that can put those who hear it into a hypnotic trance. Garzooka is the only one immune to its effects, for reasons that are never explained. *Abnermal, the kid-appeal character. He has ice powers, forcefields, and an ill-defined "pester power" that means he can annoy people on a greater scale than normal folks. It's pretty much only used for comic relief, but that could be a brilliant power in the right hands. *Compooky, the brains of the operation. Other than flight, his powers are limited to super intelligence, which means he's usually the exposition guy. There's probably a reason they left him out of the movie adaptation~

You got all that? Don't worry, we'll introduce you again later in the book. What actually happens in the intro chapter isn't really important, it's just setting up the universe. In fact, it's all taking place within Pet Force #99, a comic just enjoyed by Nermal. Yes, we quickly cut over to the main Garfield universe ("our universe", the narrator calls it), where Pet Force is just a comic book. The Garfield gang is all outside, enjoying a cookout prepared by Jon Arbuckle. Nermal is extremely enthused by his comic book, and brags about how he has all 98 previous issues sealed and polybagged, and this one will soon join them. Sorry, Nermal, this came out in 1997, the speculator boom already went bust~

Garfield dismisses comic books as stupid because you can't eat them or use them as a blanket, and declares that none of the stuff that happens in the comic could possibly happen in real life. Uh oh, irony! Because these things can happen, and do! It's a parallel universe, baby! This might be one of my earliest introductions to a "parallel worlds" concept. Much like Earths 1 and 2 in pre-Crisis DC, the events of the comic are essentially the real life adventures of their super-powered counterparts in another dimension. Most of the action in these stories will take place there~

So here's the setup: Vetvix (the parallel equivalent to Liz the veternarian) is an evil sorceress and scientist, who essentially wants to experiment on animals in peace, and possibly subjugate the universe while she's at it. You could argue that Liz is an odd choice for villain, since our universe's Liz isn't particularly evil. But then, our universe's Garfield isn't particularly heroic either. She operates out of a deadly space station called the Orbiting Clinic of Chaos, and at present she's waiting for the arrival of her henchman, Space Pie-Rat, who is a six-foot-tall anthropomorphic rat dressed in stereotypical pirate getup. Vetvix has just finished inventing a levitation ray, and she'd like Pie-Rat to go out and use it to steal all the food in the universe. Vetvix doesn't think small, is what I'm saying.

The counter to Vetvix is Emperor Jon, ruler of the planet Polyester. He's kind and benevolent, even if he's a little dippy and his fashion sense atrocious. Having gotten wind of Vetvix's latest plan, he contacts Pet Force in their ship, the Lightspeed Lasagna. Upon learning the problem, Pet Force gives chase to Pie-Rat. They eventually corner him on some desolate planet, landing and entering an abandoned factory. Unfortunately, they're not safe amongst the dangerous machinery, because this turns out to be a trap. Vetvix has been busy as hell, because she's also invented a metal that's impervious to their powers. And that's not all, because she's also basically invented the Phantom Zone, where she traps Pet Force forever. It specifically mentions it doesn’t kill them, because it wouldn't be kosher to murder the heroes in a Garfield book~

The Lightspeed Lasagna has both onboard cameras connected to the heroes' belts as well as automatic return protocols, so within two days, Emperor Jon knows exactly what's happened to Pet Force. He needs help, so he calls upon his most trusted and powerful advisor: Binky the Sorceror. Binky's just as loud and obnoxious as in the main universe, but he's also a powerful magician. He conjures up a spell for Emperor Jon that lets him pierce the veil between universes. It's basically Equestria Girls rules: parallel universes have similar characters between them. So to replace Pet Force, they need the nearest genetic equivalents from another universe. And that's the versions of Garfield, Odie, Arlene, Nermal, and Pooky that we know and love~

Back in the main universe, it's another day entirely. Another cookout is taking place, and Nermal has received his special anniversary issue of Pet Force #100. The cover's really special, dripping with '90s cover gimmicks like glow-in-the-dark and embossing. A rarely used one, though, was "portal to another universe". That was pretty expensive to print, so you won't find many comics like Nermal's. Maybe he had something there with the collecting after all. The cover glows, and while Jon is distracted by the grill, Garfield and Friends disappear~

They reappear in Emperor Jon's wood-paneled throne room, now transformed into Pet Force. Emperor Jon and Sorceror Binky try to explain the situation, but Garfield--now Garzooka--is disbelieving of the whole thing. In fact, even the idea that Jon can now hear him talk absolutely floors him. Since he's about to deliver the exposition for everyone, can we talk about Compooky for a minute? This spell has just granted sapience to Garfield's teddy bear. I don't expect deep philosophy from a children's novella, but the ramifications of this are really under-explored. Like, never mind the whole idea of a teddy bear having the same genetic makeup as an alternate universe equivalent. He goes from inanimate object to fully conscious being, and he just rolls with it.

Anyways, once everybody gets caught up on what's going on and accepts the new reality, a training montage ensues so the group can all learn to use their powers without killing each other. Once at least reasonably trained, the reborn Pet Force is sent out to stop Pie-Rat. He's gotten sloppy in the times with Pet Force dead, so they track him down easily. After a brief scuffle where Garzooka takes his eyepatch, Pie-Rat flees in his ship. They follow Pie-Rat back to the Orbital Clinic of Chaos, but they can't go in the front. That led the original Pet Force into a trap. Finding an unguarded maintenance hatch--standard on any big space station--they enter Vetvix's lair for a final confrontation!

After dealing with the Waiting Room of Doom, which slowly fills with outdated magazines, they enter Vetvix's inner sanctum. Frustrated with Pie-Rat's failure, she uses her magic to turn him into an ordinary mouse. Vetvix then attempts to use her same weapon on this new Pet Force, but thanks to story contrivance, it only works on beings born in this universe. As other dimensional visitors already, they can't be banished to another dimension. She then pulls a Dr. Claw and runs off cursing Pet Force's name while her base self-destructs. Vetvix is a very "discard and draw" sort of villain, it seems. Pet Force, of course, makes a harrowing escape just in the nick of time.

Returning to Emperor Jon, they vow to be ready to return whenever they're called on, since evil never stays dormant for long. Odious even gifts Emperor Jon with the mouse-ified Pie-Rat as proof of their victory. Well, I'm glad they remember that, so they didn't accidentally murder a major villain in their first superhero outing. They're returned to their own universe, and the time differential between them places them back with Jon having not had time to even look up from the grill. Garfield begins to doubt the adventure even happened--until that night, when he finds Pie-Rat's eyepatch still on his person. Ah, definitive proof of... eyepatches, I guess~

Book 2: Pie-Rat's Revenge!

You have to wonder where, in a space-faring superhero setting, Pie-Rat got the inspiration for his classic pirate motif. It's a little incongruous is all I'm saying. And hey, remember when I said earlier that Garzooka's purple-and-green colour scheme was odd for a hero? Well, here he is as a villain! That'll catch your eye. This would be a terrific comic cover, which is what you want in a series like this.

The book opens with a brief recap of the previous story's events, then moves into the new plot. See, Emperor Jon has opted to keep the polymorphed Pie-Rat as his pet. How very Ron Weasley of him. That's pretty apt, actually, because similarly Pie-Rat has maintained his intelligence in his new mousey form. Pie-Rat gets sick of being Emperor Jon's pet and plans a daring escape, exploiting the emperor's dimwitted and loving personality against him. Pie-Rat jams the lock with a food pellet and makes his escape that night.

Once free from his cage, he encounters Binky's cauldron, still left in the throne room from when the sorceror summoned Pet Force from Garfield's universe. Figuring he has nothing to lose, Pie-Rat jumps in the leftover brew. Suddenly he finds himself growing. He returns to his original anthropomorphic state--but with a twist. He's now twice his original height, a staggering twelve feet tall. He scoops up the rest of the remaining potion for later, and sneaks out of the palace as best as a 12-foot rat can sneak. Desiring revenge on both his former employer and his longtime foes, he steals Pet Force's ship and makes his escape from the planet, headed for Vetvix's newest base.

After his guards help Emperor Jon put the pieces of the problem together, they decide they must once again call upon the powers of Pet Force to recover their missing vehicle and stop the newly embiggened Pie-Rat. Fortunately, Garfield and friends have been watching movies all weekend, so Jon doesn't notice when his pets disappear from the living room in a bright flash. Of course, once returned to the alternate universe and the situation explained, they still have a problem: how do they give chase to Pie-Rat when he's got their ship?

And speaking of Pie-Rat in their ship, he's followed the trail of a mysterious energy output, and it's led him right to Vetvix's new base, the Menacing Moon of Mayhem. See, this is why you don't blow up your base: the backup base is never as good. if it was, it wouldn't be the backup. Given that it's such a shoddy base, Pie-Rat is easily able to get inside and get close to Vetvix. She's expecting a technological attack, so she's unprepared when he pulls out that vial of magic potion and sprinkles her with it. And naturally, the potion that made him grow 12 feet tall makes Vetvix shrink to 5 inches. It's magic, we don't have to explain it!

Pie-Rat takes the magic crystal that Vetvix uses to fuel her powers, which of course didn't shrink because magic is just bullshit. See previous paragraph's last sentence. And while Pie-Rat takes over the base and begins plotting a further revenge against Pet Force, we cut over to them. They're at Sorceror Binky's own castle, and it's clear he's a bit of a hoarder. This is to their advantage, though, as they eventually piece together a working spaceship out of old car parts and other things, all patched together between Compooky's know-how and Binky's magic. This seems like the sort of book where I could use that "it's magic" quote every other paragraph. But craft a new--if small--ship they do, and speed off in the newly christened Planetary Pizza.

The rickety little ship does eventually find its way to Pie-Rat's base, saving him the trouble of being proactive as a villain. The magic thing keeps happening, and Pie-Rat basically becomes Discord for a bit while he fights them, doing things like turning Starlena's siren song into actual living music notes. One by one, the members of Pet Force are taken out, with only Garzooka is left. He and Pie-Rat struggle, while Pie-Rat tries to aim the magic crystal at Garzooka. Garzooka uses his claw to rip the crystal from Pie-Rat and defeat him.

Unfortunately, here's where the cover comes in. It seems the moments Pie-Rat was focusing the crystal during the struggle affected Garzooka's mind. He puts the crystal around his own neck. which turns him evil. He helps Pie-Rat to his feet, and the pair escape in the Lightspeed Lasagna. While Pet Force pursues them in their ramshackle ship, the new criminal duo strikes the storage planet of Deli to steal their food. Pet Force manages to catch up as the villains celebrate their spoils, and use a magic blast from the systems Binky installed to short out the Lightspeed Lasagna. This enables them to dock with the ship and climb aboard for a contfrontation.

The group fights, and once again the bearer of a bullshit magic crystal subdues the heroes easily. Annoyed now, Garzooka takes hold of Starlena and prepares to kill her or something. She taps into the one thing she has left: she's not fighting just Garzooka, but Garfield in his body. She drops some heavy put-downs, which resonate with Garfield, and he hesitates long enough for her to cut the crystal off him. The crystal hits the floor and shatters, undoing its evil magics on Garzooka's mind as well as on all his teammates. With Pet Force reunited, Pie-Rat is easily subdued and locked up.

The group waits for the ship to power back up, then speed off to apologise to the planet Deli. Following that, they head back towards Vetvix's moonbase. That night, though, the magic that was making Pie-Rat 12 feet tall wears off, and he escapes from his cell. He steals the remaining shards of the crystal, climbs into the Planetary Pizza, and makes a getaway. As a bonus, he also repeats the power-down spell against the bigger ship, giving him ample time to escape. And he's not the only one. Over on the Menacing Moon of Mayhem, Vetvix also returns to her proper size, and abandons this base as well. And when Pet Force fails to find her, they simply return to their own universe, ready to be called on once again in the future~

Book 3: K-Niner: Dog of Doom!

Another very basic comic book-style cover. K-Niner is a much more typical villain in style. This one's actually a wrap-around, and features the rest of Pet Force reacting to K-Niner on the back cover. Which is good because, other than the first cover, the covers all have a heavy Garzooka focus. Which makes sense for a book series, I suppose, you wanna assure the kiddos that Garfield's gonna be in the book. But as a comic book series, this would be a bad look for a team book~

So after our standard introduction and recap, we start off with Vetvix in yet another new base, the Floating Fortress of Fear. I'm sure it's very intimidating, if she can keep hold of it for more than a single book. She's picking up from the epilogue and putting the last touches on K-Niner, mostly enhancing his intelligence. Now, you look at the cover and tell me what kind of voice you'd expect. Some sort of German or Austrian accent, like the doberman on Road Rovers? Does anyone remember Road Rovers~? Anyways, but no: he speaks with a posh British accent. You know, the "I say, good chaps, looks like we're in a bit of a sticky wicket, eh wot?" type. Trust me, you can tell. But just because he sounds refined doesn't mean he's not evil.

I also love that after the initial "trapped them in the Phantom Zone" bit, the villains just go whole ham. K-Niner here demonstrates that he is indeed evil by threatening to rip out Vetvix's throat. Let your villains be villainous is all I'm saying. She's pleased he's so vicious, but feels he needs to learn his place as well. She force-chokes him until he complies. She then gives him his assignment: she thinks dogs should be liberated. The Boy Mayor of Second Life would approve, and so does K-Niner. Turning pets on their masters is just his style.

K-Niner takes a portable evolution gun, and immediately sets off. He begins on the planet Kennel. Isn't it neat how every planet is named after an English word that describes its function? K-Niner quickly takes over the dog population and turns them against their masters, because boosting their intelligence also makes them evil, of course. They use enslavement collars on their former owners, and within a few days, the dogs now run the planet. We cut over to Emperor Jon on Polyester, where a man has crash-landed a ship. He's an escapee from Kennel, and he's here to report the events so we can get the plot moving and once more summon Pet Force!

And summoned once more they are, Garfield and Friends once more conveniently disappearing in a split second while Jon's back is turned (this time they're outside playing volleyball). And once back in the parallel universe, Emperor Jon fills them all in on K-Niner's dastardly doings. Garzooka, naturally, takes great offense to dogs being in charge, and takes his duties as a hero completely seriously for once. Pet Force takes off for a confrontation with K-Niner in the Lightspeed Lasagna. And speaking of Pet Force's ships...

The Planetary Pizza, piloted by Pie-Rat, plants its pads down on polar planet Glacia. Pie-Rat is here seeking a way to restore his magic crystal and regain his mighty magic powers. He's sought out the home of a legendary evil wizard, who's known by the name of... Barfo. I see why Barfo keeps his location a secret. But anyway, Barfo is the one who made the crystal, so naturally Pie-Rat reasons he can restore it as well. Suprisingly once on Glacia, Barfo's evil lair is pretty easy to find. His manservant, Hobart the Gnome, brings Pie-Rat before the wizard, and within moments the crystal is restored! Pie-Rat turns to thank Hobart, but Hobart suddenly turns into Vetvix!

Yes, Vetvix knew all along that Pie-Rat's quest would lead him here. And as she was once Barfo's student in the ways of evil magic, she knew she could get the old coot to go along with her plan. Barfo returns the crystal to Vetvix, restoring her powers. And so Pie-Rat, a recurring villain in three whole books, is unceremoniously done away with, as Vetvix teleports him inside an asteroid, trapping him in solid rock. Even if the asteroid were hollow or he displaced the interior when he teleported in, no doubt he'll suffocate within moments. That's pretty harsh.

With that over, we rejoin Pet Force as they approach Kennel. K-Niner's battle cruiser spots them incoming, and shoots the ship down, even in spite of Abnermal's forcefields. Pet Force bail out of the ship, and Abnermal uses his powers to make snow to cushion their fall. Upon landing, a contingent of mutant animals attack. The mooks aren't much, but K-Niner himself puts up an impressive fight. However, one of the mooks pulls a gun and points it at Compooky. This is why Compooky usually stays aboard the ship, but that wasn't an option. Rather than let their friend get hurt, Pet Force surrenders.

Pet Force is held prisoner separately from Compooky, with both the cell's technology making it freeze-proof and threats of "don't break out, or we'll shoot your compatriot". Their imprisonment is not long, though, as suddenly the power goes out. Pet Force takes advantage of the situation and make their escape, quickly running into Compooky. K-Niner didn't think the hyper-intelligent teddy bear needed a high security cell, and just locked him in the basement. It was easy for him to then break out and shut down the local power grid. This also has the side effect of turning off the control collars the humans were wearing. How convenient!

With control of the planet now tilted in their favour, Pet Force now has time to both fix their ship and reverse the polarity of the brain-boosting weapons, turning the dog population of Kennel back to their normal selves. Though the experience did change the pet owners of Kennel. Having experienced life in their pets' shoes (so to speak) for a bit, they've resolved to treat their canine companions a bit more equally. More being allowed on the furniture, less stupid tricks for treats. Still, Pet Force can't stay long, and they head off in pursuit of K-Niner's battle cruiser. This is why most superheroes don't have spaceships (Jedis don't count): if your enemy also has one, they can flee way more easily than on foot.

Not willing to let another place go to the dogs, as it were, Pet Force catches up with K-Niner. With his previous success, Vetvix has stepped up the timetable and sent him after Polyester right away. Emperor Jon is in danger! They enter the planet's atmosphere, and are attacked by fighter craft. They fend them off, but their weapons system is damaged in the fight, so they can't simply use the reverse brain-rays and solve it quickly. The team splits up instead: Garzooka and Abnermal will go after K-Niner, while the other three will find the planet's power source and knock out the collars, since that worked so well the last time.

The two heroes quickly make short work of K-Niner's guards, and then turn the battle to deal with the Dog of Doom himself. While the struggle goes on, the rest of Pet Force reach the planet's power grid. Using a clever tactic, Compooky overloads the power and causes and electrical storm that simultaneously undoes the brain-boosting effect and shorts out the enslavement collars. There's only a few pages left, after all, and we have to wrap this up.  K-Niner is reverted back into an ordinary dog, and the emperor is reverted to an ordinary non-enslaved person. The day is saved!

And now once again, Pet Force prepares to return to their own universe. However... when the spell clears, the five heroes are still standing there. Something is blocking the passage between dimensions, and Pet Force is trapped. And while Pet Force's adventures have taken place between mere moments in their own universe, they have always returned quickly enough that Jon didn't notice a thing. But this time, as Jon retrieves the volleyball and turns around to his pets, he's surprised to find they've all vanished into thin air...

Book 4: Menace of the Mutanator

This one's very striking because of its more painted look compared to the heavy black outlines the rest of the covers have. Does this one count as having the whole team on the cover? Because, spoilers, that's what the Mutanator is: the rest of Pet Force mashed up into a villain. Again, though, that's definitely a striking image that'd draw in readers to a comic cover. In fact, while Garzooka may be over-used as a cover focus, several of these also show him imperiled in some way, and that's nice for character stuff. That helps balace it a bit~

I wanna say, before we start, that I'm impressed by the continuity for the series as a whole. They could've just written each story as a standalone, but for a series of 100-page children's novellas starring Garfield characters as superheroes, things happen in these books. Like, maybe not sweeping status quo changes, but events affect the plot of each next book down the line. And that's where we pick up! Right where the last book left off, with Pet Force now stuck in the alternate universe, unable to return home to Jon. But if they can't go home to Jon, well, maybe then events will conspire to bring Jon to them~

Yep, because Jon happens to wander into the room where they keep the copy of Pet Force #100 that acts as a portal to their universe, he gets transported into the Pet Force universe. And since Emperor Jon is still an extant entity, there's just two Jons now. Jon, of course, is a bit freaked out, and it takes several pages to explain the whole deal to him, and also have a showcase of all their powers to pad out the book some more. Eventually, they decide to call in Sorceror Binky to examine the problem. When he has a go of it, a sudden tornado emerges from the cauldron and whisks away Pet Force--save for Garzooka, whose prodigious strength keeps him anchored.

Garzooka heads out in the Lightspeed Lasagna to track Pet Force's signature, glad to get away from a double trouble Jon. And while he's searching, the scene cuts to Vetvix's Floating Fortress of Fear. Hey, one of her bases actually lasted more than one book! This is where Pet Force has been transported to, once more in a power-proof cell. Vetvix monologues to the heroes, as she is wont to do, explaining that she's the one who cast the spell to keep them from returning home. And further, she's brought them here to mutate them into her servants.

While Emperor Jon exposits about his backstory (turns out he is not of royal blood, and has about as much legitimate claim to the throne as you or I do), the search continues. Sorceror Binky detects Pet Force, giving them all a view of what happens next. The trapped members of Pet Force are literally broken apart and reassembled: Odious' body, Compooky's brain inserted into the chest, Abnermal's hands, and Starlena's head. She christens this beast "Mutanator", and it is soullessly obedient. I also wanna say, Mutanator's kind of a non-binary icon, aren't they? (The comic uses "it", but it was 1998 and alternative pronouns weren't really a thing yet.) Muscular, masculine body, but confident enough to still wear lipstick. It's a look, is all I'm saying~

Mutanator continues to possess the combined powers of Pet Force as well. Vetvix sends them to attack the planet Armory to gear up before attempting to conquer Polyester. And meanwhile, thanks to the convenience of being able to scan all of Compooky's memories now that his brain is part of Mutanator, Vetvix has the perfect trap to spring on Garzooka--or should she say Garfield. Yes, she really knows the whole origin for Pet Force now, and now she knows all Garfield's weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and probably blood type and other dating profile stats~

Thus, when Garzooka receives the coordinates from Emperor Jon and arrives at the Floating Fortress, he finds himself menaced by giant spiders. Vetvix couldn't think of a way to get Mondays to attack him, so the Giant Spider Invasion will do. Spiders are apparently very formiddable foes, Garzooka's personal fears aside. They can swat gamma hairballs out of the air, they can construct webs as quickly as certain Marvel heroes, and their hairy exoskeletons are resistant to both claw and strength. But despite his fear and Abnermal's running commentary, Garzooka manages to trounce the spiders with a carefully applied flame--taking Vetvix's blueprints with them.

Garzooka heads out once again to track down the Mutanator, leaving his less-than-all-together friends in the safety of their forcefield prison. While he's off, we return to the perspective of his target. Using their combined powers, the Mutanator swiftly conquers the planet Armory and sets their sights on Polyester next. It's not a bad plan, honestly. With the stockpile from Armory, not only will the Mutanator be more powerful, Polyester won't be able to use the planet for backup. Fortunately for the two Jons, though, Garzooka intercepts the Mutanator before they can leave Armory.

The fight's actually pretty good. Very back and forth. But even despite Garzooka's great strength, the Mutanator wins in the end. Thankfully, Vetvix puts her conquest of Polyester on hold to take the time to retrieve Garzooka and add his power to the Mutanator. This, of course will be her undoing--in a completely ridiculous way, of course. For back in the palace, our universe's Jon is watching Pet Force's struggles with the scrying cauldron. And he leans in a bit too close. Sowhile Vetvix is prepping the machine to divide Garzooka's body like she did the rest of Pet Force, Jon suddenly tumbles through the dimensional warp caused by the cauldron and lands on Vetvix, which causes her to put the machine in reverse. A real Jonnus ex cauldrona there, eh?

The Mutanator disappears, their existance as a unique being wiped out as their pieces return to their proper Pet Force owners. With Pet Force reassembled, Garzooka takes out Vetvix with one of his gamma-radiated hairballs while she's distracted by Jon. Pet Force decides that the vile veternarian should have a taste of her own medicine, and stick her in the body-splicing machine with some of her guards. This divides them all up and mixes them into bizarre combinations. It also has the side effect of disabling Vetvix's magic, so they can return to their own universe now.

The book wraps up here. Pet Force first returns to Armory to both return the stolen weapons and also make repairs on the buildings that were damaged in Garzooka's fight with the Mutanator. That's the sort of thing I'd like to see in more superhero stories in general. The two Jons part ways, with the Emperor believing the other Jon's heroism to have been deliberate. And thus are Garfield and friends returned home. And just like the end of their first adventure, where Garfield couldn't be sure if it really happened, so too is Jon's memory fading. Had he really witnessed all that? Only his pets know for sure--and in this universe, they can't talk~

Book 5: Attack of the Lethal Lizards

This one's another wrap-around, showing the rest of Pet Force engaging the remaining Lethal Lizards on the back cover. This is one advantage books have over comics: a front and back cover you can use for your story-telling. The Lizard designs are pretty good for a villain group too. Like Pet Force, they don't adhere to a particular theme, but they do look good individually. Garzooka roasting a hot dog on a stick might be a bit too comedic for a superhero story, though. It sets the tone wrong. How "lethal" can they possibly be if Garzooka is out here roasting hot dogs in the middle of battle?

So here we go, last book. After the usual recap, we open with Jon explaining to Garfield and friends his latest plans: they're going to WackyWorld, a theme park dedicated to Jon's favourite cartoon, The Wackies. Both Garfield and Nermal think the show is lame, and if those two agree on something, you know it must be so. In less lame universes, however, trouble is once more a-brewing. So it turns out Vetvix's Floating Fortress of Fear has been orbiting the swamp planet Reptilius this whole time. And her various experiments in the last two books have been radiating the planet in magical energy...

From that magical power, three reptiles find themselves uplifted in intelligence and granted fantastic powers. Please say hello to our three main villains for this book: Snake, an enormous snake (the only one without an anthro design) with stretching powers; Chameleon, who can shapeshift; and Dragon, a komodo dragon with fire breath and the bad attitude to match. While Snake and Chameleon figure out their powers, Dragon declares himself the leader as he's clearly the smartest, strongest, and most powerful. They name themselves the Lethal Lizards and start plotting how to rule the planet.

After that exciting intro, though, the book kind of slows down. First we get a whole chapter of Emperor Jon also deciding to go on vacation, to planet Funlandia. With Vetvix out of commission for a while, there's no better time. In short, he's out of the castle and Sorceror Binky is in charge. This is followed by a chapter of Jon and his pets at WackyWorld. It's certainly an accommodating amusement park to allow pets on its grounds. Garfield at least gets along with the food, but if you know anything about amusement park food prices, the amount Garfield eats will make your wallet weep. Jon takes his mind off it by dragging the pets along to a ride. Surely they have to be under the height restriction~

Fortunately, we get back to the actual stars of this book, and we see a bit more of their dynamic. Snake is the sort who sucks up to whoever's calling themselves "Boss" at the moment. Dragon is power-hungry, and it's clear he'll sell out his allies at the drop of a hat. Chameleon is Starscream. Anyway, they trek through the jungles of Reptilius until they find a downed spaceship. Reviewing the logs reveals it was a scout ship from Vetvix, and they also learn of Vetvix and her mission. However, they don't know where Emperor Jon lives, so they crowd into the the newly christened Rapacious Reptile and set course for the stars.

The first planet they come across is a world called Klod. Quickly the Lethal Lizards beat up the populace and find the local government. Chameleon shapeshifts into a dignitary, pretending to be an advance entourage for Emperor Jon, schmoozing with the governor until he learns both what Jon looks like and the name of his planet. With this information secure, Chameleon nips out suddenly, and the trio sets forth towards Polyester. Governer Klutz calls up the palace as soon as the reptiles depart, and reports the incident to Sorceror Binky.

Binky wastes no time, and he dials up Pet Force. Since all five are in one place, he's able to pull them through even without them being near the gateway through issue #100's cover. Convenient! Pet Force, however, does waste time, as a lengthy comedy scene eats up several pages before we just get on with it. Eventually, the situation is conveyed, and they figure it's safer to keep Emperor Jon on Funlandia for the time being. Compooky stays behind to help plan some strategies, while the rest of Pet Force boards the Lightspeed Lasagna to intercept the Lethal Lizards before they even arrive.

Pet Force spends the next few minutes both scanning for incoming ships and bickering with each other, so I'm very glad when the Rapacious Reptile appears on their detectors before too long. Dragon threatens the ship, telling them to move or he'll knock them aside. It's a spaceship, dude, you can move in three dimensions. The ships trade shots, and while Chameleon's piloting is actually pretty good due to his independently-rotating eyeballs, eventually both ships crash land on whatever planet is nearby.

Both ships crash right next to each other, which is improbable but less ridiculous than some of the contrivances in these books, so I'm okay with it. Now you'd think what with the enemies being reptiles and Abnermal having freezing powers that this battle would be over really easily, but no. In fact, Garzooka and Dragon are pretty evenly matched. Snake turns out to be immune to Starlena's siren song because snakes don't have external ears. See, now there's a contrivance I find a bit weird. Snake swallows Abnermal whole, and Chameleon and Odious get literally tongue-tied. The Lethal Lizards actually live up to their name pretty well.

As the fight continues, half of both sides are laid out when Compooky comes rushing up, saying he has an urgent message from the emperor. And that's when he sucker-punches the team. It was actually Chameleon in disguise, having gotten knocked away when he and Odious separated. So yeah, round one goes to the Lizards, and they make their escape first. Pet Force regroups, and they give chase. The Lizards have enough head start to really lay siege to Polyester before Pet Force arrives, though. They even get access to the palace using Chameleon's shapeshifting, leading to Sorceror Binky letting slip the real location of the emperor just as Pet Force arrives.

Another fight ensues--see, now it's really a superhero story--and the Lizards leave again 2 and 0. This time Snake uses his venomous fangs to attack Starlena. This leads to the weirdest contrivance yet. Maybe not the worst, but definitely the weirdest. They have only minutes to save Starlena. So how do they do it? Well, they notice that Odious drools quite a lot. It's very "fluid output". So they have Binky magically reverse Odious' drooling, so that he has "fluid input" on his tongue instead. It becomes a big suction sponge and sucks the poison out of Starlena. They then restore the drooling, and he just harmlessly drools out the poison. What.

With their teammate saved, Pet Force pursues the Lethal Lizards to Funlandia. They get there just in time to rescue Emperor Jon from their clutches, with Garzooka and Odious combining their strength to literally rip a kiddie ride out of the ground. Starlena corners Chameleon in a hall of mirrors, turning his own trick against him. Snake is undone by Odious' strength. And Garzooka fights Dragon to a standstill, finally trapping all three on a roller coaster still operating. When the ride comes to an end, Abnermal freezes them all until the authorities can retrieve them.

Naturally, Emperor Jon thinks it's all part of the show (because Jon is dimwitted in any universe). The Lizards are sent to a lizard-proof prison (seriously, it specifies this), and Pet Force returns to their own universe. As usual, Jon didn't notice his pets go missing during the dark amusement park ride. The book concludes on an ominous note, however, as the ship carrying the Lethal Lizards makes its jump to lightspeed just as it passes the Floating Fortress of Fear. The shockwave knocks over some debris that reactivates the combining machine, restoring Vetvix to her full evil might once more!

The end!

No, really. Those five books are all there was. I hear it may have continued into the comics, but I don’t know how accurate that is. I didn’t really look into it.

But boy, what a ride, huh? Let’s dissect the books one at a time, since it only seems fair to take them as individual stories.

The Outrageous Origin: It’s a fairly basic origin story, I’d say. It kind of has to be. I guess my main gripe is that, like Rita Repulsa’s entire run on Power Rangers, the heroes never fight the main villain directly. In fact, there’s barely even an evil plot in this one. You have henchmen and some traps, and that’s about it for the menace.

Pie-Rat’s Revenge: A cautionary tale about why you treat your minions with respect. This one’s pretty good, but the events depicted on the cover make up such a small part of the book. Wouldn’t it have been more fun if Garzooka was turned at the beginning of the story? Book 4 would at least do the reverse of that, so it’s not a major complaint~

K-Niner, Dog of Doom: I think this one’s about as middle of the road as you can get. What a coincidence that it’s also the middle of the series! Like I said in the recap portion, it’s a shame that Pie-Rat’s story ended here. This one definitely feels more “villain of the week” than most.

Menace of the Mutanator: This one might be the best book in the series. Garzooka, alone, battling against the best parts of his team? That’s gripping stuff. I guess the main problem is that the Mutanator isn’t really a character in and of themselves. Like, K-Niner, he may have been a generic rent-a-villain type, but he had a personality. Mutanator is little more than an extention of Vetvix’s will.

Attack of the Lethal Lizards: I’m a bit split on this one. The bits with the titular Lizards are great. They steal the show! But the parts where it focuses on either Jon kind of drag, and Pet Force is a bit too jokey here. Like, I get the point is that they’ve relaxed into their roles now, and there’s not much point of doing it as a Garfield story if they don’t actually use the character personalities, but... I dunno. It’s good, but it could have been better~

And that’s it! Like, I dunno how to wrap this up. Pet Force was neither my first exposure to superheroes nor my first introduction to the Garfield brand (you can thank Saturday morning cartoons for both of those). But for some reason, maybe just the absurdly goofy premise, it always kinda stuck with me. And I think that’s a good enough reason to make it my 10th anniversary review, don’t you~?

#books #reviews #Garfield #Pet Force #Garfield's Pet Force #Taiblog

[gorogues]

Spoilers for comics in May!

Pretty sparse again, and it’s really just collected editions which are of interest...though Len appears on the variant cover of the Super Sons issue.  I don’t think he’s in any of the stories thus far.

You can see the solicits in full at CBR.

CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER SONS #2 written by PETER J. TOMASI art by MAX RAYNOR and JORGE CORONA cover by SIMONE DI MEO card stock variant cover by NICK BRADSHAW ON SALE 5/11/21 $3.99 US | 32 PAGES | 2 of 7 | FC | DC CARD STOCK VARIANT COVER $4.99 US Okay, Robin and Superboy saved the Flash from certain annihilation...surely the day is saved and everyone can go home and watch TV, right? Wrong! Once the Doom Scroll inscribes a name on its mystical list, the bearer of that name will be imminently killed—and the heroes of the Justice League are being targeted one by one! Next up? Wonder Woman! Plus, see just what happened when the boys were snatched from reality, and how they first encountered the Doom Scroll...in medieval England?

From here, we’ve got a ton of collected editions.  The Mark Waid book has some Replicant and Piper.  @one-rogue-army

THE FLASH BY MARK WAID BOOK EIGHT TP written by MARK WAID, BRIAN AUGUSTYN, and JOE CASEY art by PAUL PELLETIER, DUNCAN ROULEAU, SCOTT KOLINS, DOUG BRAITHWAITE, and others cover by STEVE LIGHTLE ON SALE 6/15/21 $34.99 US | $45.99 CAN | 368 PAGES | FC | DC Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-77951-010-5 As this latest collection of Flash tales written by Mark Waid begins, meet Walter West, a Flash from a parallel reality where his beloved Linda Park died and the speedster doles out brutal justice to criminals as a response. Can the two Flashes co-exist long enough to stop Replicant, a villain with the combined powers of the Rogues Gallery? Better find out fast—the longer Walter West stays on Wally’s Earth, the more he poses a threat to all of reality! Collects The Flash #151-162, The Flash Annual #12, and pages from The Flash Secret Files #2.

This Justice League trade has a classic Eobard story, from the Secret Society of Super-Villains (he acts like a creep towards Black Canary).  There’s also a good Kadabra and Sam story reprinted here.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA: THE BRONZE AGE OMNIBUS VOL. 3 HC written by GERRY CONWAY, PAUL LEVITZ, MARTIN PASKO, and STEVE ENGLEHART art by DICK DILLIN, GEORGE TUSKA, and others cover by KARL KERSCHL ON SALE 7/6/21 $125.00 US | $163.00 CAN | 1,192 PAGES | FC | DC Hardcover 7.0625" x 10.875" ISBN: 978-1-77951-016-7 The JLA moves into the second half of the ’70s with tales guest-starring the Justice Society of America, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and heroes from the long-gone past including Jonah Hex, the Viking Prince, Enemy Ace, and more. Plus, the League’s mascot, Snapper Carr, turns against the team, the Phantom Stranger helps the team battle a returning pantheon of ancient gods, the Martian Manhunter faces Despero for the lives of the League, and the Secret Society of Super-Villains swap bodies with the World’s Greatest Superheroes. Plus, Black Lightning is invited to join the JLA—but turns down the invitation for mysterious reasons. Collects Justice League of America #147-182, Super-Team Family #11-14, DC Special #27, DC Special Series #6, Secret Society of Super-Villains #15, DC Comics Presents #17, and pages from Amazing World of DC comics #14.

If you missed the digital releases, here’s your chance to buy this cool AU Hartley story!

DCEASED: HOPE AT WORLD’S END HC written by TOM TAYLOR art by DUSTIN NGUYEN, RENATO GUEDES, CARMINE DI GIANDOMENICO, MARCO FAILLA, KARL MOSTERT, and DANIELE DI NICUOLO cover by FRANCESCO MATTINA ON SALE 6/15/21 $24.99 US | $33.99 CAN | 176 PAGES | FC | DC HARDCOVER ISBN: 978-1-77951-128-7 In Earth’s darkest hour, heroes will bring hope in this new addition to the DCeased saga, taking place within the timeline of the original epic! DCeased became a smash horror hit in 2019 by offering a twisted version of the DC Universe infected by the Anti-Life Equation, transforming heroes and villains alike into mindless monsters. DCeased: Hope at World’s End, previously only available digitally, expands the world of that original DCeased series by filling in that story’s time jump and focusing on characters including Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Stephanie Brown, Wally West, and Jimmy Olsen. In DCeased: Hope at World’s End, the Anti-Life Equation has infected over a billion people on Earth. Heroes and villains have fallen. In the immediate aftermath of the destruction of Metropolis, Superman and Wonder Woman spearhead an effort to stem the tide of infection, preserve and protect survivors, and plan for what’s next. In the Earth’s darkest hour, heroes will bring hope! The war for Earth has only just begun! This volume collects DCeased: Hope at World’s End Digital Chapters 1-15.

And this is for the AU Eobard story.

TALES FROM THE DC DARK MULTIVERSE II HC stories and art by VARIOUS cover by DAVID MARQUEZ ON SALE 6/8/21 $34.99 US | $45.99 CAN | 368 PAGES | FC | DC Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-77951-007-5 The gateway into the Dark Multiverse has been opened...what stories will emerge? Follow Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Justice League as our heroes battle their way through these crumbling and shattered worlds! Collects Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Batman: Hush #1; Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Flashpoint #1; Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Wonder Woman: War of the Gods #1; Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Crisis on Infinite Earths #1; and Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Dark Nights Metal #1, plus the stories that inspired these tales from Batman #619, Flashpoint #1, Wonder Woman: War of the Gods #4, Crisis on Infinite Earths #12, and Dark Nights: Metal #6.

#Captain Cold #Professor Zoom #Pied Piper #Replicant #the Flash #solicits #spoilers: comics

[dc-earth53]

.#0011 - Enchantress (June Moone)

Age: 41

Occupation: Artist, magician.

Marital status: Single.

Known relatives: None.

Group affiliation: Shadowpact, Sentinels of Magic, Suicide Squad.

Base of operations: Belle Reve Penitentiary, Oblivion Bar.

Height: 5′6″

Weight: 126 lbs.

History:

19 years ago: Artist June Moone is invited to a costume party at an old castle, and stumbles upon a magical being known as Dzamor, which grants her the ability to transform into a super-powered alter ego named “The Enchantress.”

16 years ago: 

After operating part-time as a superhero for a few years, the Enchantress attempts to eliminate all evil on Earth by stealing all magic, coming into conflict with Supergirl.

Having had a taste of power, Moone’s Enchantress personality begins committing more and more heinous acts of villainy to gain more, causing Moone to keep her repressed.

12 years ago: Moone fights Zatanna and the Justice League, and is defeated by them, ending up in prison at Belle Reve.

10 years ago: 

The Enchantress joins Amanda Waller’s Task Force X, better known as the Suicide Squad, performing missions for Waller in exchange for a commuted sentence.

During a trip to the Nightshade Dimension, Moone learns the truth about her powers: Dzamor is the father of beings known as the Incubus and the Succubus, rulers of the dimension, and her Enchantress persona is actually the Succubus given human form. The Incubus tears the Succubus from Moone, leaving her powerless, and she leaves the Squad, committing herself to a mental institution.

7 years ago: The demon Etrigan and the renegade angel Asphodel release the hordes of Hell upon the Earth. In the process, the Succubus is reunited with Moone, and she breaks free from the asylum, joining the fight but ultimately being killed by Sebastian Faust. The Enchantress’s magical powers unite with Moone’s body and personality, leaving a new, more whole Moone.

5 years ago: During the Spectre’s quest to destroy all magic, Moone joins the ragtag band of heroes known as the Shadowpact, a name used by groups “doomed to lost causes,” and manages to help stop the Spectre’s rampage.

4 years ago: The Shadowpact remain a team, fighting the group known as the Pentacle inside of a magic bubble in River Rock, Wyoming. When they emerge from the bubble, a whole year has passed.

3 years ago: 

The Shadowpact, alongside the Phantom Stranger and the Shadowpacts of the past and future, team up to stop the orchestrations of Doctor Gotham and his patron, the Sun King.

Shadowpact travels to Hell to take part in the battle for control of the realm between Neron, Blaze, and Satanus. 

1 year ago: Moone and the Enchantress are forcibly separated, requiring the intervention of John Constantine and Deadman to stop the Enchantress from destroying all life on Earth and to reunite the pair.

Present day: Moone responds to a summons by Amanda Waller for aid, re-enlisting in her Suicide Squad by choice while continuing to work with the Shadowpact.

Commentary:

Enchantress is one of those characters who has gotten a really bad rap as of late due to a terrible portrayal in outside media - namely the dumpster fire that was 2016′s Suicide Squad feature film. However, June Moone is an example of a character who probably would have been much more successful if DC had introduced her thirty years later than they did, as the original idea for Enchantress was essentially a magical girl. Instead, she languished in obscurity until she, like so many others, was picked up by John Ostrander for his Suicide Squad title.

There’s nothing much to report about differences between this version of Moone and the canon one, however - she’s one of those characters who only pops up once in a blue moone (heh) if she’s not in a team book, and the team books she’s been in have never been the heavy hitters. With just a few minor alterations to her timeline, she’s good to go - I even managed to integrate New 52 Justice League Dark and Suicide Squad in there somehow.

Looking at costumes, her current outfit (the one in the header image) is one of circumstance - I had originally planned to use her Shadowpact outfit, the one with the bustier and cape, but then I found this piece by Stjepan Sejic, and when I get a chance to show off Sejic art, like hell I’m going to turn it down.

Next: Oracle, and then... oh, gods of Thanagar, Hawkman.

Got questions? Asks are always open!

#dc #dc comics #earth 53 #profile #june moone #the enchantress #suicide squad #shadowpact

[dannyphannypack]

Crossover Fic Recs

Hey, saw your post for some fic recs! Unfortunately I can't continue the wonderful thread of reblogs because I wish to remain anonymous, but here have some cool crossovers that I didn't see get rec'd yet :D (you can either post this or add it to the reblogs, I don't mind either way)

Just Another Meteor Freak [500k words, complete] (and it's sequel, which is unfortunately incomplete) is a Smallville/DP crossover that's absolutely a fantastic read and I cannot recommend it enough, it's one of my faves! Brief synopsis: Danny goes to live with his aunt Martha Kent after his family dies (and for once Danny's family dying in a crossover fic doesn't have anything to do with TUE!), and misunderstandings of the good kind and mishaps ensue because of course Danny and Clark's hero complexes come into play. It's got hurt/comfort, fluff, angst, sibling-esque-bonding, and all sorts of cool stuff, including ghost king headcannons and new powers for Danny. It takes place mostly from a Smallville perspective, but Danny's woven in so seamlessly that you won't believe he wasn't in the original show to begin with. I read it for the first time after having not watched Smallville in years and I could still understand it though, so I think that if you haven't watched Smallville before you could still enjoy the fic a lot!

And like, honestly, I totally recommend other stuff by this author (jadedbluerose) too. She's got a Merlin/DP crossover that's pretty fantastic, but unfortunately she hasn't updated anything since 2014 :( still worth the read though!!

Spirited Away [70k, complete] is a Harry Potter/DP crossover, it's honestly THE MOST hilarious fic I've ever read. Synopsis: Danny is an unwilling student at Hogwarts, and the most chaotic Hufflepuff the world has ever seen. He claims he's been kidnapped but when no one listens to him, he raises all kinds of hell to try and get kicked out. And if that doesn't work, well, he can always sue them. 100% worth the read, it will definitely make you laugh.

Various Superphantom (Supernatural/DP) crossovers by sapphireswimming. Literally anything Superphantom found here? Totally the best. You can also check out Superphantom fics by surelysilly (whose fics are more on the darker end of the spectrum, and their prose style is kinda abstract rather than your traditional linear narrative) Vitaliciouscreations (they've got a oneshot collection that's pretty fun, as well as a oneshot that I wish they'd continue and a complete cute 13k-word penpal fic.)

How to befriend a ghost [80k, incomplete] is a HTTYD/DP crossover in which Danny gets stuck in the Viking era, and I originally started reading this for the Danny & Hiccup friendship because it's adorable and both of them see how similar they are to each other and find kinship in that. The dragon Danny gets (because this is a HTTYD crossover, this is inevitable!) really sneaks into your heart though, and I ABSOLUTELY adore Sparky as much as I adore Toothless. He's very lovable and complements Danny super well! Of course, it's not all friendship bonding and training dragons, the archipelago is Danny's home now (until he can find his way back to Amity Park/his own century) and he's going to protect it too when trouble arises, just like the dragons do. He even gets new powers along the way. This fic is pretty fun, there's a lot of switching perspectives and you really see the characters' voices come through in it, and you even get to see the dragons' POV, which is really interesting since you get to learn Sparky's backstory!

Den Mother [8k, ongoing] is a Young Justice/DP crossover that acknowledges the fact that Danny is by all rights a first-generation hero, and he's treated with the respect as such and gets to join the Justice League rather than the YJ team. Of course, he doesn't WANT to join the league at first, which is a different take than you'd expect, but he reluctantly agrees and is then given the same responsibilities as a Justice League member--that is, to teach the YJ something about teamwork or whatever. It's not very long right now, but the premise is so good! It has a lot of potential.

A Foreign Perspective [200k words, complete] is a DNAngel/DP crossover that I saw @scrollingdown call a fandom classic once and honestly agree, even though I don't think many people know/have read it. It's a cute friendship fic that focuses on Phantom (not Danny, but Phantom specifically) making his first friend, an older boy named Daisuke, who seems normal at first, but is slowly revealed to be a little more understanding of Danny's situation than he appears. Some comfort involved too since Danny deals with a little more with the idea of mourning/loss than in canon, seeing as Daisuke thinks he's a full ghost and therefore a teenager that died, and Danny learns to be a different kind of hero because of it. Really cool fic too since you don't need to know DNAngel at all to understand the fic, since it's told from DP's perspective, and you get to learn about Daisuke as Danny does. It's just super sweet and it's got some action here and there that makes it exciting, and it's really a fun read.

Other stuff by this author is worth the read too! They've got oneshots of a HP crossover and Ghost Whisperer crossover, and a sadly incomplete HTTYD crossover [100k words] that is still super super good and also deals with ideas about mourning and loss. Their non-crossover stuff is also pretty interesting (there's a Mute!Danny AU and Dash kinda-redemption oneshot I really liked).

Diversity [150k, ongoing] is another Ghost Whisperer/DP crossover, it's a found-family fic where Danny runs away from home after his family dies in the events post TUE. He ends up running into Melinda and she goes out of her way to help him. There's a couple underlying mysteries surrounding the ghosts that haunt this fic, and Melinda tries to understand Danny's past and ends up tangled in a conspiracy because Danny's hiding his ghostly alter-ego and also the GIW are involved at some point (and they are much more menacing here than in canon). It's totally a page-turner, and you can get as invested as Melinda in hoping Danny heals from his loss. Spellbound [150k, ongoing] is a HP/DP crossover by the same author! Danny accidentally gets trapped by Magical Britain and is bitter about it, but he's trying to make the best of it. The Wizards have no idea what to make of him, but he just wants to go home, and he makes a couple friends while he plots his escape. (It's actually been a while since I read that one, so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but I do remember feeling bad for Danny in this fic, poor boy's lonely and can't even interact with kids his own age because he's an unknown creature to the wizards. Good thing Danny's never been one to follow authority.)

A Visit to Paris [10k, complete] is a Miraculous Ladybug/DP crossover in which Danny is Akumatized... sort of. The results are hilarious: Danny's a troll, Hawkmoth is frustrated, the heroes aren't really sure what to make of it, and Danny and Adrien make a lot of puns. Oh, and Danny is the only one smart enough to fix Paris' villain problem (okay, so it might be slightly cracky). It reminds me very much of Spirited Away, which I mentioned earlier. It's got the same level of chaos that's for sure. All in all, it's a very, very fun read.

A Different Sort of House Call [50k, incomplete] is a House MD/DP crossover, it's been years since I read it but I've always considered it one of the fandom classics too? It was definitely one of the first things to pop to mind when I was trying to recall all the cool memorable crossovers to rec you, so this goes on the list too. It's Danny at the hospital with House, and the doctors are trying to diagnose him without knowing about his ghost half (and Danny's not exactly willing to tell them either). There's angst (especially since the author wrote this to follow Lab Rat by AnneriaWings), Vlad trying to be an ally (sorta?), and House being clever as usual. Sadly it's incomplete but it's still super good!!

Running Blind [20k, complete] is a CSI/DP crossover (it took me forever to find the link again since it wasn't listed as a crossover). It's super good, Danny runs away for reasons unknown (at the beginning of course) and gets caught up in a murder investigation and he suspects the culprit is supernatural so obviously he helps out. The CSI guys are both trying to protect him (thinking he was a target for the murderer) but also trying to uncover his past and the reasons he ran away. When you find out why he ran away, you might be awed like I was (especially when you realize how long it had been since he ran) or you might be unimpressed, but the aftermath and his family/friends finally catching up to him might make up for that. I kinda liked how Vlad was written here too.

Ghost Crimes and its sequels is a Criminal Minds/DP crossover. It's the first in a very long series (currently 500k+ words in total) that expands on the DP world and lore, and also involves a lot more murder, death, blood (and the other related gore-ish stuff), and overall realism. Like, Danny fights what is basically Jack the Ripper and its terrifying. It's kind of like a "dark and gritty" DP (but like, not unbearably or overwhelmingly dark and gritty), angst sprinkled here and there, along with darker themes and less light-hearted issues (mental health/trauma/depression/etc. and neglect/abuse and like, actual competent adults like social workers and stuff are a real thing in this fic). There's a lot going on but it's got its lighter nice moments too (Dani is there and gets to be a part of Danny's family, Val's in on the secret, among other things). Also some of the chapters are illustrated, it's great. Definitely check it out!

Okay that's a lot of fics so I'm gonna stop now. Have fun reading!!

#danny phantom #phanfic #crossover #submission #THIS IS SO GOOD ! #THANK YOU OMG !

[leslieannefusco]

Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace The New Batman Superman Adventures

Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern chase a time-traveling villain to the past, where they team up with the greatest heroes of the Old West.

The Justice League's adventures in time take them to a futuristic Gotham City, where they join forces with that era's Batman and his super team: The Justice League Unlimited.

When the evil Trade Federation plots to take over the peaceful planet of Naboo, Jedi warrior Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi embark on an amazing adventure to save the planet. With them on their journey is the young Queen Amidala, Gungan outcast Jar Jar Binks, and the powerful Captain Panaka, who will all travel to the faraway planets of Tatooine and Coruscant in a futile attempt to save their world from Darth Sidious, leader of the Trade Federation, and Darth Maul, the strongest Dark Lord of the Sith to ever wield a lightsaber.

The evil Trade Federation, led by Nute Gunray is planning to take over the peaceful world of Naboo. Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi are sent to confront the leaders. But not everything goes to plan. The two Jedi escape, and along with their new Gungan friend, Jar Jar Binks head to Naboo to warn Queen Amidala, but droids have already started to capture Naboo and the Queen is not safe there. Eventually, they land on Tatooine, where they become friends with a young boy known as Anakin Skywalker. Qui-Gon is curious about the boy, and sees a bright future for him. The group must now find a way of getting to Coruscant and to finally solve this trade dispute, but there is someone else hiding in the shadows. Are the Sith really extinct? Is the Queen really who she says she is? And what’s so special about this young boy?

I’ve never experienced such delay in cartoons airing on TV as I have with the DC Animated shows. Ever since Superman: The Animated Series massive delays started it, it seems to have spilled over into every DC show since. Batman Beyond had it’s “Unmasked”, Justice League had it’s last half of Season 1 and almost all of Season 2 delayed for what seemed like forever, and now Justice League Unlimited it hitting every bump in the road: schedule changes, generic delays and problems with the episodes themselves, resulting in send-backs to the animation studios. “The Once and Future Thing” has been nearly every fans most anticipated story arc this season, and we’ve been waiting ever since June since the loglines were released. So was it worth the wait and agonizing speculation? Nothing ever is; fans over hype things to the point of exhaustion and by the time the episode airs everything’s been inadvertently spoiled via a careless lack of a spoiler warning. Nothing in this first part of “The Once and Future Thing” surprised me; things that would’ve excited me was the re-appearance of Jonah Hex (not seen since Batman: The Animated Series “Showdown”), Batman Beyond, Future Static and Warhawk’s appearance and the whole “Dad?!” line (I know I read somewhere that was going to happen). The Return of the Joker Jokerz gang did surprise me though, albeit if they are a bit changed (more on that later).

Where was I? “The Once and Future Thing” starts off with our first look at Future Gotham since Static Shock’s “Future Shock” crossover, bringing an already exciting mood to the episode (Batman Beyond is one of my all-time favorites, so I may be biased); we then meet the mastermind behind the episode, Chronos (“David Clinton” for those who are picky since “Chronos” was never directly named in the episode, aside from a quick throwaway comment on his suit). After a humorous scene with his verbally abusive wife, we’re thrown into present where he’s attempting to steal Batman’s utility belt from the Watchtower. The first odd thing in the episode occurs here: if an “intruder” alarm is sounded on the Watchtower, a supposedly impregnable fortress, wouldn’t more than just three heroes run to investigate? Batman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman bolt right as the alarm sounds, while everyone else in the surrounding lunch room just sits and gabs away. I realize that’s probably an unavoidable hole due to only wanting Batman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman to be the time travelers, but it’s still a bit odd, none the less. Before you sit down to watch this episode, you have to keep in mind that not all things are going to make sense; it’s time travel and that always manages to screw something up. We have mechanical Pterodactyls and Raptors with Cowboys riding on their back, robots dressed up as Old West Gun Slingers and a main villain who had a six-pistol gun. If you want to make sense of that…be my guest, but it’s really best just to sit and enjoy it as it plays out. Granted, you could justify everything that happened since Tobias just kept jumping into the future and hijacking this stuff back, but…dinosaurs? I don’t see the purpose for those, unless he wanted to scare people into doing his dirty work (ten foot robots and massive guns would do that for me anyway); regardless, they were fun to see, even if they were completely random. Heroes in the episode included El Diablo, Bat Lash, Sheriff Ohiyesa Smith and the aforementioned Jonah Hex. They were all great to see in animated form and I couldn’t help but laugh every time El Diablo talked, as his voice actor (Nestor Carbonell) played “Batmanuel” in the live-action The Tick! series (I think I’m one of few who loved that show). Jonah Hex was awesome to see again and Bat Lash was fun to watch as well.

The Wild West portions had their fare share of camp to them, but they were a fun little romp. Bruce refusing to carry a gun and then using his utility belt as a “Go on, I dare you” type move the cowboys used when reaching for their guns, Diana taking her time in deflecting the bullets (“These are the biggest, slowest bullets I’ve ever seen”) and John’s “Green Lantern” Ghost looked like something pulled from a Scooby Doo episode, were fun to watch. There were some nice character moments in this one, but honestly, I think we’re all just waiting for the second part. Speaking of the second part, we got a nice little teaser end to the episode. Landing in the future after chasing Chronos again, the League come up against the Return of the Joker Jokerz gang; descending immediately is the Future Static, Batman Beyond and Warhawk. Static appears much older than his “Future Shock” appearance and Batman seems to have lost the red on the interior of his wings, but Warhawk remains the same. The episode ends with the clinching “Dad?!” from Warhawk as he looks at Green Lantern, who then looks like he just saw Future Shayera in the shower. It was a great ending and created a session of out loud “I gotta wait a week to see the conclusion!?” cursing. Perhaps the most debated part of this ending was the reappearance of the Return of the Joker Jokerz gang; Bonk died on-screen (in both versions of the film, though one more graphic than the other) in the movie, while everyone else seemed to simply get taken away by the cops. One other thing to point out is Woof’s mechanical arms; definitely not on the original model and Chucko’s new look (different color shirt and is now carrying some sort of round object, similar to Ghoul’s pumpkin bucket), all suggest that the gang may be different. If they aren’t, I refuse to believe that one of the story writers of Return of the Joker and producers of Justice League Unlimited simply glazed over Bonk’s death or forgot; the gangs there for a reason that will have to wait for another week to find out. It’s sort of sad that all of the work that was put into the first twenty plus minutes of this episode are overshadowed by the ten second closer, but it’s to be expected. People have been hungry for more Batman Beyond and now that we’ve got him again, it’s gonna be hard to let go.

That was, bar-none, the most mind-twisting and blowing DCAU episode I’ve seen. It’s not that it was “crazy” or “kooky” or all together “spooky,” but trying to get everything straight with the Matrix code flying across the bat-computer screen and Bruce spouting off stuff about the “space time continuum”…just…ouchie. Confusing nature aside (and that will pass upon a few more viewings, I’m sure), this episode was pretty much what I expected it to be; not in plot points and twists, but just in that we’d get a fun romp through future Gotham City. I’ll be damned if it didn’t seem like time flew while watching it this though; commercial breaks came as soon as they ended and I had a goofy grin on my face the entire time, seeing the Jokerz back and Terry cracking one liners again…it was really was one of the biggest fan-moments I’ve had while watching Unlimited. The story itself, as previously mentioned, was quite the confusing experience. The first time I watched it I was just entertained by everything; by the second time I finally got a grasp on why Hal Jordan was appearing (other than to make everyone’s eyes bug out) and why everyone started to disappear. In the end, this trip to the future also ended up being an “alternate” trip to the future, as in the end everything was switched back to normal, albeit with Batman and Green Lantern only remembering what went on and Chronos stuck in a constant loop with his wife’s abusive language constantly recycling. D.R. Movie Co. threw in some new effects on the future Batman’s jet boots; instead of dissipating right away, they left swirly trails; though you only saw this once it was a great bit of animation. The city looked as dark and futuristic as ever and the Jokerz new designs were great as well. Chucko on a rolling ball, Bonk with a massive mallet, multiplying Dee Dee’s, a mechanical arm-enhanced Woof and a spinning saw blade on Ghoul. Anyone who didn’t get flash backs to Batman Beyond’s “April Moon” episode must’ve been delirious; then again, Chronos said he traveled into the future to get those upgrades, so either the doctor in “April Moon” didn’t exist yet or…ah hell I’m getting confused again. Regardless, it makes me long for more of Batman Beyond…but I’m sure I’ve said that enough by now.

Static was enjoyable as well; I never was one to watch the show much, sans the special appearances of other DCAU heroes, but an adult Static is definitely who I prefer. He’s got the wit of Flash and the strength of John Stewart and it was great to see the two interact as “old friends.” Warhawk’s “I’m shocked! Shocked! Well not that shocked…” revelation that he is Shayera and John’s kid and that they may have even gotten married (“Stewart” is his last name; he was named “Rex” after Green Lantern’s childhood friend, Rex Mason / Metamorpho) was nice to see extended upon. Even if we didn’t get much (due to the three Batman’s interrupting) else out of the two, it was fun to see where things progressed (and the look that John gives Shayera at the end of the show). The undisputed and best moment of the episode, however, was the scene with Bruce/Batman/Batman—we get the wise and old Wayne saying hello to his younger self and them both telling Terry to shut up in which Terry emits a “What’d they used to call it? Stereo?” quip. It was the things endless fan fictions are made of where the past meets future… I enjoyed this episode much more than part one; animation was awesome, music fit well with every scene and the characters were all handled nicely, even if there was an over abundance of them. Some may trash McDuffie’s writing, but I’ve enjoyed nearly everything he’s written on Justice League and Justice League Unlimited and this was certainly no exception.

Create sci-fi characters with this dress-up game inspired by the Star Wars movies, mostly the original trilogy with Luke, Leia and Han, and also with many items inspired by Padme, Anakin and Obi-wan. There are four themes in the game to approximate outfits from the show, and create new ones: Jedi martial artist, rebel, queen or princess, and slave. Complete her look with weapons, other types of accessories, body customization and a wide hair section. Also, to make the weapons brighter and the image altogether more dramatic, you can play around with the darkness setting!

This game inspired by the Star Wars saga lets you dress up a male counterpart to the original Sci-fi Warrior! Although the woman has more diverse clothes and some alien features, the man is more narrowly focused on the clothing style of Jedi and Siths (and restricted to humans). The religion of the Jedi, and this is reflected in their fashion style, is itself inspired by the Eastern martial arts and monastic orders such as the Shaolin monks, which combine a deep commitment to a spiritual path with the lifelong study of self-defense. While Jedi and Siths alike are warriors trained in combat, the difference between them is their power source: while Siths align with forces of destruction, and derive power from intense emotions especially anger and hatred, the Jedi curb their emotions and do not feel hatred for their enemy. The genius of this philosophy is that it holds the key to ending the cycle of violence: self-defense against an enemy who is not hated.

#Star Of The Universe

[cetacian]

The Fall and Rise of Orca: Monster Mash Team-Up in Gotham City Monsters Vol 1 Issues #1-6

Warning: child murder, brief mention of animal sacrifice

                                        Under Cut for Length

After Nightwing Vol 4, Prime Earth’s Orca would end up back in Gotham’s waters, though when exactly these stories take place with regard to any kind of timeline for her is anyone’s guess. The timeframe we do get for Gotham City Monsters is it takes place after the events that created Monstertown in the storyline “Night of the Monster Men” and during the events of the City of Bane arc.

Several of the future members of the team found themselves in and around the section of Gotham City known as Monstertown, each with their own personal issues and agendas. Orca, meanwhile, stalked Gotham Harbor in pursuit of a boat carrying illicit cargo to Bane at Arkham Asylum. She soon managed to destroy the ship, taking one crew member captive as the other dissipated back into living clay, later revealed to be an extension of Lady Clay (Sondra Fuller) in order to experience more of the world to make herself feel more perfect:

In the meantime, future team leader Frankenstein narrated about Orca’s current activities and her desire to make herself seem more respectable to her young nephew, who she hadn’t yet met in person:

In the first issue, Orca refers to her nephew as Daniel, but later issues will refer to him as Jonah. It seems likely that he changed names because writer Steve Orlando seemingly couldn’t pass up the obvious joke. 

In the meantime, the immortal magic user Melmoth The Wanderer staged what at first seems like a play within the Magnus Theater, trapping the building’s guardian ghost the Red Phantom (Michael Drown) inside a magical mirror to prevent his interference. Soon enough, Melmoth and his Martian Mandrill minions performed a dark magical rite that claimed the lives of all inside the theater’s auditorium, among them Orca’s nephew Jonah, Killer Croc’(Waylon Jones)’s friend Tusk and another of Lady Clay’s humanoid extensions of herself (something that was traumatic for her as it was akin to part of her soul dying):

Frankenstein, the vampire Andrew Bennett and the freed Red Phantom confronted Melmoth in the theater, who claimed to require sacrifices in order to perform a ritual that would save the Multiverse from destruction. As Melmoth escaped, Frankenstein realized he would need to gather a team of those who had connections to the victims in the theater in order to prevent more deaths. Red Phantom agreed to join him, though Andrew set off on an ill-fated mission to kill Melmoth alone. Frankenstein sought out Lady Clay first.

In Orca’s underwater cavern lair, she tied up her captive, explaining her motives and preparing to kill him. However, she soon became distracted by a news radio announcement about the explosion from the Magnus Theater and the voice of her sister Charity asking for assistance in finding her missing son. Her captive took this opportunity to cut himself loose. Orca broke down when it was revealed that her nephew was dead, unaware that her captive was attempting a sneak attack, only stopped by the good timing of Frankenstein’s sword, as he arrived to offer her vengeance as part of the newly forming team:

The team sought out their next member, Killer Croc, to inform him of his friend Tusk’s death and offer him a place on the team, though he was reluctant to join for personal reasons and due to distrust of Frankenstein, who had been created in part by use of Melmoth’s blood. Orca’s kind words changed Croc’s mind about joining and the team were soon on their way:

Orca mentions having a terrible disease that she was cured of by becoming a hybrid, which seems very different from being paraplegic due to an accident in the case of the New Earth version of the character. However, the miniseries never elaborates any further on her backstory.

The team headed to the Gotham Zoo, but were unable to prevent Melmoth from killing two night watchman, a python and the eggs inside her. However, they gained Andrew Bennett as their sixth member, realizing his previous folly which resulted in him being briefly mind controlled by Melmoth’s blood. Requiring a seventh member, they found Batwoman riding through Monstertown, with Orca being none to subtle in her method of getting her attention:

This action lead into a brief battle with Batwoman, with Croc aiding Orca before Frankenstein stepped in to break up the fight:

Croc stepping in help Orca because she was kind to him is very touching and it makes sense that another version of the characters would end up as a couple in the Injustice 2 comic series (which I’ll cover in a later post).

After explaining the situation to Batwoman and inoculating Andrew against Memoth’s influence via Frankenstein’s blood, the team set out to stop Melmoth’s next sacrifice, but failed in the attempt. A brief distraction from the Monster League of Evil forced the team to pick up Melmoth’s trail as they carefully made their way through Bane’s Gotham:

Orca KOing a mummy is awesome and I almost wish the Monster League of Evil were the book’s main villains. Maybe a story for another time.

The team were soon lead to Melmoth’s final sacrifice site: Slaughter Swamp, where Melmoth was able to bring two potential sacrifices with Solomon Grundy then currently elsewhere. Though Melmoth was able to raise an undead horde of smaller Grundys from the swamp’s countless dead.

Orca and Croc expressed their distrust of Batwoman along the way, though she stressed that their willingness to grow as people was more important than past grudges:

There’s strong themes of redemption and life improvement throughout the miniseries and it’s good to see that happening with rogues and a member of the Bat Family instead of just the usual fistfights.

As Melmoth prepared to sacrifice his latest victims, revealing that he was fighting against Perpetua (creator of the Multiverse and responsible for its many Crises), the team arrived to stop him. Several members fought their way through the horde of Grundys as Frankenstein and Croc tried a ruse to wound Melmoth:

Lady Clay turning into gauntlets for Orca is yet another badass moment in this miniseries. In general ,the issues make good use of her shapeshifting powers.

Just as the team seemed to be getting overwhelmed by sheer numbers, the Red Phantom’s quick thinking and Frankenstein’s execution of the plan, severely damaged Melmoth’s body and allowed Red Phantom to capture his soul. This caused the Grundys to fall dead once more as Orca and Lady Clay went to untie the would-be victims:

There are a few humorous bits of levity in the book that work and this won’t be the last time someone mistakes an Orca for a shark.

In the aftermath, Orca visits her nephew’s grave, accompanied by Lady Clay and Red Phantom. Lady Clay offers her condolences as she and Red Phantom promise to lend aid whenever needed:

In the meantime, Croc took over as the manager of Tusk’s hotel, as Red Phantom went back to his theater, with Melmoth trapped within the same mirror Phantom had once been imprisoned in. The team then recovieneied at the Tomb of Gotham, the place where evil first infected the city, to make their vow that they would come together again to fight whatever other evils might threaten the city and the greater Multiverse:

Summery Thoughts: You can probably tell by my enthusiastic comments that this is my favorite storyline that Orca has been a part of. Her self loathing has actual consequences this time around, as it prevented her from being there to save her nephew. Some might considered his death fridging, but given how many characters are motivated by revenge in this story, I don’t think it counts. I’m just glad they remembered her family at all and I really wish writers would remember Terry, but I’m getting off topic. Having some of Gotham and DC’s more monstrous inhabitants on a hero team paved the way for books like Justice League Dark and expanded on worldbuilding with the area of Monstertown, as well as on character development and following up on past stories. This was also a great first outing for Red Phantom/Michael Drown and I hope the character shows up again at some point. I worry though because the Joker War arc saw the destruction of much of Monstertown, along with the rest of Gotham, and put characters like Croc back at square one, just when he was finally getting a chance to do something more interesting than being a sad, sewer-dwelling thug. I don’t want to end this on a downer though, so I’m just going to hope that we’ll see more of the Gotham City Monsters somewhere down the road.

Up next, I’m going to talk about a couple of one-shots featuring Orca, before we head into a much darker universe.

#Landlubber (OOC) #Apex Predator (Muse Images) #Whalelore (About The Muse) #orca #grace balin #gotham city monsters #dc comics #steve orlando #tw child murder #tw animal death mention