Star City- The Heroes of Tomorrow OOC

[ChasNicollette]

Hey, Lunar, you know something funny?

We both named streets after Mark Waid, one in Star and one in Keystone.

That's cool, though, he can have two roads.

He got me hooked on comics, after all.

 

[ChasNicollette]

He BUILT Wally.

The issue that roped me in-- I don't remember the number--

--Wally was dangling from a bridge and/or a helicopter on the cover, and in the book, Wally had to use The Quicks' Speed Formula to super-accelerate him to prevent a helicopter from crashing into a bridge.

Except it stuck him in time so that everything around him seemed to be frozen.

Eventually, after a conversation with Max Mercury, who was fast enough to keep up with him in that nowhere place if only temporarily, Wally realized that he was keeping himself locked in that gear because he was afraid to let anyone die.

He still managed to figure out a way to stop the bad guys and keep the chopper from crashing, the bright lad.

Wally will always be my Flash, first and foremost. My Fastest Man Alive.

But Barry was a god to Wally, so Barry is a god to me.

 

[ChasNicollette]

I remember that

Barry IS a god. He is the perfect hero and legend.
But Wally is mine.
He's the Speed Force.
He took what Barry began and made the legend real..

One of the greatest sins and tragedies of this "New 52" business is marginalizing Wally's existence.

Not that Bart isn't a great Kid Flash.

 

[ChasNicollette]

"Dial H" was good.

And "Resurrection Man."

But both of those were swiftly cancelled, so I must just be a cranky old lady out of tune with the zeitgeist.

 

[ChasNicollette]

61 titles have been cancelled in all.

And over a dozen more coming up in March to set up for "Convergence."

...which does, I have to admit, give me a shred of hope.

 

[ChasNicollette]

I've been burned too much.
I really think that DC is now run strictly by marketing people who have never read a comic book.

Accurate assessment is accurate.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Srsly.
The very fact that there's a site
hasdcdonesomethingstupidtoday.com
*sigh*

Heeheehee, ah, Schadenfreude.

 

[ChasNicollette]

THE ONLY REASON

THE NEW 52 EXISTS

IN-UNIVERSE

IS BECAUSE THEY KILLED NORA ALLEN

THEY TOOK A CHARACTER THAT HAD ALWAYS BEEN ALIVE

AND RETCONNED HER DEAD

SO BARRY COULD HAVE A MYSTERIOUS TRAGIC PAST TO UNDO

THEY TORE APART ONE OF THE VERY FEW SUPERHERO FAMILIES TO STILL HAVE HAPPILY MARRIED LIVING BIOLOGICAL PARENTS

JAILING HENRY

AND FUCKING FRIDGING NORA

SO THEY COULD HAVE A FIXED EVENT TO PARADOX

THE ONLY REASON FLASHPOINT HAPPENED IS BECAUSE THEY KILLED A WOMAN

WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO LOSES HER SHIT OVER THIS

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/2013/12/hulksmash.gif​

 

[ChasNicollette]

In Post-Crisis mythology (possibly Pre-Crisis as well), Barry Allen was always depicted as having both parents, Henry and Nora, still alive and happily married.

To set off "Flashpoint," writer Geoff Johns decides that Nora will actually have been dead all this time, and Henry jailed for her murder, so that Barry will have a defining tragedy to always wonder about. Barry later discovers that Nora was murdered by a time-traveling Eobard "Zoom" Thawne, and goes back in time to rectify it. Stopping Zoom results in a new timeline where everything is awful, Atlantis is at war with Themyscira, Bruce Wayne died in that alley, and Barry Allen has no powers.

This was the whole "Flashpoint" event.

Getting his powers back and attempting to again set events back on the right path, Barry returns to a new, consolidated timeline that includes figures from Vertigo and Wildstorm: The New 52.

Thus, The New 52 exists only because they fridged The Flash's mom, in the truest sense of being fridged: a female character's being killed just to give the male main character a tragedy to overcome.

 

[ChasNicollette]

(I think I basically stopped reading DC after Final Crisis...which was spawned from Identity Crisis...which all happened because one woman killed another women as part of a plot to get a man back...so...you know...)

Yeah, a lot of people look to Identity Crisis as the point in which it all started going wrong in The "Old" 52.

I still think they could have recovered without scrapping it, but I'm sentimental.

 

[ChasNicollette]

And the minds at DC can't figure out why they can't seem to pick up more girl/woman readers.
Jesus
Fucking
Christ.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Now-- even I can sit back and realize-- if you're going to make a character a sacrificial lamb like this-- maybe-- maybe you can do that if the story is good enough. If the story is worth it.

I would say that "Flashpoint" was a good enough story on its own. Yes. Maybe it was worth it to fridge Nora for some of the cool stuff that happened in that weird alternate world.

(I would also say that "The Flash" TV series, which borrows heavily from the set-up for "Flashpoint," also makes Nora's sacrifice worth it, because it's such a damn good story so far.)

But the broken miasma of half-thought-out storylines and half-baked characters that populate The New 52 coming out of the comics' Flashpoint makes it *not* worth it. It was not worth losing Nora to a murderous retroactive-continuity handwave in order to create this brave new world. Because it *sucks.*

 

[ChasNicollette]

Exactly. Then again, the 52 makes me feel badly about comics in general. Its one of the reasons I read mostly Marvel these days. Whenever I pick up something from 52, it makes me sad (though I'll admit, I loved the idea of the young superman being so anti-establishment and all...like the REALLY old days).
And they screw up even the littlest things...
WHY THE FUCK DOES ORION OF NEW GENESIS (and Apokolips) USE COMPLETELY COLLOQUIAL ENGLISH???

Because people can pay a Helluva lot of lip service to Jack Kirby without actually taking the time to know what he was about.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Hey Vail.

I did a thing.

Sorry it's so awkward.

 

[ChasNicollette]

First posts, in a situation like this, are like first episodes after a hiatus.
They have a job, get the reader/viewer caught up, and get the story going again.
They are 'worker' posts.

Yeah, I know.

I just feel like I could make it less clumsy, you know? That's what's been taking so long, really, is smoothing the clumsy.

But I still feel like I coulda done better.

 

[ChasNicollette]

I know the feeling.
"How do I get caught up, create the new situation, and kickstart everything without making it feel like a poli-sci text with exposition". Happens to me every fucking time.
Luckily, you only have to do it once each time.
Then the rhythm comes back, and the story goes on.

What did you think, though? Did I do okay?

 

[ChasNicollette]

I'm sorry, I thought that was implicit!
Yes! I had forgotten how much fun the two of them could be!

Heh.

Thank you, dear. I get overwhelmed if people try to compliment me too much too fast, but a little validation here and there does wonders for a fragile mind.

I'm excited!

 

[ChasNicollette]

Pfft.
You know I always have been and always will be your biggest fan.

Pfft.

Likewise, you weirdo.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Your weirdo.

So's your face.

 

[ChasNicollette]

flounce

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Gonna catch up today. Sorry for the delay.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

I'll try and stay as up-to-date as I can with the story, but it might be another day or two before I can respond again.

If you want to move things along without me, feel free.

Ace and Jack are pretty much toast, leaving Ten, Queen and King left around.

 

[Lunaramblings]

Sorry been called in on my last 2 days off without pay. Got a free ps4 game for my troubles. Anyway. Have tomorrow off and am NOT working lol. I will be getting caught up tonight or tomorrow.

 

[ChasNicollette]

I'll try and stay as up-to-date as I can with the story, but it might be another day or two before I can respond again.

If you want to move things along without me, feel free.

Ace and Jack are pretty much toast, leaving Ten, Queen and King left around.

A day or two is fine.

I like having you keeping us guessing, and I wanna see what that card's supposed to do!

 

[ChasNicollette]

Sorry been called in on my last 2 days off without pay. Got a free ps4 game for my troubles. Anyway. Have tomorrow off and am NOT working lol. I will be getting caught up tonight or tomorrow.

Sorry about your struggles, dear.

What game did you get?

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

A day or two is fine.

I like having you keeping us guessing, and I wanna see what that card's supposed to do!

It could be a get out of jail free card.