"And they all lived happily ever after": (Re-) Reading the Pre-Flashpoint DCU

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

I wonder if the previous run of Legion of Super-Heroes should be considered part of the post-Flashpoint DC. Which would mean the last big Legion story in the old continuity was Legion of 3 Worlds.

[chastmastr]

Re the

Legion of Super-Heroes: I think I'd cut LSH off at the end of the run with the sacrifice of Earth-Man. That gives the whole thing a nice round conclusion, having one of their former enemies gradually "see the light" and do that, which brings the reintro of the Legion around full circle. However, I'd put the Adventure Comics Legion Academy stuff (starting with #523) in with the pre/post-Flashpoint stuff since that really seems to be setting the stage for the later storylines and is a good jumping-on point anyway.

As a side note, by the way, did you know that Earth-Man's name, Kirt Niedrigh, is an anagram for "rigid thinker"? :)

[Ian Pressman]

How is green lantern continuing from pre flashpoint? In blackest night it showed Hal was friends with martian manhunter for years and in the one year later story a different version of the justice league shows up. However in the new universe there was only 1 JL (the big 6 + cyborg) and Hal only knew j'onn j'onzz briefly and it ended in a battle. So unless the green lantern title is taking place in the future or in an alternate reality it's not continuing from pre flashpoint.

Justice League is set five years in the past, as I understand it.

[chastmastr]

Aquaman: Hoo boy. Poor Arthur. Just looking over the Wikipedia article I realized just how many seemingly-random changes the poor guy had been through the last few years. (The Adventures of Quasi-Lovecraftian Octopus Man! "To me, Topo! I want to make sweet, sweet love to you!" Ew, never mind, bleach that out of your brain...) At any rate, by the end of Brightest Day, Arthur/Orin has come back to life, he and Mera are together, etc., a new Aqualad has been introduced, so they're OK.

(Honestly, I think part of the problem with keeping Aquaman in print is not that he's lame at all, but that Underwater Books Aren't Trendy Right Now. Other than nature or reality shows, there haven't been too many recent popular television series like the 1960s Sea Hunt, Flipper, etc. On the other hand, reality/nature shows about the ocean, interesting things that live in its blackest depths, and especially shows like Deadliest Catch are really selling right now, so if I were doing Aquaman, I'd try to tie it in to themes like that rather than making him a slightly rude badass, which may not last in the new 52 forever. I miss the "can indeed talk with sealife" aspect. Oh, and not to mention, but concerns about the oceans and such are still going on--it doesn't have to be totally preachy but with things like the BP spill, the garbage vortex, etc. in the news, there could certainly be some contemporary relevance to his world...)

[chastmastr]

How is green lantern continuing from pre flashpoint? In blackest night it showed Hal was friends with martian manhunter for years and in the one year later story a different version of the justice league shows up. However in the new universe there was only 1 JL (the big 6 + cyborg) and Hal only knew j'onn j'onzz briefly and it ended in a battle. So unless the green lantern title is taking place in the future or in an alternate reality it's not continuing from pre flashpoint.

And unfortunately, while Blackest Night was pre-Flashpoint, we don't really know how it all played out in the new 52. Some version of it happened, I am sure, but a version which didn't involve J'Onn being friends with Hal (or, possibly, with anyone, sigh. Poor J'Onn!), or Superman being married to Lois, or... er... anything involving the Dibnys (I'm guessing there was no Identity Crisis in this continuity either), etc. It's kind of like One More Day, only with everyone in the DC Universe, so the stories from the last couple of years that DC editorial wants to have happened, happened, somehow, but we don't really know how yet and they don't seem inclined to bother to tell us.

Personally, I think this was a ghastly mistake, but I don't want to drag this thread off into that tangent, not least of which because there are dozens of threads and hundreds of pages here about what people don't like about the new 52 and/or Flashpoint.

Since you do mention J'Onn, however, I will happily move on to

Martian Manhunter: Doing just fine at end of Brightest Day. (Well, that was short and sweet.*) :) And, presumably, still a lover of creme-filled chocolate cookies*--so there!

* The cookies are also sweet.

[maximiliani]

Oh god don't get me started on Stephanie Brown Batgirl and the reboot. They easily could have had her give the mantle back to Barbara in a Post Flashpoint where she was DICK'S Batgirl/pupil and NOT Barbara's for 9 months the same time Dick was Batman, that its Stephanie who hands Barbara the box of her Batgirl costume at the airport of Barbara returning to the US and then Stephanie goes off with Cassandra to a secret INC mission but NOPE they've probably waved her whole tenure away and dropped her cold turkey as Gail Simone called it "Waiting for the smell to wear off".

[chastmastr]

Stephanie Brown: would be way down on my list (right now I'm working my way through the Justice League in order of joining), but yes, she too got a pretty good sendoff from what I can tell, and I need to pick that up also because it sounds awesome: "During her final" [published pre-Flashpoint, that is, not retiring or dying or anything] "adventure as Batgirl, Stephanie confronts her father and is ensnared by a sample of Black Mercy. Stephanie experiences a number of future events, including a time-travelling adventure with Cassandra and Barbara, the Royal Flush Gang attacking her at her college graduation, and eventually training the new Batgirl, an African American girl named Nell. She ultimately breaks free from from the Black Mercy and confides in Barbara that despite the wonderful things she experienced while in the fantasy world, she preferred to live in the here and now."