Aging heroes and lost opportunities
gigigalaxie wrote a lovely touching farewell to the Crossgen universe in Goobye Beautiful Day.
hl_springfever has posted its master list, containing two Rebecca Horne stories. My other favorite is "Five things that never happened to Adam Pyersson", the quirky AU about Methos in 12th century England. (One of my old plotbunnies had Methos showing up in Shrewsbury to meet a certain rare Benedictine.)
I picked up my batch of new comics today, including Astonishing X-men #2 and the Global Frequency trade I'd ordered. I also found "JLA: Another Nail", an interesting Elseworlds by the old "Outsiders" artist Alan Davis. (My Batwoman icon comes from the second issue.) "Holy Terror" is still one of my favorite Batman Elseworlds with him in a world where Cromwell's Protectorate survived his death.
David Yurkovich wrote Why Don't Heroes Age?, which basically ignores JSA characters. Granted some have aged and others haven't, but it's still one of the best examples of seeing the "old guard" around. If anything the trend with Marvel seems to de-age them turning them back to teenagers for their Ultimate verse.
I'm also finding some older comics to download and mull over. I recently found "America vs the Justice Society", an old DC mini-series from the pre-Crisis days. In this verse, Batman married Selina Kyle and had a daughter, Helena, who became Huntress. (Interestingly, Bruce never knew his daughter took up the cowl.) He became Police Commissioner and then was killed in one last battle as Batman. The "America verus" mini's plot point was that Bruce left behind a diary condemning his JSA comrades as Nazi spies and worse. The JSA find themselves in front of a tribunal trying to clear their name by recounting their history. At the end, Helena reveals one last secret: Bruce Wayne was dying of cancer. He might not have lived the year, if he hadn't been killed first. That struck me as an odd plotbunny. (Odd, because I don't write Batfic!) In some ways it might make a stronger story than the "last battle" send-off. Batman was always a normal person in a costume. An extremely well trained athlete and keen mind, but he was still above all human. It would be the cruelest irony. All the super villains in the world couldn't kill the Dark Knight, but cancer could. Wonder if anyone did an Elseworlds where Bruce and his mother died that fateful night and a vengeful Thomas Wayne stalks Gotham...
hl_springfever has posted its master list, containing two Rebecca Horne stories. My other favorite is "Five things that never happened to Adam Pyersson", the quirky AU about Methos in 12th century England. (One of my old plotbunnies had Methos showing up in Shrewsbury to meet a certain rare Benedictine.)
I picked up my batch of new comics today, including Astonishing X-men #2 and the Global Frequency trade I'd ordered. I also found "JLA: Another Nail", an interesting Elseworlds by the old "Outsiders" artist Alan Davis. (My Batwoman icon comes from the second issue.) "Holy Terror" is still one of my favorite Batman Elseworlds with him in a world where Cromwell's Protectorate survived his death.
David Yurkovich wrote Why Don't Heroes Age?, which basically ignores JSA characters. Granted some have aged and others haven't, but it's still one of the best examples of seeing the "old guard" around. If anything the trend with Marvel seems to de-age them turning them back to teenagers for their Ultimate verse.
I'm also finding some older comics to download and mull over. I recently found "America vs the Justice Society", an old DC mini-series from the pre-Crisis days. In this verse, Batman married Selina Kyle and had a daughter, Helena, who became Huntress. (Interestingly, Bruce never knew his daughter took up the cowl.) He became Police Commissioner and then was killed in one last battle as Batman. The "America verus" mini's plot point was that Bruce left behind a diary condemning his JSA comrades as Nazi spies and worse. The JSA find themselves in front of a tribunal trying to clear their name by recounting their history. At the end, Helena reveals one last secret: Bruce Wayne was dying of cancer. He might not have lived the year, if he hadn't been killed first. That struck me as an odd plotbunny. (Odd, because I don't write Batfic!) In some ways it might make a stronger story than the "last battle" send-off. Batman was always a normal person in a costume. An extremely well trained athlete and keen mind, but he was still above all human. It would be the cruelest irony. All the super villains in the world couldn't kill the Dark Knight, but cancer could. Wonder if anyone did an Elseworlds where Bruce and his mother died that fateful night and a vengeful Thomas Wayne stalks Gotham...