One page from Underworld Unleashed (part 2)

[morgana006.insanejournal.com]

In the DC universe, Neron is the guy to go to if you want to sell your soul to the devil. You may know this, but he first turned up in this little cross-company-crossover (say that five times fast) called Underworld Unleashed, where he was collecting souls of all the supervillains of the DC universe in exchange for various stuff.

Some got powered up. Some gained back their youth. Some got to kill off a kindergarten.

Comments

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

If Circe is immortal, wouldn't selling her soul be a moot point since she's never going to die?

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

More to the point, she doesn't actually have a soul, she already gave it to Hecate. It's part of her origin. I mean, she could theoretically sell Hecatae's, but that would cut her power down to, like, half a percent of what it normally is and probably kill her under the terms of the original deal, so it seems unlikely she'd go for it.

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

Did they switch souls with each other? And if Hecate is dead, what happened to Circe's soul?

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

They did switch souls. It's not clear what happened to Hecate or Circe's soul - of all Perez' Claremont moments, the Circe thing was the worst - but Circe believes that Hecate will somehow return and take her soul back and that will be the end of Circe, which suggests that Circe's original soul is irrecoverable. It makes the most sense to assume it was simply destroyed.

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

If I ever write Wonder Woman, I'm doing a storyline where Circe hires Cheetah to get her soul back and Diana gets suckered in because it's a chance of redeeming/neutralizing Circe. Although you'd have to be careful. Having their respective fashion choices on the same page could cause cerebral hemorrhaging.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Actually I can see Circe making the deal with Neron "Vast power in exchange for my soul" and then revealing, after he'd accepted "You know of course that you'll need to collect my soul from Hecate rather than me, but thanks for the power, now I'm not tired to Hecate's situation, because you gave me powers free and clear."

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

Also, did getting rid of the Emerson personality make Polaris less complex?

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Hard to say, he was killed off not long thereafter IIRC

[lonewolf23k.insanejournal.com]

Actually, he developped an entirely different split personality before he was eventually killed off, then replaced by a new Polaris.

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

I know what Gail did with his abusive aunt, but that was only a three-issue storyline right before he was killed in Infinite Crisis.

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

Isn't Circe a demi-god? How exactly is she going to get more powerful?

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

Full god, actually. In Neron's weight class, certainly.

If I felt like acknowledging this bit of idiocy at all, I'd say that's not Circe, it's another echo like the illusion that fought Diana over Themyscira. Sort of the Doom-bot phenomenon. And Neron didn't care or expose her because her presence and agreement to the 'deal' gave him credibility with the other bargainers.

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

I'm confuzzled. If they needed a Wonder Woman baddie, wouldn't Cheetah have been a better choice? She at least has a flaw to get rid of and by making a big point of how powerful she is "now", you could stop ridiculousness like Wondy getting trounced by her one week and Robin knocking her around Gotham the next.

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

Cheetah was also used in the crossover, actually.

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

I'm scared to ask how.

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

Piss-poorly by Waid, very well by Byrne. (http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/138033.html)

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

Nice patch-job by Byrne (can you tell my teeth are gritted?), but damn, Waid, what a missed opportunity. That's like putting the Joker on the Suicide Squad instead of Harley Quinn or having Catwoman be a chairwoman in the Secret Society of Supervillains.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Only issue there was that if Luthor bargained for a new body, he'd have insisted it had a full head of red hair.

One of the funniest moments in the whole "Death of Superman" arc was Lex's disembodied brain checking up on the development of the "Lex Luthor Jnr" modifed clone body and getting all worked up making ABSOLUTELY sure that it would NOT have the early onset male pattern baldness problem that his original body had.

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

Are you sure that wasn't before the "Death of Superman" arc? I recall Alexander Luthor, Jr. being around when Superman was killed.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Oh he was, but I'm can't recall if the reveal that Alex was Lex in another body, and thus the explanation of how he came to be created, came before his gloating over the tomb of Superman or not.

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

*does some research*

It was revealed he was the original Luthor in Action Comics #678. That had the scene you mentioned.

http://www.supermanhomepage.com/comics/comics.php?topic=special-reports/lex-luthor2



(http://tinypic.com)

[mullon.insanejournal.com]

I doubt the quality of the Batman cookies.

[taggerung301.insanejournal.com]

Lol, oh god . . .
Joker selling his soul for cigars and a plate of batman cookies with their heads bitten off pretty much sums up his existance

[morgana006.insanejournal.com]

They're cubans!

[lonewolf23k.insanejournal.com]

Nah, he just sold his soul for the cigars. The cookies were free.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

That scan alas misses the other sick little treat in the scene; the Joker is drinking a cocktail from a small skull mug... which has a domino mask on, and the swizzle stick is a crowbar.

[lordmcdeath]

I submit that he sold his soul for a devil takes care of his own package. Any time someone tries to kill him, he's back on top shortly after. The cubans are sort of a gift basket to go along with the deal.

He might not realize it but that maybe what he got. If only because Neron has no desire for him to be in hell when he could be making things worse upon earth.