Multiversity - Mastermen

[history79]

Comments

[dcbanacek]

"LEATHERWING?" I know WHY they couldn't use "Der Fledermaus" but come on...

[reveen]

Pulling a "virtual paradise" where "people are content and life is easy" out of Naziism is quite the magic trick. Though I guess Overman Did It is as good an explanation as any.

[damar148]

I always found the concept of a victorious Nazi regime looking back at what it's done to be interesting, as while not to the same extreme degree it's not entirely unlike many modern nations who tend to overlook their very bloody pasts that involved the subjugation and extermination of entire groups.

[althechi]

"Underseaman" might be better given that submarines were called "Underseaboats" (ergo U-boats), but then again Morrison might not have wanted to call Aquaman "under se(a)men" repeatedly in the comic in case puerile people were reading it.

[crinos]

"In case"? You mean there would be a scenario where puerile people WEREN'T reading?

[nyadnar17]

Its actually not. Most of the problems we have today are caused by the differences. If you kill everyone who doesn't look like you, think like you, and have sex like you 90% of your problems simply go away.

[captainbellman]

Yes. For like, two seconds, tops.

Your statement is analogous to saying that removing all the dandelions in a garden will make it pretty forever. Inevitably, more dandelion seeds will blow in there and start growing.

Even if Hitler had won, that would not have stopped any more people from realising they were gay, or prevented any non-Aryan genes from being expressed.

To put it simply: "Life will, uh, find a way."

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

Most problems we have today are caused by economic reasons, and saying "it's the fault of those people who don't look like you, think like you, or have sex like you" is a way for people to deal with those problems or to distract them from those problems. If you kill everyone who's different, you'll just need to find more differences.

[reveen]

Two problems with that.

1. Kill everyone how? The Nazis managed to decimate some highly marginalized minority groups in one general region of the world, when they had all the advantages to do so at their leisure. Do you really think they will be able to repeat the process with the hundreds of ethnic groups still present that they would have a hate-boner for? The Nazis were well on their way to generations of brutal guerrilla warfare with the slavic peoples in their Lebensraum plans. Not even getting into the multiple continents worth of other "inferior" groups for them to try and fail to kill or enslave.

2. Assuming Naziism doesn't mellow out or become more pragmatic, they would always find some other group to hate. The Aryan superman is an impossible standard that will always morph to accommodate more inferiors.

[thereddouglas]

Well, "Leatherwing" sounds more menacing than, "Fluttermouse". :p

Not sure how 'Flügel Leder' would sound, but German sounds even less menacing using actual German pronunciation despite what movies have taught us.

[sagrada]

Darnit. This was even more or less the time when historically Superman was a fearless enemy of immoral and unethical authority, why would Morrison go the easy route and copy Red Son? Be so much more interesting if the Superman was an emblem of rebellion and freedom rather than paternalistic power in this universe.

Also the idea that the Nazis could rule the world in any way well is hilarious. While not bound to an economic system like the Communists nominally were, their autocratism and rampant cronyism poisoned them from the start. They only did as well as they did because they could distract people with an endless war against just about everyone else on Earth, once that goes or dies down, things would get a lot more complicated, and no amount of propaganda or speeches will be enough to keep people stupid forever.

[mrstatham]

There's something really kind-of creepy about Hitler being depicted in Jim Lee's style, based on the preview pages and the like.

[q99]

-1. Kill everyone how?-

Really. In order for these all-too-common 'Nazi victory' scenarios to happen, what they need is to be *handed* an advantage so big that any small country could conquer the world with the same advantage.

One thing I like about the comic Uber- Nazis get superhumans. It merely buys time and makes thing bloodier.

-2. Assuming Naziism doesn't mellow out or become more pragmatic, they would always find some other group to hate. The Aryan superman is an impossible standard that will always morph to accommodate more inferiors.-


Yes, it was fueled by scapegoats.

[leoboiko]

"Bat" in Old Norse is leðurblaka = leather-flap, leather-flutter. This leads into Batman's famous Icelandic name, Leðurblökumaðurinn ("The Leatherflappingman").

[icon_uk]

They did use a Fledermaus in "Young All Star's" villain team Axis Amerika, where he was the Nazi equivalent of Robin to their Grosshorn Eule Batman (in a bat/bird theme reversal)

[captainbellman]

Eh, if rumour is to be believed then Morrison mostly influenced Red Son rather than it being Millar's original idea, and the ending was entirely his. Heck, it even gets referenced here when Hitler's scientists believe Kal-El was rocketed from the future.

[sanctaphrax]

I wouldn't take a Nazi news report at face value if I were you. Most likely the world is a "virtual paradise" only in the eyes of the propagandists and their victims.

I haven't read the story, though. So maybe I'm wrong.

[sanctaphrax]

Nonsense. Nazi-like regimes are horrible even to the dominant class.

You really can't slaughter your way to a better world. Every attempt ever made has failed, and that's not just a coincidence.

[icon_uk]

But that's only the literal translation, not the term as it would be understood by a German speaker, to whom it would automatically means "bat"

[icon_uk]

Indeed, in fact the family pictured watching at home, mother, father (with pipe), two adorable kids and a puppy are a little TOO... Ozzie and Harriet.

[beardedjellybean]

And the first page is literally Hitler on the toilet, in the midst of diarrhea, while reading comic books.

[mrstatham]

This. Red Son was done around the period when Millar was mostly still under Morrison's wing, and you can tell through some of the dialogue and characterisation, to me. And the ending is so unlike anything else of Millar's that it couldn't be anyone but Morrison.

[mrstatham]

It's not that - I'm used to the idea of Hitler as a joke - but.. There's just something really, really off about Hitler in Lee's style, since Lee doesn't change his style for the character AT ALL. He's literally drawn the same as Lee might draw say, Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent, just with the appropriate haircut and toothbrush moustache.

[arilou_skiff]

1. Superman, or well, his nazi equivalent.

[beardedjellybean]

I totally agree, it is kind of disturbing that Hitler looks a little bit of how he draws two of the greatest heroes in comics. I'm just saying its not everyday you read a comic with Hitler taking a painful dump.

[junipepper]

There's a bit of meta-irony going on; the reader is meant to take the newscaster's characterization of things with a grain of salt.

I bet it is a virtual paradise....

[7dialsmystery]

...to the ruling class. Everyone else, except for the privileged few cronies of the Furer, it's probably pretty sh*tty.

[thereddouglas]

Oh sure, suck all the fun out of German's compound nouns! :'(

(Well technically they would understand that it means the hair, flying rodent that operates at night and wonder why anglophones name it after a piece of wood you use to hit things. :p )

Also I stole the Fluttermouse part from this:

http://www.babbel.com/magazine/funny-animal-names-in-german