Future State: Suicide Squad #1

[lordultimus]

Comments

[thanekos]

The last of the Lords of Chaos - Vandal Savage, Teekl, the Child, and Dove, because Mordru tripped and fell down a hole or something.

[thezmage]

I mean it's been hundreds of thousands of years since we last saw him. Things can happen

[mastermahan]

How great would it have been if, 80,000 years later, Klarion had finally become... the Witch Teen.

But sure, Teekl ate him, gotta go all edgy if you want a fanfic about how awesome Black Adam is.

[cainofdreaming]

Pfft. Like being eaten is any hindrance to Klarion... Bum, Bum, Bum... The Witch Boy.

[shadowpsykie]

ok so Envy is Myxy... Pride is.... a broken backed Mary? and Pride is Edward.

[scorntx]

No, that's just how the SDS have looked since the New 52.

[fourds]

I think Greed might be a Mxy/Luthor cross.

[beyondthefringe]

Envy looks like the Riddler, and Sloth looks like Humpty Dumpty (the Bat villain)...

[cainofdreaming]

Just going by the shape of the head Wrath might be Darkseid.

[sabertoothlotus]

I think it's supposed to be Doomsday given the text on preceding pages...?

[blueprintstyles]

I'm happy Superboy-Prime did a face turn, even in a good story his schtick was old and convoluted.

[beyondthefringe]

This is just original flavor Superman of the mainstream universe... in DC One Million, which this story draws from as a sequel, Clark’s just been around for 853 centuries or so. He’s Prime because of the long legacy he inspired.

[silverhammerman]

Having seen these pages floating around since Tuesday, I feel like this is so wrongheaded that it's not even worth getting upset about. I mean seriously, jobbing out Superman Prime, Morrison's big statement on the Superman Dynasty, the big happy ending of DC One Million, to put over a villain for fucking Black Adam? It's too stupid to be offensive.

[strejdaking]

It doesn't stop there-see, JL Alpha only finds out about him because Wonder Woman One Million has been Adam's secret girlfriend that he got pregnant and they are all in awe how eons ahead of anything they know Kahgad is, because in impossible superhero utopia, Adam built a super mega utopia that makes everything else look like shit.

[silicondream]

Personally, I'm fine with Superman Prime being beaten. His powers were never clearly defined, and there was no reason to think he was the mightiest member of the Dynasty. His role was mostly to be a resource for his descendants, gifting them both power and inspiration. And let's not forget that he almost died from a chunk of Kryptonite! It was Supes One Million who was doing the crazy stuff like deflecting a galaxy with his force vision.

What I don't like is how everyone else in this story reacts. I feel like a big point in DC One Million is that Superman's mission had succeeded; he nurtured humanity for long enough that they caught up to his level and didn't really need him on active duty anymore. There are multiple, ridiculously powerful Justice Legions protecting everything, the average human has the powers of a 20th-century superhero and uses pocket dimensions for housing. People have freedom and agency beyond imagining. DC1M wasn't about Superman Prime saving the world; it was about the world saving him and then throwing him the best birthday party ever, because thanks to his stewardship they could afford to.

But all that is erased here. Prime gets defeated and the entire universe immediately goes "Oh no, he was our strongest, we're hopeless and helpless, chaos and despair!" Characters kill themselves because Superman lost a fight. That, more than anything, nullifies his legacy.

[lordultimus]

Wasn't the Knight Fragment revealed to have been replaced with a Green Lantern ring at some point in the 80,000 years, meaning that Prime was never in any danger after all?

Anyway, I find it rather disingenuous to have the guy who's stated list of feats include "emptied Hell of all its demons" to be killed by some demons.

[silicondream]

To #1. yeah, but the time-traveling Leaguers and Superman 1M didn't know that, and they all seemed to believe that Prime would die if he got poisoned.

To #2, I'm sure there are good ways to write it--a Vertigoish view might be that Hell is just bigger than Superman can imagine, and he only liberated the part that was revealed to him. Or maybe the demons regroup and get their revenge by exploiting his benevolence and self-restraint, which is the usual way Superman takes a loss. Or something.

Not holding high hopes that any of that will happen here, though.

[mastermahan]

When did Grant Morrison become the creator whose work DC strip-mines for content with no understanding of the deeper meaning? I thought that was Alan Moore's position.

[scorntx]

Guess they exhausted their supply of Alan Moore ideas.
...
... no, wait, that's clearly impossible.

[zachbeacon]

...especially when this entire event is such an obvious DC 1 Million copy.

[strejdaking]

This story was seriously the most fanfic jerking off I've seen since Sentry: Fallen Sun.

I know it's probably impossible to only pick four pages from this story and have it work, but I wish you could show more of this, it's almost hilarious how cheaply and lazily it throws the whole DC One Million setting under the bus just to show how awesome Black Adam is. It's far more nihilistic and cynical than any of the Snyder movies.

[repto]

Wasn't it Morrison who said something like if you break a toy, you should put two more toys back in the toy box? I wish more writers would think about that.

[jaxjyls]

Can't decide if I'm mad or tired about this

[juniper6]

I’m choosing to believe it does not exist. I find that works very well with DC’s continuity problems. Kind of a cafeteria approach.

[zachbeacon]

I wanted to dunk on Savage because, well, he's just terrible but I got distracted by all the other idiocy.

[scorntx]

You may dunk, but he's the most sensibly dressed person there.

[zachbeacon]

Of course he is. In the 1920s he went by the name "Coco Chanel". No one noticed he was a man because he is a master of disguise in addition to being a great leader, brilliant tactician, master fighter, and all those other skills we're told he has that never get displayed in the present day.

[sabertoothlotus]

This looks terrible, but I just want to say that I appreciate Lust not being depicted as a mostly naked woman with giant tits, for once.