Too many Special Forces?

[jertz666]

From the thread title, I thought the OP meant the elemental forces that operate in the DC Universe:

The most well known is the Green which govern all plant life and is watched over by the Parliament of Trees. Characters like the Swamp Thing and to a lesser extent, Poison Ivy, have strong connections to the Green.

The Red has domain over all animal life and is led by the Parliament of the Limbs. Animal Man, Vixen and Beast Boy all have connections to the Red.

The Clear or the Blue have dominion over all aquatic life. Not much is known about this but I think they're led by the Parliament of the Waves. Aquaman has a tenuous link to the Clear.

Then we have the Grey, which is connected to all fungal life. No known parliament.

We also have the Rot with its connection to death and decay ... led by the Parliament of Decay.

I got all this from this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcIcqfsGP9o

I believe there are other elemental forces not mentioned in the video but I'm too lazy to look them up.

[Jon Clark]

The "forces" to me are like meta-genetics: good idea taken way too far and then handled too simplisticly.

Having an explanation for Wally's powers was good and I applaud Mark Waid for this part of the Speed Force. Tying it into Barry retroactively wasn't a bad idea and did sort of make the idea of Wally's identical origen more plausible. And having Max Mercury tied to it gave us a guide and a wonderful mentor for Bart. Had it stopped there I'd have been happy. Tying in the Quicks was a bridge too far, in my opinion. Not every character needs to be connected just because they have similar powers. And when we get to the Speed Force having any affiliation with Wonder Woman/Olympus, Superman, or the New Gods you've gone too far.


The same goes for taking the basic idea of magical super-science rings and expanding it to Seven Universal Color Coded Emotional Forces. I'm sure even on Earth there are cultures that don't equate yellow with fear or red with rage … let alone trying to make it apply to every alien race.

I miss the days when a Batman writer might come up with some idea that transformed how we looked at Batman's corner of the DCU and not ideas that apply to the entire DCU multiverse as a whole. When Flash writers worked on Barry and Wally's immediate environment and not defining universal forces that include Superman and Wonder Woman.