Event Leviathan issue #5 Preview/(spoiler) discussion

[Superlad93]

Leviathan knew Superman was coming because Talia was using Clark as bait. The kryptonite vest would have been a problem for Superman, which is why Talia put it on Clark, but with it gone he could break the cuffs off Clark.

To me the big hint is that Leviathan lifts Clark up and is surprised at how heavy he is.

Too ambiguous, imo. And even if the person picking him up knows that Clark is Superman, that doesn't actually stop them from commenting on how heavy he is. That's just a natural reaction especially when Clark has gone limp, thus letting all of his weight go.

And it's not like other characters aren't aware of Clark being a big guy. Trish Q in Action 1001, without touching him, comments on how large Clark is.

Incidentally, this implies that Leviathan's suit has not augmentations in the way of physicality, and he has no innate super strength. That actually rules out Ramsay, thank goodness. Ramsay, as a totally unnecessary wiki search tells me, has super strength and durability. Don't know the deal with Mark, aka who-on-god's-green-earth-possibly-could-care, and on principle I refuse to wiki search him.

[K. Jones]

I think that I'm getting to know Bendis tropes and so that's neat. I think this is a well-written story, though. The clues that people have picked up on for other theories are good clues and good theories, and I think it's well-written because they're not at all what I thought. So I'll reveal what I was cagey about last month/last issue.

I was pretty sure that Leviathan was the Martian Manhunter. And I'm revealing that because frankly the reveal-build-up we got this issue was kind of "confirming it" in my mind as I read it, which contrasts pretty neatly with how that build-up of clues was giving everybody else's theories some status and weight as well. The Martian has a few things going for him theory-wise which I'll relate;

1. He's a Manhunter. He's just not the Manhunter you expect. But I've always at least in my own head linked him to the other Manhunters as far as legacy and wished somebody would do something like that. ("You're not the first Manhunter.")
2. He's a conspicuously missing Big DC Detective who could presumably just solve this whole thing a bit easier than even magicians and stretchy-men and Batman.
3. His origins stem in Detective Comics but he's a spacey character, thus being, if not a direct "Bridge character" between the Batman Cast and the Superman Cast, a pretty natural bridge between the Batman "Realm" and the Superman "Realm".
4. "This is not a mask."
5. "I know everything."
6. He's aware of the cosmic trial that just went down with Jor-El like one issue of Superman ago.

The catch is timing. J'onn is obviously rather off the table these days because of the events of Justice League, and while we know that he's not permanently going to be affixed to Apex Luthor and he'll probably be back in action before long, Event Leviathan definitely seems to be occurring in the relative DCU Present, while all the Dark Gifting and Offering is going on via Apex Lex with J'onn presumably off the table. And I realize J'onn doesn't tend to "speak with the voice of a young man" but he's also the shapeshifting ultimate master of acting. You can do whatever you want and have the Martian be the guy.

So that's where my head has been at. Notably, I guess, I still WANT Leviathan to be a split-personality Dick Grayson. Which would even explain Damian's sort of fascinations or putting together clues or chasing red herrings or clues about his perchance imitating or respecting the tactics. But even Damian or Future Damian claiming the LEVIATHAN iconography and using it to do better spy organizations can still be considered an homage to Dick Grayson.

I'm eager to find out for sure who it is, though. We've got Batman and Talia heading in, which is a lot like Mommy and Daddy coming to the rescue. We've had plenty of "Death in the Family" imagery implying that it could be a Robin. Those are some strong, strong theories that I really like. So we'll see. And it's a neat story angle.

Ultimately the mystery will be solved and I'm actually still just more excited about the aftermath and how the dust settles. Like, Leviathan did this hostile takeover move ... but do we think that "Leviathan" is going to be the future of DC spy stuff, with the evil demonic imagery and name and occult-henchmen style?

[Desmark]

It is one of the 3 Jokers but honestly I am close to not giving a **** who it turns out to be because the clumsy inept non existent detecting has taken me out of the story. At the moment the so called 'great' detectives are just chickens running with their heads cut off hoping that they stumble upon the truth somehow.

[marhawkman]

I think that I'm getting to know Bendis tropes and so that's neat. I think this is a well-written story, though. The clues that people have picked up on for other theories are good clues and good theories, and I think it's well-written because they're not at all what I thought. So I'll reveal what I was cagey about last month/last issue.

I was pretty sure that Leviathan was the Martian Manhunter. And I'm revealing that because frankly the reveal-build-up we got this issue was kind of "confirming it" in my mind as I read it, which contrasts pretty neatly with how that build-up of clues was giving everybody else's theories some status and weight as well. The Martian has a few things going for him theory-wise which I'll relate;

1. He's a Manhunter. He's just not the Manhunter you expect. But I've always at least in my own head linked him to the other Manhunters as far as legacy and wished somebody would do something like that. ("You're not the first Manhunter.")
2. He's a conspicuously missing Big DC Detective who could presumably just solve this whole thing a bit easier than even magicians and stretchy-men and Batman.
3. His origins stem in Detective Comics but he's a spacey character, thus being, if not a direct "Bridge character" between the Batman Cast and the Superman Cast, a pretty natural bridge between the Batman "Realm" and the Superman "Realm".
4. "This is not a mask."
5. "I know everything."
6. He's aware of the cosmic trial that just went down with Jor-El like one issue of Superman ago.

The catch is timing. J'onn is obviously rather off the table these days because of the events of Justice League, and while we know that he's not permanently going to be affixed to Apex Luthor and he'll probably be back in action before long, Event Leviathan definitely seems to be occurring in the relative DCU Present, while all the Dark Gifting and Offering is going on via Apex Lex with J'onn presumably off the table. And I realize J'onn doesn't tend to "speak with the voice of a young man" but he's also the shapeshifting ultimate master of acting. You can do whatever you want and have the Martian be the guy.

So that's where my head has been at. Notably, I guess, I still WANT Leviathan to be a split-personality Dick Grayson. Which would even explain Damian's sort of fascinations or putting together clues or chasing red herrings or clues about his perchance imitating or respecting the tactics. But even Damian or Future Damian claiming the LEVIATHAN iconography and using it to do better spy organizations can still be considered an homage to Dick Grayson.

I'm eager to find out for sure who it is, though. We've got Batman and Talia heading in, which is a lot like Mommy and Daddy coming to the rescue. We've had plenty of "Death in the Family" imagery implying that it could be a Robin. Those are some strong, strong theories that I really like. So we'll see. And it's a neat story angle.

Ultimately the mystery will be solved and I'm actually still just more excited about the aftermath and how the dust settles. Like, Leviathan did this hostile takeover move ... but do we think that "Leviathan" is going to be the future of DC spy stuff, with the evil demonic imagery and name and occult-henchmen style?

I'm starting to think Leviathan might be a Brainiac. Not all of them are organic, so it could be a mechanical body even. If he's from the LoSH era then to him all this stuff is history. So he knows all this stuff because he read a historical record of it.