Thomas Hardy made up fictional names for cities, towns and places that corresponded to the real world, in his novels, short stories, poems and one epic drama. In fact, this world of Wessex is a shared universe--you can connect each of his stories to one another through these fictional locations. Forget about making a shared movie universe for Stephen King or the Universal monsters--someone should make a Hardy universe series of movies.
Personally, I find that with the exception of Gotham and to a lesser extent Metropolis, there is nothing memorable about DC's fictional cities (the ones that are supposed to be in the "real world" that is). You could replace Fawcett City with Philadelphia (as they did in the Shazam movie) and nothing of any real value would be lost.
I thought James Robinson and Tony Harris did a great job with Opal City in their Starman series. They gave the city an interesting history and feel.
Black Lightning's lightning should be black. also, Thunder & Lightning should stay MIA/out of the main continuity (other adaptations and elseworlds are fine) until they can be rolled in naturally as kids or teens for Teen Titans
THE SIGNAL (Duke Thomas) is DC's secret shonen protagonist so I made him a fandom wiki
also, check out "The Signal Tape" a Duke Thomas fan project.
currently following:
- DC: Red Hood: The Hill
- Marvel: TBD
- Manga (Shonen/Seinen): One Piece, My Hero, Dandadan, Jujutsu Kaisen, Kaiju No. 8, Reincarnation of The Veteran Soldier, Oblivion Rouge, ORDEAL, The Breaker: Eternal Force
"power does not corrupt, power always reveals."
Personally, I hate Gotham City being continually represented as a terrible place to live and overrun with crime. I understand why it has to be that way, so Batman is like in some giant hamster wheel, where nothing ever changes. But I like the Batman that cleaned up the city, became its protector and continued to do nightly patrols to ensure that order was maintained.
If they feel the need to keep doing stories about how corrupt the police were and how gangsters controlled everything, then just keep doing Legends of the Dark Knight set in Year One. There's no time requirement that says you can't keep a comic book anchored in one time frame--they did it for decades with Superboy (Adventures of Superman when he was a Boy), with Sgt. Rock, with Hopalong Cassidy, with Robin Hood.
For a character that is supposed to be seen as inspirational, a lot of Superman fans find the idea of him being equaled or surpassed by anyone controversial.
It's, I think an extremely controversial opinion but...
Since DC seems unable to produce great or even good Wonder Woman stories in the recent years, having made the character remarkably unappealing in her own books, I think they should try and push for another woman to become their flagship heroic character - and I'm not talking about Harley here, I mean a real iconic female superhero.
I don't know if it's because Wonder Woman's powers are not flashy enough, considered too close to Superman, or if it's just her publishing history which has become a terrible burden for the character recently (or not so recently) but perhaps they should try to develop more characters like Starfire, Vixen or Zatanna or any other female character they think can sustain their push and reach a broader audience.
And I don't mean "drop Wonder Woman" when doing the push. By all means, keep using her and try to improve her book. But I think there is a problem when a character like Captain Marvel (Carol Denvers) feels a lot more powerful and inspiring in her comic books than Diana in hers.
Last edited by Korath; 09-25-2019 at 06:18 AM.
It's because most super-females are male fantasy versions of women. Wonder Woman was created to be a female fantasy. DC doesn't try very hard to satisfy female fantasies or to market their comics toward a female audience. So characters like Wonder Woman or Amethyst, Prince of Gemworld, that have all the things in their back story that girls and women would like to read, get re-imagined so that more of the male market will buy them. I think Wonder Woman could be great if they stopped trying to make her a male fantasy and let female creators tell the stories that a majority of female readers want to see. DC still wouldn't be able to get the usual male audience to buy the comic--so it would be considered a failure in the direct sales shop market--but they could look to increase their sales in other markets (such as bookstores and online, where females are more likely to be).
I think you're right. But as seen with GWW, who created the awesome Khamala Khan, even a female voice steering the wheel can be insufficient to have a good Wonder Woman story. DC needs to remove the brakes on her. If she's as strong as Superman, let her show it in her book, damn it ! Captain Marvel has it easier, because her powers are visually impressive, but there is a problem with the female member of the Trinity when she looks weaker in her book that Naomi, a newly created character !
I don't know, ape Superman a little : he has a great rogue gallery but ever since he's truly a supreme powerhouse, he's mostly facing a handful of very powerful foes. Diana should be the same, but on a mythological scale, instead of the more "cosmic" elements, I guess. Channel some of Tynion's incredible work with the JLD, have her facing not just the Greek Pantheon but the dozens or so that exists, not just in battles of brawn, but also of values, knowledge, etc !
That's why I'm saying that they should push another female hero. If for whatever reason they can't put Wonder Woman there, with that aura of power and competence the Bat and Superman have, then uses someone else while supporting Diana. If they move from the Trinity to a Quatuor of heroic pillars, damn them, they'll make more of that sweet money !