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Justice

DIANA. And for you, Harbinger Prime, Nemesis will be a particular hell. For she binds and burns in proportion to your sins… and your soul shines bright with the blood of the innocent. The burn you feel, Harbinger… Know that it is the result of the pain you have wrought on others. All you are feeling, you have earned. Accept Nemesis’s judgement of you.

Technocracy

KAL-EL. In the cities worked the klerics of the science league. Harnessing the energies of the red sun and the planet itself to fuel their insatiable hunger… for progress… at all costs.

TEACHER. You… wrote this? Yourself? That’s… Kal, the luminarium contains all knowledge of the science league from throughout Kryptonian history and can answer any question we might ever possibly ask.

House of El. Claudia Gray; Eric Zawardski. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . 2021.

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TRIBUNE MEMBER. Krypton is the most advanced civilization known to exist in the galaxy. For generations, its citizens have been genetically engineered to make them the greatest examples of their kind. We have the best soldiers that can possibly exist. The best scientists. The best leaders. Could the people designed to rule this world fail to defend it? Could any society truly be failing when they can terraform other planets, and shape them as they desire?
#technocracy

Saga. Brian Vaughan; Fiona Staples. imagecomics.com . www.hoopladigital.com . en.wikipedia.org .

Themes (Mostly War)

Planet Landfall (Alana’s) and Wreath (its moon, Marko’s) have been in conflict as long as anyone can remember. Destroying either would send the other out of orbit, so they make peace at home, but outsource the combat to foreign lands. Most locals didn’t really think about the battles being waged in their names in distant lands. #societal-apathy

A collection of notes/impressions from titles where I didn’t find enough to necessitate a dedicated page. Usually short works of fiction.

Unknown Number

Unknown Number. Blue Neustifter. twitter.com . genderdysphoria.fyi . Jul 27, 2021. Accessed Sep 6, 2022.

tells the story of a person who has gender dysphoria. In an alternate universe, they never transitioned but went on to become an established physicist who could communicate across parallel universes.

Eternals Vol. 3 (2006). Neil Gaiman; John Romita Jr.. www.marvel.com . www.hoopladigital.com . 2006.

Eternals Vol. 5 (2021). Kieron Gillen; Esad Ribić. www.marvel.com . www.hoopladigital.com . marvel.fandom.com .

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Origin of Life

Mark Evanier: Can you prove that ancient civilizations weren’t visited by space travellers and heralded as gods? Did those aliens alight on this planet eons ago and plant the seeds of our civilization?

Batman: White Knight. Sean Murphy. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . 2017.

#vigilantism

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[Joker] Admit it – I gave you Gotham City! This corrupt war zone is the home we created together. The only reason Gotham allows you to exist in because they’re so terrified of me! Admit it! I’m the only one who really knows you Batman! Your vigilantism isn’t about justice – it’s about control: fixing this city is your pathetic way of salvaging the broken bits of your anima. But you’re too stupid to see that it hasn’t worked – crime has become your therapy, and Gotham your victim. You’ve dragged us all into your perpetual Halloween!

Bitter Root. David F. Walker; Chuck Brown; Sanford Greene. imagecomics.com . www.hoopladigital.com .

#extraterrestrial-possession

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[Dr. Sylvester] I am not the devil. It was the devil that made me what I have become, and the devil I am here to destroy. Look around you, Enoch Sangerye. You’ve seen this before – cities and towns burned to the ground. It always starts with their hate and fear. And it always ends with our deaths. You saw the hell unleashed in the summer of 1919.

Invisible Kingdom. G. Willow Wilson; Christian Ward. www.darkhorse.com . www.hoopladigital.com . 2019. Accessed Dec 3, 2022.

A Flawed Religious Organization

[Vess] But what if… What if you found something here that seemed wrong? That seemed out of place? [Krikko] I would go straight to Mother Proxima and ask for guidance. That’s why she’s here. [Vess] And… If the something wrong had to do with Mother Proxima herself? [Krikko] Then I would question myself. Because doubting her would mean I had strayed from my vow of obedience.

Outcast. Robert Kirkman; Paul Azaceta. imagecomics.com . www.hoopladigital.com . 2014. Accessed Dec 11, 2022.

#religious-fiction

#extraterrestrial-possession

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[Rev. Anderson] I know… How completely I failed you. You brought me face to face with the Devil himself… And I didn’t have the strength to confront him. Am I no longer worthy to do your work? Is that why I have no power over these demons? Have I offended you?

Doom Patrol (1987-1995). Grant Morrison; Richard Case; John Nyberg. www.dcuniverseinfinite.com . www.hoopladigital.com . 1987. Accessed Dec 23, 2022.

Punchlines

Father McGarry has long since ceased to believe in miracles. Saturdays, he trudges out to the dump, looking for God among the debris. Saturdays are always the longest days and, in the winter, chilly. He asks for very little. Some trace, some evidence, some spoor of the divine. Some sign. It begins to rain fish. Mackerel. Herring. Sea bass. Pike. Sturgeon. Tench. Plaice. Salmon. From a clear sky. Trout. No cod.
FATHER McGARRY. Ha. [Crushed to death by a falling refrigerator]

Vision Vol. 1: Little Worse Than A Man. Tom King; Gabriel Hernandez Walta. www.marvel.com . www.hoopladigital.com . Jun 29, 2016. Accessed Feb 5, 2023.

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Most of the Visions’ neighbors worked downtown, and they talked often about the traffic on 66 or Lee highway. On the weekends they tended to stay in Virginia, though they often lamented that they should go into the city. The museums are so nice, and the kids would have a great time. Very few of them were from the area originally. Most had moved to D.C. after college and worked for congress or the president. They made nothing, and they lived off of nothing. But that was unimportant. They were young, and they wanted to save the world. Eventually, they met someone and fell in love and had children. With bills to pay, they left their small government jobs; they became lobbyists and lawyers and managers. They moved out to the suburbs for the schools. They made the compromises that are necessary to raise a family.

Clean Room (2015 - 2017). Gail Simone; Jon Davis-Hunt; Walter Geovani; Sanya Anwar. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . 2015.

#extraterrestrial-possession

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[Chloe] The Haverlin brothers from next door came to visit, when my mother did not. They pulled me out. I told them I was grateful because I didn’t want to make them sad. Sometimes the truth hurts the people with the best hearts the most.

Animal Man. Grant Morrison. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . dc.fandom.com . 1988. Accessed Mar 5, 2023.

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He took himself into the desert. And rose up. And went into the presence of God. And God spoke unto Crafty saying, “You must be punished for this rebellion against my will. Nevertheless, I am a good God and my judgment will be tempered with mercy.” Much afraid, Crafty spoke saying, “I will bear any punishment that will bring peace to the world.” “Then you must spend eternity in the hell above,” said God. “While you live and bear the suffering of the world, I will make peace among the beasts. That is my judgment.”

Kingdom Come (1996). Mark Waid; Alex Ross. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . dc.fandom.com . Accessed Mar 4, 2023.

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The world Wesley left is filled not with his heroes… but with their children and grandchildren. They number in the nameless thousands … progeny of the past, inspired by the legends of those who came before if not the morals. They no longer fight for the right. They fight simply to fight, their only foes each other. The superhumans boast that they’ve all but eliminated the super-villains of yesteryear.

Daredevil: Born Again. Frank Miller; David Mazzuchelli. www.marvel.com . www.hoopladigital.com . marvel.fandom.com . 1986. Accessed Mar 6, 2023.

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[Matt] Dust… The dust is thick. Could choke on it… There’s nothing left. So you know. So that’s why. I never would have connected it to you. Nothing about it said gangster – until this. It was a nice piece of work, Kingpin. You shouldn’t have signed it.

Mister Miracle Vol. 4 (2017 - 2019). Tom King; Mitch Gerads. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . dc.fandom.com . Accessed Mar 13, 2023.

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But though our great hero now occupies a seat of comfort and tranquility… Mister Miracle never forgets that somewhere out there… Darkseid is.

Superman: Birthright. Mark Waid; Leinil Francis Yu; Gerry Alanguilan; Dave McCaig. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . 2003. Accessed Mar 24, 2023.

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JOR-EL. For the thousand orbits, a shining planet circled a celestial font of heat and light. The people of that world grew tired of war so they achieved a united society. They feared the unknown… so they conquered it with the marvels of science. They yearned for heaven… so they created it beneath their very feet. For ten thousand orbits, a clump of dirt careened around a red dwarf star. And it accomplished miracles no one will ever remember.

Batman: Year One. Frank Miller; David Mazzucchelli. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . dc.fandom.com . 1987. Accessed Apr 8, 2023.

In 1986, DC embarked on a reinvention of its characters’ origin stories to match the times. However, Batman’s origin story didn’t change as it already captured the fears, frustrations and hopes of a readership coping with the realities of 20th-century urban life. Miller accepted the challenge to give Batman’s origin more depth, complexity and a wider context.

The Sheriff of Babylon. Tom King; Mitch Gerads. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . dc.fandom.com . 2015.

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KING. I decided to do something set during my time at Baghdad. In terms of goals,I wanted to write something that wasn’t political or didn’t feel like homework, that wasn’t about whether it was good or bad to be there; I just wanted to write about what it was like to be actually there then.

Dark Night: A True Batman Story. Paul Dini; Eduardo Risso. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . dc.fandom.com . Jun 15, 2016.

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DINI. Now you’d think that one invisible kid might find comfort in another one’s company. But at that age, the last thing a nothing kid wants to be is lumped in with another nothing. Proof that cruelty, even garbed as self-preservation, is contagious.

East of West. Jonathan Hickman; Nick Dragotta. imagecomics.com . www.hoopladigital.com . imagecomics.fandom.com . 2013.

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The things that divide us are stronger than the things that unite us.

Soon, the Union found itself fighting a war on two fronts – righteousness and tyranny, and the resulting quagmire suited their hypocrisy. Conflict drug on until finally reaching a protracted lull a decade later. A war that not war, lasting twenty more years… until the fire in the sky. There are those that say the comet should have struck some other land. That God, like with Joshua and the Amorites, somehow held the world up, kept it from spinning, just so he could deliver judgment. Divine intervention or not, that event marked the end of the hostilities, the remarking of territory, and the formation of what would become the Seven Nations of America. The Accords were signed at Armistice – the epicenter of the event – on November 9, 1908. It was significant, historic, and the third most important thing to happen that day. As in Atlanta, the Prophet Longstreet penned the Second Book of Revelation. And in Cheowee, Red Cloud shared a waking vision with his council of elders. The upon completion, and by all accounts at exactly the same time, both men collapsed and died.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Tom King; Bilquis Evely; Matheus Lopes. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . dc.fandom.com . 2021.

Justice

#justice-motif

RUTHYE. If a child, which I was at the time despite my many protests to the contrary, could claim the weapon with a simple tug… what was it that prevented Krem from rescuing it? I had meant to ask him, and even had the question on my tongue when Supergirl and I eventually found the filthy man and he was begging for his life with tears in his eyes. But Supergirl delivered the fatal blow and Krem fell dead to the ground before I could get it out.

Star Trek: Year Five. Brandon Easton; Jody Houser; Jim McCann; Collin Kelly; Jackson Lanzing. idwpublishing.com . www.hoopladigital.com . memory-beta.fandom.com . 2019.

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SPOCK. They Lloyd Zeta hypergiant is the single most massive stellar object ever detected by Starfleet. And according to calculations by both the Vulcan Science Academy and Starfleet, within the next five minutes… it will explode, emitting a high-yield gamma ray burst that will effectively sterilize this entire sector. While this system is uninhabited, mass extinctions will occur on any habitable plants within a ten thousand light year range of the burst.

The Sandman Universe: Nightmare Country. James Tynion IV; Lisandro Estherren; Yanick Paquette; Andrea Sorrentino. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . sandman.fandom.com . 2022.

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MR. ECSTASY. Dreams are a trap. They comfort and they coddle. They comfort and they coddle. They give false hope, and false understanding. They are little fictions that satisfy a man’s hunger for meaning, without providing anything he can hold in his hands. What matters is chasing the real. It’s what you can touch. What you can feel. Allow me to demonstrate.

Batman: One Bad Day. www.hoopladigital.com . dc.fandom.com .

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BATMAN. Mr. Tierney, despite the rumors in the press, I am not omnipotent. I have an unfortunate weakness for mercy that has too often led to careless mistakes and lingering pain. However, the moment you fired that gun at me, I lost my taste for any… mercy. So, as you pull that trigger, know that the weapon is aimed at you. That you are making a careless mistake. That your mistake will lead to… lingering pain.

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GABRIEL. The dream always begins in the dark. You think you know what that means, but you don’t. You can’t. The dark I see is a truer shade than just the absence of light. You can’t find it just by clapping your hands over your eyes. Dark like this gets into you. Penetrates you. Tightens around your skull. Presses into your eye sockets until something pops and even the memory of light – even the belief in light – drains away.

The Graveyard Book. Neil Gaiman; P. Craig Russell. www.neilgaiman.com . www.hoopladigital.com . Accessed Oct 8, 2023.

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The man Jack was tall. This man was taller. The man Jack wore dark clothes. This man’s clothes were darker. People who noticed the man Jack when he was about his business found themselves troubled. The man Jack looked up at the stranger, and it was the man Jack who was troubled.

The American Jesus Trilogy. Mark Millar; Peter Gross. imagecomics.com . www.hoopladigital.com . 2019. Accessed Jan 30, 2024.

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It’s a coming of age story interrogating how a hero is formed, how a villain is created, and how similar the lives of the righteous and wretched can be, how fine the fault lines of good and evil are.

The Riddler: Year One. Paul Dano; Stevan Subic. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . batman.fandom.com . 2023.

EDWARD. Do they deserve a chance? How do they go on in a city that tells them day after day that they are fractured and broken… that there is not way out or up?

Suicide Squad: Blaze. Simon Spurrier; Aaron Campbell; Jordan Bellaire. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . dc.fandom.com . 2022.

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World War Hulk. Greg Pak; John Romita Jr.;. www.marvel.com . www.hoopladigital.com . 2007.

HULK. We made a world. I was the Green King. And Caiera the Oldstrong was my queen. But your “heroes” sent a bomb. Killed a million people. Now this city will fall. You have twenty-four hours to evacuate.

Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe. Cullen Bunn; Dalibor Talajic. www.marvel.com . www.hoopladigital.com . marvel.fandom.com . 2012. Accessed Mar 4, 2024.

WATCHER. It is here that Dr. Benjamin Brighton has introduced radical new treatments designed to ease troubled minds… and turn malicious souls toward the pursuit of peace.

Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons. Kelly Sue DeConnick; Phil Jimenez; Gene Ha; Nicola Scott. www.dc.com . wonder-woman.fandom.com . www.hoopladigital.com . Accessed Oct 5, 2024.

The subjugations and abuses of not-men by men are too numerous to catalog in a library… let alone a book. “It’s just his nature,” they say. We say nature may be brutal, but it is not sinister. But if it were in his nature to dominate his sisters, t’would be an instinct garrisoned by civility. For the institutions of men care not for the weal of women. You don’t have to be Queen of Gods to recognize injustice. Can you imagine what it would feel like to bear witness across millennia?

Poison Ivy. G. Willow Wilson; Marcio Takara. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com . Accessed Nov 17, 2024.

IVY. I don’t like killing animals. In fact, I don’t like killing anybody. But here’s the thing. Humankind has warped the natural order so completely that even out food has become an ecological cancer. These cattle were never meant to be here. The native species that evolved in harmony with this land starve beneath their hooves. The kindest thing to do is give them back to the earth. To let them nourish the creatures that they would otherwise destroy.

Growing Up in Segregated America

The thing is, when I was young, there wasn’t much of a civil rights movement. I wanted to work at something, but I grew up in rural Alabama. My parents knew it would be dangerous to make any waves. “Stay out of trouble. Don’t get in white people’s way.”

Love

Dream: Sister – you know how I felt for Nada one. What I feel for her still. But she defied me. I gave her due earning, and she still spurned me, so… Death: So you sentenced her to hell.

Parable of the Sower. A Graphic Novel Adaptation (Original by Butler, 1993). Damian Duffy; John Jennings; Octavia E. Butler. www.abramsbooks.com . www.hoopladigital.com . 2020. ISBN: 978-1-4197-3133-4 .

Notable Plot Moments

“A pessimist if I’m not careful.” She did not just reject pessimism once and become a Pollyanna thereafter. It was an impulse that she had to quell over and and over. It was a dynamic and continuous act, a hard-nosed practice of staring down the worst of humanity’s evils and refusing to live in denial, all the while choosing to remember that humanity is also capable of great good.

Notable Plot Points

[Morris] Professor Dunbar… The reason I asked you to be my advisor is because I thought you of all people would understand what it’s like to be a woman in academia. [Professor Dunbar] You mean you thought I’d cut you a break. But I never got a break. I was the only woman in my class at Oxford who left with a PhD, and for my trouble, I’m teaching at a no-name university in New Jersey.

Snapshots

[Mrs. Sharpe] Goliath knew what he was doing. He was breaking a law designed to save people’s lives. If he’d only gone legitimate. He’d still be alive. This is no more your fault than a cop could be blamed for shooting a punk who pulls a gun on him.

The Mighty. Peter J. Tomasi; Champagne Keith; Chris Samnee; Peter Snejbjerg. imagecomics.com . www.hoopladigital.com . 2022.

Review

Similar back story to Invincible , also published by Image Comics. Like Omni-Man, Alpha One comes from a distant civilization of advanced humans. However, his ambitions weren’t shared by his people, and crashed into Earth by mistake while being transported to a prison in Venus.

Batman: Vol. 1: Their Dark Designs. James Tynion IV; Guillem March; Tomeu Morey. www.dc.com . www.hoopladigital.com .

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[Batman] It happened in the little moments. I’d sketch on the edge of a napkin, or at the corner of a page in an old casebook. A familiar building, but with an unfamiliar number of floors. The city skyline with a few added skyscrapers. There was always some minor detail altered. Alfred called them my little Gothams. He said that they were designs for the city that lived in my head. A better city, without all the pain and horror. A city that didn’t need a Batman. He would say, “What if you didn’t put on that suit tonight? What if you gathered all those sketches and started building something that could last? You have a design for Gotham City, Master Bruce. Isn’t it time the world saw it?”