Welcome to the a hundred and first version of ASK…THE QUESTION, the month-to-month column the place we do our degree finest to unravel all the mysteries of the DC Universe that you simply demand options for. I’m Alex Jaffe, your appointed champion of reality and inquisition, higher recognized in the DC Community as HubCityQuestion. Your urge for food for solutions has confirmed practically as prodigious as my very own, my comrades in comics! Let’s see what this month has in retailer for us.
Lessons Learned
RexRebel asks:
LL persons are a giant a part of the Superman mythos. When was it first referenced in the comics?
The an identical initials of Lois Lane and Lana Lang have been the topic of a recurring joke via early problems with Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane—the place Superman “settles” the rivalry between Lois and Lana by promising he’ll marry the girl with the initials “LL.” In Action Comics #252, the first look of Kara Zor-El as Supergirl, Superman notes with curiosity that his cousin has chosen an id with the identical initials as the different girls in his life, earlier than dismissing it as coincidence.
But the sheer proliferation of LLs in Superman’s life is overtly acknowledged in full for the first time in 1962’s Superman #157. In “Superman’s Day of Doom!” written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel himself, a prediction machine from a distant galaxy informs Superman that his life will likely be saved that day by somebody named “LL, ”which leads him to contemplate for the first time simply how many individuals in his life bear these initials. (It seems to not be Lana Lang, or Lois Lane, or Lori Lemaris, or Lightning Lad, or Linda Lee, and even Lex Luthor, however a Little League baseball participant.)
This is the Story of a(n Aqua)woman
Reaganfan78 asks:
Today I used to be studying Aquaman: A Celebration of 75 Years. In one story, earlier than Mera, there was an Aquagirl who was additionally blonde. Whatever occurred to her? Was she ever seen once more as Aquagirl or was she become Mera?
You’ve stumbled upon a curious artifact of Aquaman historical past: the authentic Aquagirl, Lisa Morel, whose first and solely look in 1959’s Adventure Comics #266 predates Mera’s debut by 4 years, and even the first Aqualad by three points.
As we uncover in the story, Lisa was an Atlantean who was exiled to the floor world because of the unreliability of her evolutionary diversifications and was raised by a marine biologist who hid her origins from her. When Lisa by accident discovers her personal partial Atlantean powers, she makes an attempt to affix Aquaman in maritime crimefighting as the first Aquagirl, however is pressured into retirement when she learns it’s only a matter of time earlier than her powers fade away fully.
Although Lisa Morel hasn’t returned since that story, it does introduce a component to Aquaman lore which has remained vital to at the present time—the marker of purple eyes, like Lisa’s, being a trigger for ostracization and exile from Atlantean society.
Robin Regression
Corpsmember.78 asks:
Has Dick Grayson ever donned the Robin uniform after turning into Nightwing to assist out Batman or anybody else? Has there ever been talks of a sequence the place we have now a Dick Grayson who by no means turned Nightwing and stayed Robin? With the New DCU kicking off, it looks like there ought to be a world the place that could be a risk.
Since turning into Nightwing, Dick’s adopted quite a lot of alternate identities, from Agent 37 to Batman himself, however he’s by no means gone again to being Robin. However, the world the place Dick by no means turned Nightwing and stayed Robin is just not solely potential, however well-established. Such is the case with the Pre-Crisis Earth Two, the place Dick stays Robin into his maturity (other than a quick interlude in the position of Batman). After Batman’s retirement, Robin turns into the senior member of the Dynamic Duo, mentoring Huntress, Bruce’s daughter Helena Wayne.
The Longest Bench
moonknightrider2.98991 asks:
Last summer time in Stargirl’s Earth-Prime TV tie-in, James Robinson had the authentic Blue Beetle’s sidekick Sparky make his first comedian look in a long time. They additionally talked about Fawcett hero Diamond Jack in the new concern of JSA. That brought about me to marvel what was the longest time interval to this point between DC buying different firms’ characters and them really utilizing them?
DC acquired the Charlton Comics heroes like Blue Beetle, Captain Atom and the Question in 1983, from which DC inherited Sparky, beforehand of Fox Features Syndicate in the Forties. Measuring from his acquisition to his first use by DC in 2022, that will be a span of 29 years. As for Fawcett, DC first licensed their assortment of characters in 1972, buying them totally in 1994. From 1972 to 2023, when Diamond Jack appeared only recently, is 51 years. Mathematically, no character from Fawcett or Charlton can beat that quantity based mostly on after they have been acquired.
But what about Quality Comics? Quality, the authentic residence of Plastic Man, the Blackhawks and the Freedom Fighters, bought its personal assortment of characters to DC in 1956. If there are any Quality characters who have been first utilized by DC in 2007 at the earliest, that will probably beat Diamond Jack’s report.
Originally, I believed I had a solution on lock. Miss Murder, as soon as the title of a Doll Man villain from the Quality Comics years, appeared as an enforcer of the Fraction in The Flash #791 this January. But once I introduced this as much as Flash author Jeremy Adams, he assured me the title was a coincidence.
Luckily, I’ve received a solution practically pretty much as good. In 2018’s Harley Quinn #52, Quality Comics characters Biff Banks and Kim Meredith seem for the first time since the Forties, previously supporting characters to Crack Comics’ Captain Triumph. That’s a 62-year absence, beating Diamond Jack by over a decade. And till somebody decides it’s time to carry Tommy Tinkle from Hit Comics #1 out of retirement, that’s the place the report stands.
Speed Force Crash Course
Wrightline1.42741 asks:
Why have none of the Superman Family ever had any involvement with the Speed Force? Is there some sort of proprietary possession by the Flash of us that doesn’t allow any “sharing” of the Force? Or is it one thing else?
Okay, right here’s a fast and soiled lesson about how the Speed Force works. It’s not merely a matter of going actually quick, however tapping right into a subplanar realm of pure velocity by establishing a connection to it. Barry Allen did this when he was struck by lightning whereas adjoining to an array of chemical substances, which coincidentally, gave him the means to faucet into it.
Bursts of the Speed Force into our personal realm are what empowers the Flash and his allies. It’s not speedsters who initially entry the Speed Force, however the Speed Force which chooses them…form of like a extra localized Green Lantern ring. There have been quite a lot of villains who’ve tapped into the Speed Force by, effectively, drive, however that’s by no means been a great factor. Messing with the basic underpinning forces of the universe in your personal acquire at all times spells catastrophic imbalance. Which might clarify why heroes like Superman have by no means sought a approach to connect with it.
That’s to not say it’s by no means occurred earlier than. Take, as an example, Batman, who seeks out the Speed Force in Dark Nights: Batman – The Red Death. As I’ve alluded…the outcomes are lower than ultimate. Best to go away the Speed Force effectively sufficient alone, till the lightning comes for you.
And that brings us rushing to the conclusion of one other version of our illustrious column. Until #102, you may at all times discover me in my detective’s headquarters, poised and ready so that you can ASK…THE QUESTION.
Got one thing that is holding you up nights? If you could have a query about the DC Universe that you simply’d like to get answered, you may head on over to the DC Community and ask it right here.
Alex Jaffe is the creator of our month-to-month “Ask the Question” column and writes about TV, films, comics and superhero historical past for DC.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlexJaffe and discover him in the DC Community as HubCityQuestion.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed on this column are solely these of Alex Jaffe and don’t essentially replicate these of DC Entertainment or Warner Bros.
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