Mash-Up #44

Twice a week I randomly generate two dates and then compare the titles I own from both of them, trying to find some covers that, with a little basic photoshopping, I can mash together, and then I force the results on you lovely people.

By the way, I admit to being HUGELY influenced by the wonderful Super-Team Family blog which has been doing this for years (and a lot better) on an almost daily basis.

Who doesn’t love the satellite era League? Great stories, great art, and sandwiched between the mad as a box of frogs 60s stories and the Detroit League’s arrival.

And hey look, it’s another Crisis . . .

Heroes In Crisis – Who Dies?

Last week’s DC Nation magazine had a two-page spread about the forthcoming Heroes in Crisis event:

and among other things, it asked three questions which I thought I’d take a stab at answering:

So three characters in that two page spread will be accused of murder – here’s my guesses:

Lex Luthor and Deathstroke seem fairly obvious choices to me – they’re both villains, neither of them are above killing so why not? Booster Gold – he’s there as a wild card. He hasn’t been seen around the Rebirth DCU so if he comes back just at the point someone’s been killed, he seems likely to be blamed for something.

So who gets to die? Because it’s not a big event unless someone dies, is it? And preferably someone people care about – that makes the event even bigger. Here’s my guesses:

When it comes to Kyle Rayner particularly, I hope I’m wrong. Pretty much every other character on that board is much too big a name to get rid of – even Damage who’s one of the stars of this new wave of heroes in his own title so I can’t see him getting killed. Kyle and Ray Palmer, though? Both of them have other heroes carrying the same names so, sadly, I think they’re expendable.

But again, especially with Kyle, I hope I’m wrong.

If a couple of heroes get killed by a villain, where’s the shock in that? That’s why I think it’ll be a hero who ends up being revealed as the murderer, and my guess is one of the two characters on that board that use lethal weapons as part of their heroics:

I don’t know what Arsenal’s up to lately, but I’m putting him forward as the killer.

Why? Who knows?! But if Tom King can suddenly make Kyle Rayner a devout Catholic as he did in Omega Men, he can probably come up with some crazy-ass reason why Arsenal becomes a killer.

Dr Manhattan In The DCU

With Doomsday Clock in full swing, questions are being asked about where Dr Manhattan is hiding in the DCU. The possibility’s been raised that he might be masquerading as someone, perhaps a hero, but if so, then who?

Captain Atom is the obvious – perhaps too obvious – choice as he was the character Manhattan was based upon in the original Watchmen series.

Superman or Dr Fate are possibilities – one’s super strong, the other could be masquerading Manhattan’s reality altering abilities as magic.

Maybe he’s Zatanna – he could easily swap his gender if he wanted to hide in plain sight.

Or maybe . . . maybe he’s not a person at all . . . maybe he’s a thing . . . an object . . . carefully placed to listen in on superhero conversations . . .

Can we get a close up on that mug the Atom’s using?

Oh my God! He’s here, everybody – Dr Manhattan’s here!

Masquerading as a coffee mug!

I, for one, did not see that coming.

Scan from JLA #77, March 2003. And if Doomsday Clock references this mug, you read it here first, folks.

Who Were The Mightiest DC Heroes In 1977?

This is a genuine ad from 1977 where DC were touting stories “featuring the mightiest heroes of our time!”

I’ve blurred the list of names and the cover of the comic.

Before you click the read more link below, take a guess at which five heroes (because of course they’re all men, this was the 70s after all) will star in this comic. I’ll give you a clue – Superman wasn’t one of them.

Have your guesses ready . . .

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