Alan Scott...doomed future?

[Miss Webb]

Straight up, what are they going to use the guy for? Any major plots, any developments? There were teasers about him being involved in the "corps war" but with so many characters I don't see how Alan will be squeezed in.

No monthly, no book...

No plot, no charactarization...

No fashion sense...

And no real utilization of his powers anymore, other than cute constructs.

I dunno, I'm at the point where I'm not too hopeful.

 

[Prognosticator]

Um, read Kingdom Come....he's not going anywhere.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

what does kingdom come has to do with this?! DC is'nt really heading in that direction depsite the changes we've seen.

 

[Harlekin]

Alan Scott will get his day again. No way the white man is keeping that brotha down.

 

[Prognosticator]

what does kingdom come has to do with this?! DC is'nt really heading in that direction depsite the changes we've seen.

they are and they aren't, i'd put it that way.

 

[Tropico]

Hasn't he had the most JSA Classified arcs? Feels like he has. And right now I think the focus of the JSA has been on the "newbies", which is fair since the other characters have had their time in the lime light. I guess it's just a matter of time until the rotation falls back to the oldbies.

I can play a tiny, little violin if you want, though. To add atmosphere to the doom and gloom.

 

[BrianWilly]

He'll be back soon enough. Better for him to ride out this recent wave of crappy DC ideas in the background for the time being while other characters get degraded and maimed.

 

[sinewave]

he's definitely gotten the shaft recently, but i have a feeling (maybe it's just hope) that he'll get some attention in jsa soon. actually, i'm hoping a lot of the old-timers in the jsa get some attention soon, especially sandman, whose had it even worse than alan.

 

[Aristotle]

Regarding Alan Scott...so what if he's got no book? Tons of people don't have their own book. Guy Gardner didn't have his own book for years, but he seems to be doing OK these days.

No plot? Throughout 52, Checkmate, and the various JSA books post-IC, as well as his appearances throughout the DCU, we've seen quite a bit of plot and character development as he deals with the loss of his daughter and the changing face of the DCU.

No fashion sense? Go read a Liefeld X-Men book if that's how you feel.

No utilization of his powers? What's he supposed to do with them other than constructs? That's the best way to use his power.

he's definitely gotten the shaft recently, but i have a feeling (maybe it's just hope) that he'll get some attention in jsa soon. actually, i'm hoping a lot of the old-timers in the jsa get some attention soon, especially sandman, whose had it even worse than alan.

Sandman is to the JSA what Batman always says he is to the JLA. He's there when you need a guy of his very specific abilities, and the rest of the time, he's down and dirty in the shadows, doing what he does.

I really think DC could stand to do a lot more with him on his own, though. I like him not doing a whole lot with the Justice Society unless the situation calls for it, but I think they could really play the Sandman franchise up as a dark, grim solo book. Notice I don't say grim 'n' gritty, because the last thing I'd want to see done to Sandman is for DC to make him into one of those awful late-80s/early-90s pastiches. But I think Sandman could be very well done as a noir, dark, shadowy figure in the seedy bowels of some major city. Stylish action with a brain, a la the original Sandman Mystery Theatre. Basically, everything we'd love to see done with Batman, but can't ever be done because of his mainstream status. Sort of like DC's version of The Shadow. That said, I wouldn't mind at all if DC got the rights to The Shadow back and put him back into his own little corner of the DCU like they did way back in the 70s. If the DCU has room for the Spirit, it's got room for the Shadow.

 

[sinewave]

Sandman is to the JSA what Batman always says he is to the JLA. He's there when you need a guy of his very specific abilities, and the rest of the time, he's down and dirty in the shadows, doing what he does.

I really think DC could stand to do a lot more with him on his own, though. I like him not doing a whole lot with the Justice Society unless the situation calls for it, but I think they could really play the Sandman franchise up as a dark, grim solo book. Notice I don't say grim 'n' gritty, because the last thing I'd want to see done to Sandman is for DC to make him into one of those awful late-80s/early-90s pastiches. But I think Sandman could be very well done as a noir, dark, shadowy figure in the seedy bowels of some major city. Stylish action with a brain, a la the original Sandman Mystery Theatre. Basically, everything we'd love to see done with Batman, but can't ever be done because of his mainstream status. Sort of like DC's version of The Shadow. That said, I wouldn't mind at all if DC got the rights to The Shadow back and put him back into his own little corner of the DCU like they did way back in the 70s. If the DCU has room for the Spirit, it's got room for the Shadow.

i know i'm derailing this thread and i apologize, but i have to respond to this.

the biggest reason i want some more focus on sandman is the amount of change and mystery surrounding the character since the relaunch of the jsa. he's adopted his mentor's persona and appears to be hiding his face behind that mask for some reason. there's a scene back a few issues ago where he's standing in the shadows without his mask on and you can tell johns and eaglesham were deliberately trying to hide his face for some reason. i wonder if he's unable to control his silicon powers and his face is all ****ed up now? aside from that, he's just a kickass character and deserves more face time.

i like you're idea for a noirish sandman mystery theater-type solo book for him. i'd buy the **** outta that.

 

[Aristotle]

i know i'm derailing this thread and i apologize, but i have to respond to this.

the biggest reason i want some more focus on sandman is the amount of change and mystery surrounding the character since the relaunch of the jsa. he's adopted his mentor's persona and appears to be hiding his face behind that mask for some reason. there's a scene back a few issues ago where he's standing in the shadows without his mask on and you can tell johns and eaglesham were deliberately trying to hide his face for some reason. i wonder if he's unable to control his silicon powers and his face is all ****ed up now? aside from that, he's just a kickass character and deserves more face time.

i like you're idea for a noirish sandman mystery theater-type solo book for him. i'd buy the **** outta that.

And I think that, if DC hyped it the way it deserved, everyone else would too. But Sandman would have to stay as close to self-contained as is possible in a shared universe. Maybe not quite to the degree that the Spirit is (i.e., the only evidence that he exists in the DCU is the Batman/Spirit one-shot), but confined to relatively few and minor appearances in books like JSA, unless the situation called for more spotlight on him. And I don't mean that stories should be tailored to fit him. Stories should flow naturally, and if that happens to mean that Sandman needs to be featured, then so be it.

 

[Tropico]

I wonder if Miss Webb is gonna be even more depressed that another character has hijacked Alan's thread.t:

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

i don'tthink sandman can hold his own.

 

[Aristotle]

i don'tthink sandman can hold his own.

Please see the original Sandman Mystery Theatre, and a decent early run in Adventure Comics.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

No utilization of his powers? What's he supposed to do with them other than constructs? That's the best way to use his power.

Depends on the situation. All the GLs can do a lot more with their rings than just make constructs, and Alan can do even more than them because his power is rooted in magic. He's used it to create and contain singularities, teleport, rejuvenate his body (which makes you wonder why he's still missing an eye), and a whole host of other things. Johns has depowered Alan a lot over the course of JSA, though--he and Goyer brought back the wood weakness before the series started, he aged Alan back up to a 50-something body and made him channel the Starheart through his ring again so he could feel "more human," and he's relegated Alan to just making constructs ever since.

As for the titles you listed with Alan: He was barely in 52, his only notable appearances being when he showed up back on Earth and when he participated in WWIII along with the rest of the JSA. He was great in Checkmate, but Greg Rucka booted him out of the organization and the series after only a handful of issues. He still has some presence in JSA, but as Trop noted, he's been marginalized in favor of the newer members. So he does ostensibly have a big presence in the DC universe, but it always breaks down to just fleeting glimpses here and there. There aren't any comics that are really giving us a chance to dig deep into Alan as a character rather than just seeing him as a figurehead for "the old guard." I'd even settle for just seeing him use his powers in an impressive way at this point. Well, there's JSA Classified, which has had a few Alan-centric stories, but they've mostly sucked.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the upcoming Superman Confidential issue where we see Superman and Alan meet for the first time. That one looks like it'll pay Alan the respect he deserves as the post-Crisis equivalent in the Golden Age to what Superman is in the Silver Age.

 

[sinewave]

Depends on the situation. All the GLs can do a lot more with their rings than just make constructs, and Alan can do even more than them because his power is rooted in magic. He's used it to create and contain singularities, teleport, rejuvenate his body (which makes you wonder why he's still missing an eye), and a whole host of other things. Johns has depowered Alan a lot over the course of JSA, though--he and Goyer brought back the wood weakness before the series started, he aged Alan back up to a 50-something body and made him channel the Starheart through his ring again so he could feel "more human," and he's relegated Alan to just making constructs ever since.

As for the titles you listed with Alan: He was barely in 52, his only notable appearances being when he showed up back on Earth and when he participated in WWIII along with the rest of the JSA. He was great in Checkmate, but Greg Rucka booted him out of the organization and the series after only a handful of issues. He still has some presence in JSA, but as Trop noted, he's been marginalized in favor of the newer members. So he does ostensibly have a big presence in the DC universe, but it always breaks down to just fleeting glimpses here and there. There aren't any comics that are really giving us a chance to dig deep into Alan as a character rather than just seeing him as a figurehead for "the old guard." I'd even settle for just seeing him use his powers in an impressive way at this point. Well, there's JSA Classified, which has had a few Alan-centric stories, but they've mostly sucked.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the upcoming Superman Confidential issue where we see Superman and Alan meet for the first time. That one looks like it'll pay Alan the respect he deserves as the post-Crisis equivalent in the Golden Age to what Superman is in the Silver Age.

i don't remember seeing him wearing that eye patch recently. i figured he'd rejuvenated the eye back to normal.

yeah, that superman confidential sounds like it might be worth picking up. i'd like to see alan get back to being one of the big guns in the dcu again. the dude was the inspiration for generations of heroes. he deserves better.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I don't remember seeing him without his mask on recently. It'd surprise me if he healed his eye, though. Johns has been pushing his whole humanity schtick, and regenerating missing eyes isn't normal human territory.

 

[sinewave]

I don't remember seeing him without his mask on recently. It'd surprise me if he healed his eye, though. Johns has been pushing his whole humanity schtick, and regenerating missing eyes isn't normal human territory.

i haven't seen him without the mask, either, but i thought i remember him wearing it under his mask at one point and then not seeing it there later. i'll have to check out some back issues when i get home...

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I've seen it drawn both ways, and I've seen the missing eye colored solid green instead of solid white under the mask. I think it varies from artist to artist.

 

[sinewave]

I've seen it drawn both ways, and I've seen the missing eye colored solid green instead of solid white under the mask. I think it varies from artist to artist.

could be. i noticed the different coloring, too. i hope they explain some of this stuff soon. i'm still waiting to find out how they shrunk hawkgirl back down to normal size. they probably used professor frink's "de-bigulator".

 

[Harlekin]

I hope they ditch the "Alan one eye" situation soon. I'm usually not one for reverting things (current Spider-Man withstanding), but this just bugs me, and there's nothing being done with it anyway.

 

[yenaled]

I wouldn't hold out much hope for Johns doing anything about it in JSA. Maybe someone will write a good JSA Classified arc about or including it.

Johns really seems to be forgetting a lot of good characters on JSA; Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, Obsidian, Jakeem Thunder and Sand are all annoying absent.

Though I did bust a fanboy nut for the Johnny Quick scenes in the last one. Here's to him getting back to Rex Tyler rebuilding "Tyler" Android Hourman.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Johns is never bringing the android Hourman back. We'll probably have to wait until Tom Peyer himself writes a JSA Classified arc or something. That would, in turn, require someone at DC stopping the horrible string of arcs we've seen in JSA Classified lately and greenlighting a quality story for it for the first time in a year. Abandon all hope, you who care about Hourman a.k.a. Tyler a.k.a Matthew.

 

[yenaled]

I just find it irritating how Geoff had Rex say "should take me about a year to rebuild him" then a OYL jump and no mention

That's the "let's delete everything good about the 90s" policy working well.

 

[sinewave]

Now that Rick Tyler is Hourman, there's no need for the android to come back, at least not as another Hourman. I'm not a big fan of multiple heroes sharing the same name, Jay and Wally aside. Most people don't refer to Jay as the Flash anymore, anyway.