Ultimate DC from Wizard 136

[LouFerignoDemon]

That's actually not...exactly how the god thing works in DC. At least, not in Wonder Woman.

In Wonder Woman, it wasn't that the gods literally needed to be worshipped to exist, it's that they needed to represent something still valid. Few people actually worship Athena or Ares, but they're currently two of the most powerful gods because the things they represent are so important to the modern world. Science and rational thought and superheroes practically rule the world, so Athena as the patron of warriors, wisdom, and crafts has a lot of choices from which to draw her influence. And war and conflict is as powerful today as it ever was, if not more so, therefore Ares as the representation of war also becomes all the more powerful. Same for Aphrodite as it goes for love/sex. Whereas, no one quakes at the skies or thinks of thunder as divine power anymore, so Zeus who represents the power of the heavens gets majorly downgraded despite remaining one of the most well-known gods in the world. It's not that the gods need active worship, it's that they need to evolve along with the world or else they become stagnant and unimportant, literally losing their influence. It's been this way in WW canon pretty much since the Perez reboot, when it was said that Ares had grown insanely powerful through all the senseless conflict in the twentieth century.

Some other writers, most notably Neil Gaiman, have used the "if we believe in them, they exist" approach to gods...but even Gaiman has suggested that if the gods evolve and adapt themselves to the modern world, they won't necessarily diminish in power even if they are no longer as well-remembered. In "Season of Mists," he suggested that the Shinto pantheon had been incorporating a lot of modern sensabilities like Marilyn Monroe and King Kong into their cosmology and have therefore retained much of their power even though the world has changed.

Merci.

 

[The Question]

Still, though, belief and worship of the Gods does have an effect on them. The Olympians had to high tale it out of Earth's dimension when Themyscera did because they knew they'd wither and die without their worshipers.

 

[ironman29758]

THE ORIGIN: Fifteen years ago, a 7-year-old Bruce Wayne watched helplessly as a two-bit crook gunned down his parents. As the young Wayne was shipped off to private schools, a young detective named James Gordon would be assigned to the case. It proves to be the one case he could never solve.

Fifteen years later, a changed Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham. Having all but disappeared from the public eye for the last few years, Wayne secretly trained himself to wage a one-man war on crime as the masked urban myth called Batman.

THE CHARACTER: Not the billionaire boob that so many fans are used to, Wayne’s trained himself not just as the Dark Knight but also as a shrewd businessman. One of the wealthiest men in the world, Wayne’s closest business rival is another young gun—Lex Luthor.

SUPPORTING CAST: Alfred Pennyworth represents the only family Wayne has left: An English manservant who served the Waynes for over 25 years, Alfred plays confidant, medic and sometimes psychiatrist to the man he thinks of as a son. In James Gordon’s long career, the image of young Wayne weeping over his parents’ lifeless bodies haunted him: After 20 years on the job, he ascends to police commissioner by turning the tables on the corrupt Gotham police force, using their own blackmail and strong-arm tactics against them. At Gordon’s side stands Harvey Dent, Gotham’s hotshot district attorney, who grew up with Bruce before the murders. Dent’s engaged to Gordon’s daughter, Barbara, a grad school student who can’t resist combing for Internet reports of the mysterious Batman’s nocturnal assault on crime.

THE SET-UP: After training for over a decade, Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham, and dons the cape and cowl of the Batman. Striking an alliance with Commissioner Gordon—despite D.A. Dent’s protests—the Dark Knight sets out to set things right in Gotham City.

THE FIRST ARC: As Batman and Gordon wage war against Gotham’s mob families, they learn someone has beaten them to it. Calling himself The Joker, this mysterious clown-themed vigilante’s campaign on crime kills capos, criminals and any innocents who get in the way. Batman must match wits with this darker version of himself who’s better at this game than he is.

THE BIG PICTURE: Batman’s stellar cast of rogues will be introduced slowly and menacingly. Two growing subplots will culminate with issue #50, as Wayne fights Lex Luthor’s hostile takeover of his company, and as Batman, he once again confronts the Joker, who’s learned that the high-tech Dark Knight could be only one man underneath that mask.

 

[ironman29758]

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']http://www.geocities.com/ultimate_dcu/[/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif'][/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']ULTIMATE SUPERMAN[/FONT][FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']

THE ORIGIN: Rocketed from the dying planet Krypton, a lone baby lands in a Smallville, Kansas field. Adopted by Martha and Jonathan Kent, the infant is raised like any other child, but the Kents soon learn their adopted son Clark is anything but ordinary. Under the Earth’s yellow sun, he’s developed powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.

THE CHARACTER: It’s six years removed from the world of TV’s “Smallville,” where Clark, Lex Luthor and Lana Lang all grew up together as friends. Clark’s just graduated from Kansas State University and has been offered an entry-level job at the Daily Planet.

SUPPORTING CAST: Lana’s still Clark’s girlfriend and one of the few people who knows about his extraordinary powers. But his long-distance relationship with Lana (who still resides in Smallville) is strained as Clark grows closer to fellow Planet reporter Lois Lane. Lois, a tenacious and clever reporter, is also the protégé of Planet senior writer Perry White, the man who mentors Lois and Clark in both their work and personal lives. And just as Clark settles in Metropolis, billionaire industrialist Lex Luthor reemerges after a four-year disappearance from public life. Although Clark looks forward to seeing his old friend from Smallville, something has clearly made Lex more intense, but Lex isn’t talking.

THE SET UP: After learning to control and master his powers while growing up in Smallville, Clark Kent moves to Metropolis and dons a costume to help protect the world as Superman, a name Perry White gives him after seeing him save a sabotaged Air Force One.

THE FIRST ARC: Superman wasn’t the only thing to escape Krypton. An artificial intelligence program developed by Jor-El, Superman’s father, also reached Earth. Calling itself Brainiac I, the super-computer sets its sights on turning Earth into New Krypton…just as soon as it undoes the “damage” done to Krypton’s Last Son by those who raised him human.

THE BIG PICTURE: As Clark tries to reestablish his friendship with Lex, he doesn’t realize that Lex knows he’s Superman! The catch: Lex refuses to admit it to himself. Lex feels that if Clark—who represents Lex’s only tether to a humanity that has constantly betrayed him—has been lying to him their entire lives, it’s Superman who has to pay the price.[/FONT]

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Superman

Batman

Wonder Woman

Flash

Green Lantern

JLA

Teen Titans[/FONT]

 

[ironman29758]

THE ORIGIN: Born on the cloaked Mediterranean island of Themyscira, Princess Diana was trained since birth as an Amazon, using evolved Greek technology in its art of warfare. Blessed with her native Amazon abilities of superhuman strength and durability, the athletic princess earns the right through trial by combat to be the one to enter Man’s World. But her office as emissary of peace is a ruse. Wonder Woman hasn’t come to Man’s World to foster relations, she’s come as an advance spy for an Amazonian race bent on conquering it!

THE CHARACTER: Meet the ultimate warrior. Diana was trained not only as an Amazon soldier but also in the ways of the people she plans to deceive. In fact, her own battle gear has been purposely modeled after the U.S. flag’s colors, to further endear her to the world’s superpower nation.

SUPPORTING CAST: Steve Trevor, U.S. delegate to the United Nations, hires Diana as an advisor on international relations. The job perfectly suits Diana’s mission as it’s a means to not only survey the world’s defenses but as a way to meet and access its top leaders.

THE FIRST ARC: Leaving Themyscira for the first time in her life, Diana comes to New York and is an immediate cultural icon to its people. But as Diana grows closer and more in touch with the outside world, she’s not sure if she can carry out her Amazon duties. Nicknamed Wonder Woman by Trevor when she’s seen in action, Diana slowly finds herself stepping in as guardian to a race she has vowed to conquer.

THE BIG PICTURE: After deciding that Man’s World isn’t as big a blight as her fellow Amazon’s believe, Diana’s forced to choose a side: fight alongside her new allies in the JLA or with the legions of her Amazon sisters? And how will her Justice League teammates—and the world—react when the truth behind the disappearance of men from Themyscira is revealed?

 

[ironman29758]

THE ORIGIN: Dishonorably discharged by the military’s highly trained Delta Force, John Stewart’s life is going nowhere…until he’s recruited into the intergalactic police force called The Green Lantern Corps. A rookie grunt assigned to Sector 2814—Earth—Stewart’s mentor is the Corps’ most senior officer: Sinestro.

THE CHARACTER: No one knows why Stewart was thrown out of Delta Force but as he puts it, “I had one bad day.” A social activist now in Los Angeles, Stewart’s happy to serve out his days not fighting in anyone’s wars, until he’s given the power to truly make a difference.

SUPPORTING CAST: A slew of alien GLs fill the title, but Stewart’s main interaction is with his training officer Sinestro. A brilliant strategist and one of the most powerful Green Lanterns ever, Sinestro will give John Stewart—and the reader—the vibe that this Green Lantern may be furthering a dark agenda.

THE SET-UP: Trained by Sinestro, Stewart quickly gains a reputation as a hotshot upstart. And, like his fellow officers on the GLC planet Oa, he still never sees their commanders called The Guardians, who are said to give the rings their power.

THE FIRST ARC: Think “Training Day” in outer space. The rookie GL asks, “What happened to the other Green Lanterns before me?” “Simple,” says Sinestro with a smile. “It didn’t work out.” As Sinestro reveals his shadier side while the story progresses, Stewart grows more and more interested in just where the Guardians and his new ring and power battery come from.

THE BIG PICTURE: Over time, Stewart discovers the Guardians are dead—killed by Sinestro, who’s been secretly running the Corps for some time now. He also learns that his mentor has been giving rings to inadequate Green Lanterns to dupe the various solar systems into a false sense of security, murdering any Corps member who gave Sinestro any potential opposition. His ultimate goal: the creation of robotic Manhunters deep inside Oa to destroy the flawed GL Corps, subjugate the planets under their protection and set Sinestro up as the conqueror of the galaxy.

 

[ironman29758]

THE ORIGIN: Crime scene investigator Barry Allen works in one of the fastest cities in the world—Los Angeles. Called to a crime scene inside Cadmus Labs Research Facility (a subsidiary of LexCorp), Allen’s collection of evidence accidentally exposes him to a host of experimental substances. Invisible to the naked eye, tasteless, odorless…these compounds trigger something within Allen’s biochemistry, transforming him into the fastest man alive!

THE CHARACTER: As one of the top crime scene investigators in the country, Barry Allen is often called upon to tackle L.A.’s most bizarre cases. A one-man crime lab thanks to his keen mind and inhuman speed, the fastest man alive now has what it takes to stay one step ahead of the criminals.

SUPPORTING CAST: L.A. Detective Jay Garrick is Allen’s best friend and the only person who knows he’s secretly the Flash. Even Assistant District Attorney Iris West, Allen’s off-again, on-again flame, doesn’t know his secret. Of course, she’s got her own problems now that she’s taken in her young nephew Wally West after years of parental abuse. Making things harder for Allen is that the rebellious Wally doesn’t trust any cop, even if they’re dating his Aunt Iris.

THE SET-UP: After realizing he’s gained the power to run faster than the speed of sound, Allen develops a slick running outfit to disguise his identity while investigating crimes as the Flash.

THE FIRST ARC: While experimenting with his powers, Barry discovers a downside to his abilities: the more he uses his speed, the faster his body shows signs of aging. But just as Barry begins to master his power and gets a lead on the serial killer Murmur, someone else with superhuman speed calling himself Black Flash arrives on the scene. What’s worse, he knows all of Barry’s secrets and wants the Scarlet Speedster dead.

THE BIG PICTURE: “I’ll never forgive you!” screams Black Flash as he pummels Allen in their first meeting. This grief-stricken foe stands revealed as none other than a future Wally West! Haunted for years by Wally’s hatred, Allen eventually learns he’ll make a wrong decision that costs the lives of two JLA teammates…and Iris West.

 

[ironman29758]

THE ORIGIN: Clark Kent—Superman—awakes with a start. Standing before him is the ghostly image of a shriveled, alien-looking creature. “He is coming,” the apparition states before dissipating in the breeze. “He is coming.”

The same strange visitation replays itself to John Stewart as he foils a bank robbery. To Bruce Wayne as he rides an elevator in WayneTech, to Barry Allen, and Wonder Woman, all of them telepathically warned by J’onn J’onzz, the last survivor of the planet Mars (shown bottom right). The same great evil that destroyed Mars is coming to Earth, and this Martian hunts men for a super-league capable of defeating it.

THE CHARACTERS: The Dark Knight, the Man of Steel, the Amazon, the Emerald Gladiator and the Fastest Man Alive come together as the JLA when J’onzz pleads to them for help against an evil no one hero can defeat. “Mars burned for 200 years after he came,” J’onzz says. “Everyone died. Everyone but me.”

SUPPORTING CAST: Filling out the JLA’s ranks is the Atom, a female scientist. In addition to shrinking her size to that of an atom, she can also adjust her body’s mass while small. Also lending support is J’onzz, who acts as the team’s intelligence gatherer, telepathic link and resident technology guru.

THE FIRST ARC: “After he destroyed Mars, he came to Earth,” laments J’ozz to the newly formed League. “But there was nothing to conquer. He killed the dominant species—your dinosaurs—and marked your Earth as a viable future world to subjugate. His…no, its name is Despero, the immortal leader of his warlike race. He comes alone, conquers by his own hand and proves his status of God to his people. I have felt his mind. He is coming.”

As the team races to learn everything they can about Despero and the Martian/human technology of the JLA’s Manhattan HQ, Despero crashes to Earth in a fiery ball of death. Towering over seven feet tall, the alien wreaks havoc through the U.N., brutally killing every delegate inside and donning the UN’s flag as a symbol of his power. His next step is to murder the U.S. president, as Despero cuts a path of destruction through all U.S. resistance. Eventually catching up to him, the hastily assembled Justice League face the would-be conqueror as their first mission…and their first failure. Even though they eventually defeat Despero, they may soon have to contend with an entire race of Desperos; having retreated behind Saturn, the rudderless army gives pause to ponder what to do with the one planet that’s managed to defeat their god.

THE BIG PICTURE: A few storyarcs in, Superman decides the League members need to know more about each other to work better as a team. As the members reveal their secret IDs and powers, the spotlight falls on a reluctant Batman, setting the stage as the untrusting Dark Knight turns his back on the League…and then systematically defeats them all, just in time for a new villain called The Key to unlock the gates of Hell!

 

[ironman29758]

THE ORIGIN: It’s ’N Sync meets superheroes. When the JLA emerges as media darlings after their battle with Despero, LexCorp manufactures its own superteam. Gathering a group of hip, good-looking teenagers with superhuman abilities, Luthor’s PR team designs marketable codenames and costumes for each. Calling them the “Teen Titans” (a name the team hates), Luthor now has a cash-cow bonanza first, “superhero” team second.

THE CHARACTERS: Placing ads in all the Hollywood trades, LexCorp holds auditions for the team. First to sign on is a young acrobat named Rich Grayson, who desperately wants to escape his life in the carnival act with his parents. Coming prepared with the codename “Nightwing,” he’s more than a little disappointed to instead be labeled “Robin.” Then there’s Raven, a mysterious goth-chick who spent years living on the streets through a combination of street smarts and her control of her “living darkness.” Escaping from the island of Themyscira was easy for Donna (who creates a last name in Troy), but escaping her big sister Diana’s shadow may be harder; Donna is given the codename Power Girl (instead of the proposed name “Wonder Girl” to avoid trademark infringement with the JLA’s Wonder Woman), which suits her fine since she wishes her presence in Man’s World remain secret from her Amazon sisters. The arrogant Prince Arturrs of Atlantis, a 19-year-old future king called Aquaman, wants to familiarize himself with the surface world before taking up his royal responsibilities; he insists he’s the team’s natural leader, much to the chagrin of the others. Roy Harper—given the name Green Arrow—was raised on an Indian reservation learning deadshot marksmanship with his bow; the wildcard of the team, Roy takes immense pleasure in ribbing teammates (like calling Robin “Dick,” or Aquaman “Artie”). The final piece to the Teen Titans make-up is accident victim Victor Stone, who LexCorp rebuilt as Cyborg.

THE FIRST ARC: Marketed as a pop-star superteam, the Teen Titans are sent out to battle low-level supervillains and thugs, allowing decisive victories. But when the team discovers Green Arrow overdosing on Ecstasy after a rave with Raven, the Titans secretly buck their bosses in their off-hours to get their hands dirty. They take out an E lab without telling LexCorp, which wants to keep the team’s image squeaky clean. During the raid though, Power Girl accidentally kills a dealer, creating rifts among members. What’s worse—keeping all of their extracurricular activities on the downlow proves tougher than they ever imagined, particularly when members like Green Arrow, Raven and Cyborg refuse to participate!

THE BIG PICTURE: With a murder hanging over the team’s collective heads, the Titans still participate in more nightly raids on drug dealers and gang-bangers. But as time goes on, their meta-human vigilante activities spark the first Ultimate DC crossover by attracting the attention of a rival team: the Justice League.

http://hallofheroes.free.fr/Html/goodies/wallpapers.htm

 

[ironman29758]

THE ORIGIN: Fifteen years ago, a 7-year-old Bruce Wayne watched helplessly as a two-bit crook gunned down his parents. As the young Wayne was shipped off to private schools, a young detective named James Gordon would be assigned to the case. It proves to be the one case he could never solve.

Fifteen years later, a changed Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham. Having all but disappeared from the public eye for the last few years, Wayne secretly trained himself to wage a one-man war on crime as the masked urban myth called Batman.

THE CHARACTER: Not the billionaire boob that so many fans are used to, Wayne’s trained himself not just as the Dark Knight but also as a shrewd businessman. One of the wealthiest men in the world, Wayne’s closest business rival is another young gun—Lex Luthor.

SUPPORTING CAST: Alfred Pennyworth represents the only family Wayne has left: An English manservant who served the Waynes for over 25 years, Alfred plays confidant, medic and sometimes psychiatrist to the man he thinks of as a son. In James Gordon’s long career, the image of young Wayne weeping over his parents’ lifeless bodies haunted him: After 20 years on the job, he ascends to police commissioner by turning the tables on the corrupt Gotham police force, using their own blackmail and strong-arm tactics against them. At Gordon’s side stands Harvey Dent, Gotham’s hotshot district attorney, who grew up with Bruce before the murders. Dent’s engaged to Gordon’s daughter, Barbara, a grad school student who can’t resist combing for Internet reports of the mysterious Batman’s nocturnal assault on crime.

THE SET-UP: After training for over a decade, Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham, and dons the cape and cowl of the Batman. Striking an alliance with Commissioner Gordon—despite D.A. Dent’s protests—the Dark Knight sets out to set things right in Gotham City.

THE FIRST ARC: As Batman and Gordon wage war against Gotham’s mob families, they learn someone has beaten them to it. Calling himself The Joker, this mysterious clown-themed vigilante’s campaign on crime kills capos, criminals and any innocents who get in the way. Batman must match wits with this darker version of himself who’s better at this game than he is.

THE BIG PICTURE: Batman’s stellar cast of rogues will be introduced slowly and menacingly. Two growing subplots will culminate with issue #50, as Wayne fights Lex Luthor’s hostile takeover of his company, and as Batman, he once again confronts the Joker, who’s learned that the high-tech Dark Knight could be only one man underneath that mask.

 

[ironman29758]

 

[ironman29758]

 

[ironman29758]

 

[Ultimate_Superman]

Wow this thread came back from the dead.

 

[yenaled]

Oh great. This is back.

 

[Aristotle]

THE ORIGIN: In an alternate universe, a stupid, intellectually lazy, gimmicky idea from Marvel that outgrew its usefulness and novelty way too quickly and is finally dying the slow miserable death it deserves, gets exported to DC for no apparent reason.

THE CHARACTERS: A company that has built its name on the basis of respecting continuity and history. An editor-in-chief who has failed to uphold that standard. And one final brutal insult to that tradition: an Ultimate DC line.

SUPPORTING CAST: Adam Beechen, Adam Beechen, and Adam Beechen.

THE SET UP: The whole thing is a setup, to con you out of your money and make you buy the same old stories you've already read, but "updated!", just like Ultimate Marvel.

THE FIRST ARC: Everyone thinks better of it and the idea never moves past the stage of concept art in an old issue of Wizard.

 

[CLARKY]

I think these ideas rocked. I wouldn't like to see the DC heroes transformed, but I think there were some good ideas. Except for the yoda-J'onn.