Comment Log

It is the coolest thing in the world that people are even reading this website in the first place.  It's a very personal project; the content is the product of a very small group of friends, while the actual text of the website is almost completely my own.  This is really "Matt's headcannon, the website", and any time anyone ever spends reading it is just a gift.

I started posting people's comments a few years ago, but it got a little hard to keep track of, so I decided to move it all to it's own page.  I'll be keeping the most recent comments here, while moving the older ones over to the Comment Archive.

Also, I'm going to start setting up a FAQ, because some questions just aren't ever going to stop happening.  If nothing else, it will give me something to link people to when they insist on explaining to me why the extra Lantern Corps are actually cool.  (They're not.)

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~"Love it! Really hope we get more out of her!"

This was posted on Helena Kyle's page, and we really appreciate it!  This isn't exactly an original character, but she is a very particular slice of comic continuity, and finding and highlighting these bits that clearly deserve to be found and highlighted is one of my favorite parts of the project. 

~"Azar could have been the equivalent of Dumbledore, the High Father, Gandalf, or even the Queen of Elfland. Instead she's a passing comment. Feels like such a lost opportunity."

I'm not going to lie, this one really hurt my feelings at first?  Then I realized that this comment was posted on Arella's page, not Azar's.  So let me say to this commenter; a) be nicer and b) maybe follow all the links first?

​~“From what I've read Hex surrendered in 1863 after Lincoln issued the actual Emancipation Proclamation January 1, not when he issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation September 22, 1862. He also apparently rejoined the Confederate Army after escaping as he was said to have fought Yankees at Vicksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg as those were all fought May to July, 1863, though it is doubtful he could fight in Vicksburg (a western theater battle) and Chancellorsville and Gettysburg (both eastern theater battles). He'd have to do some mighty fast riding to fight in Chancellorsville, rush to Vicksburg, escape the siege, then rush to Gettysburg.”

 If you’re aiming for completionism… which is to say, if you’re trying to adapt literally everything that has ever been written about these characters… then you’re on the right track.  Our goal here isn’t completionism, it’s making an idealized version of the story.

The reason they had Hex surrender upon the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation is specifically to remove him from the moral repercussions of serving the Confederacy during the Civil War.  As soon as the option was available for slaves to be free, they needed him to be on THAT side. It’s a shaky moral loophole no matter how you slice it, he’s still complicit just by virtue of serving at all, but if you’re AIMING for that shaky moral loophole… it needs to happen as soon as it opens at all.

As for the rest… I can’t say this for certain, but I would be willing to bet actual money that the reason Hex was depicted as serving in all those battles that happened after the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation and his surrender is because those writers were just including him in famous Civil War battles without really concerning themselves with where they fell on his personal timeline. If someone can find a Hex panel where they depict him re-enlisting with the Confederacy after his surrender (which would also mean after he’s branded as a traitor and marked for death BY the Confederacy, which is by far the most important narrative point in all of this), then I’m wrong... but I'd be willing to bet money on this one.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember that the writers of these comics are rarely as detail obsessive as we are, but you do have to make allowances for it sometimes and just let some content go.

​~“I read the Felix Faust post and I know you said you wouldn’t include Sebastian Faust as he was the 90s John Constantine but I was wondering if you can add him anyway, I can’t see John Constantine having a part in Justice League Dark or playing the superhero but Sebastian Faust could as he has experience playing the hero during the Outsiders and having a side role in Sentential of Magic”

You picked an interesting time to ask your question!  A few different reasons to readdress Sebastian Faust have come up fairly recently.  

First is just the fact that the page and timeline for Felix Faust really do have to get completely redone, so any observations we made on that page need to be taken with a grain of salt.  Second, we just recently redid Blue Devil, who has a fair few interactions with Sebastian, so we've recently bumped into him a few times and have seen him in a slightly different light?  Mostly just that he sort of stands in contrast not so much to Constantine as a whole, but rather Constantine's evolution as a character?  I think you kind of nailed it; modern Constantine is constantly being depicted as a more heroic character, more prone to join groups, and (this is crucial) as a dedicated romantic partner to Zatanna?  My wife and I got into this in our recent podcast, but that just might not be the best use of Constantine.  Faust, if done correctly, might fill that narrative space a little better?  He even plays a similar role over in the very fun three-issue miniseries Mystik U.  

For now, we're not doing Justice League Dark or the Sentinels of Magic... but nonetheless, yea, I do absolutely think Sebastian Faust might have a role to play somewhere. 

~“I love that you lay out how Bendis ruined Jon’s potential. Could not agree more. Interested to see what you do with him - tho sad it’ll take years since you’re not getting him aligned with Damian :’(”

I really did try my best not to go negative there, but sometimes it's just not possible. 

We talked in the discord recently about how there are so many creators who, once upon a time, were considered to be these incredible talents whose voice really came to define an era, but as time passed we started to recognize the patterns in their writing and they started to feel less and less innovative?   If its allowed to go long enough we not only start to really resent everything they do, but even their earlier work starts to fall out of favor? Bendis was mentioned, but also Jeph Loeb, Geoff Johns, Mark Millar, Tom King...

I'm sure its different for everyone, and I do think it's worth pointing out that these are all really talented people who have made huge contributions to this lore we all love... but its the fact that we love it that makes us critical when that work starts to feel regressive.  

Speaking specifically of Jon, the nature of our timeline is such that we're actually just going to stop here.  We won't be telling future continuity stories, but instead we're leaving it right where we are and letting everyone feel the massive potential of that future. 

~“Did you see that Tony Isabella just came out as trans? Her name's Jenny Isabella now.”

We did! Very proud of you, Jenny!

Isabella has said she's going to write under both names, but we still want to show solidarity in updating our references to her.  We've had some practice from trying to update Morrison's pronouns on the site, so any references to Isabella should already be updated, but let me know if you find anything!

~“Hey, I think you mentioned a while ago you were interested in including Dreamer, but there wasn't really any characterisation to speak of in comics to draw from (I might be misremembering but I think this is legit) I'm curious if, now that she's become significantly more established and has played a role in a number of stories, your thoughts there have changed.”

~“sent in a comment abt dreamer yesterday and totally missed she was in the project, lol! very cool to see her. as always i adore the dccp :D”

How's that for service, huh? :)

I don't know that we ever really had any issues with her characterization, so much as the fact that her powers and origin didn't really work for us.  Once we thought them out a little and we found a story for her we really liked, including her was pretty much never in question.

Thank you for reading!  It's awesome to have you here!

~“A couple years ago, there was a short story released in the one-shot comic DC Power that teased a relationship between Vixen and Batwing, which unfortunately hasn't been followed up on since then. The Batwing in question was Luke Fox instead of David Zavimbe, but given that Mari and David are on the same team here, I think it would make total sense for them to be a superhero power-couple.”

I just read that, it's very cute :)

This is not a reason it shouldn't be done, because it's absolutely a good idea?  I just really love the story that has come together for David Zavimbe and I imagine that if we were going to give him a love interest, I'd be someone from within that world, rather than his larger interaction with other superheroes? I hope that makes sense, because It's a neat idea otherwise. 

~“Would you ever commission pictures of other characters you’ve redesigned? (Personally, I’d love to see I piece of your Black Spider design)”

I don't want to pretend we've done a lot of visual redesigns, I think most of the time we're just giving our opinions on the looks that are available. Black Spider is a good example... We had some specific preferences, but I think we really do focus on the narrative side and trust that the artist would make the final decisions. Crackpot's sprites are a great example; they often interpret characters based on observations we don't even remember making, and the results are always great.  

So would we do commissions?  Yea, of course! The reason we did them for Big Science Action was because the art assets we needed just didn't exist, and that's usually not the case.  Our observations about Black Spider, for example, were all based on existing comic appearances.  If there's a specific character that you guys would like to see done, and if you want to contribute to another commission fund, we'd be happy to facilitate!

~“Pete Ross's box on Lana's page links to Lois. Just letting you know.”

~“On the most recent update log, Dan Garrett’s link leads to Frankenstein’s page”

As always, thank you guys for the help!  I'd never find these without it!

a few updates ago I'd said that looking through the related character buttons for incorrect links would be a good way to farm for No-Prizes... the person that time also ended their comment with 'just letting you know'... so I choose to believe it's the same person, and my advice is paying off.  

please enjoy your state-of-the-art No-Prize!

~“I like the rating system idea; maybe make it a silver 5-star format, and if a character does find their way in the stars turn gold? Also, and this is probably just a Me thing, but I hope that the "they're pretty bad" line gets removed from the Characters We've Removed section; it always felt a little too mean-spirited for my liking for a project that's meant to be a celebration of DC.”

This does feel like a project that should be doable, doesn't it?  I just think it needs a good long think.

~“Okay, this is driving me insane, who is that guy at the end of the 1942 and 1943 sprite rows on the Justice Society page, I can't find anyone who matches up with him on the names, and I don't recognize his costume myself.”

That is what you call an Easter Egg, my friend :)  You'll hate it if I told you who that is, so I'm going to leave it for you to guess.

~“I always really liked the inclusion of Alpha Centurion in the DCCP personally; the core idea of this pansexual Roman warrior-turned-pulpy space adventurer-turned-superhero becoming the champion of modern-day Italy always felt incredibly correct to me, on top of being pretty damn bold with it fully embracing the fact that the bulk of Greek and Roman men were VERY queer, which historicallly has been and continues to be erased by all the worst people.

He definitely needed some work done (I almost wrote him in for the updates list alongside a couple others but opted to restrain myself to just five), but I think the end resullts woud be more than worth it.”

I really appreciate that! This sort of positive feedback is what really makes me want to keep a character around. Honestly, I don't think you guys understand how much even a single positive comment fuels us internet nerds.

I ALSO really like him, and I've wanted to figure out a way to get the character you've described onto the project forever. I still want to try, but I think it just didn't work to continue to have this placeholder version of the character that ISN'T that. 

~“Are you still going to do Sandman and The Endless considering the …stuff with Neil Gaiman?”

I wasn't going to talk about this... this just isn't the sort of thing I wanted to give space to, but I suppose I probably do have at least some responsibility to at least comment.

We did change our plans, absolutely.  We had every intention of really digging into Sandman and giving it just as much attention as we gave the New Gods, building their entire story into the timeline.  We're not going to do that anymore, but the Endless will still exist.  They are still part of the tapestry of DC Lore, just like work of other problematic creators over the years. So you'll eventually see pages for those characters, but they'll just show the ways they influence the rest of the world, rather than being in support of their own story.

Navigating problematic creators is a skill we all need to develop as we consume artwork of all types.  You do of course want to make sure you don't support it in any way that puts money up through the system of streaming services, theme parks, or merchandise, but we ARE still allowed to consume that artwork secondhand.  The important thing (and probably also the hardest) is to let go of the person you once hero-worshipped.  It's letting go of the part of yourself that loved them, and that SUCKS... but it's necessary.

~“Grant Morrison’s pronouns on Shade the Changing Man’s page aren’t updated!”

Dear lord with these.  Grant Morrison came out as non-binary in 2020. It's been almost five YEARS now, how could you guys STILL be finding these?

I corrected this one, and I finally just used our search function to find every single instance of their name... I'm not going to lie, there were several more wrong pronouns I found, but they should finally, FINALLY all be taken care of!

So if everything worked correctly, this should actually, finally be the last time someone earns a No-Prize by finding one of these, so I made sure to get you one of these special limited-edition ones!  

~"I know you don't like the Multicolor Lantern stuff that Geoff Johns brought up, but I'm a little surprised you haven't done anything with Larfleeze, I always thought that he was probably the easiest character to separate from the Lanterns, given his central ability besides being just another Lantern."

We actually HAVE talked about it.  There was a whole conversation about the Red Lanterns, with some ideas about further stuff to do with Atrocitus. The general consensus is that in certain cases, if you strip the whole idea of them being lanterns at all and just give them a completely unique origin, you can get workable characters out of some of the multicolor Lanterns. The idea that Lafreeze basically had some sort of mystic alien artifact that let him summon armies of ghosts does seem like a fairly useable Green Lantern villain.

The thing is, we actually look for a little more than that.  We COULD add this character to the timeline, but we don't really have a reason to?  He doesn't DO anything? We get lots of suggestions for ways we adapt characters, but often when we ask why, the answer is "because it would be cool to have them." That's just not what we're doing.  We would need events to build the timeline out of, and those events would need to contribute to the larger story in some way.

Of course that doesn't mean we won't come up with a reason LATER.  There are tons of characters that we've deliberately not added specifically because we don't have a reason to yet, but as we build up our timeline they sort of evolve on their own. 

~"​Brenda's box on the Jaime page links to Traci Thirteen. Just letting you know."

Oh good catch. I said this earlier, but these are are hard to spot. If someone was really hellbent on collecting the most No-Prizes, these are definitely something that could stand a little quality testing.  

You happen to be in luck this week, the new No-Prizes just came in! Check this baby out!

~"While I think turning Shilo into Scott's son is a neat idea, the brand new Ram V New Gods series has just introduced an infant daughter for him called Olivia Free, and honestly the idea that the child of Scott and Barda being called "Liv Free" is so damn perfect that I'm shocked it took over 50 years for somebody to think of it."

It is kind of crazy that we spend more than a decade building to finally putting up the New Gods, and the moment we do, a new series gets launched, right?  I do look forward to seeing what they come up with... and yes, I absolutely agree, the idea of Liv is very clever!

I think at this point, the cleverness there is specifically in what it says about Scott and Barda and their characters, right?  Theoretically she will grow up and become her own character, but for now she's really just an extension of her parents. Shiloh, by comparision, is in fact a fully formed character, just one we thoroughly repurposed to be a contemporary of Jon Kent & Irey West in the possible future.  As clever as Liv's name is, she doesn't really give us that.  Yet.

I do absolutely imagine she is going to be worth adapting though, right?  Maybe at some point in the future Scott and Barda have a second kid?

~"Any reason you chose not to include certain New Gods, such as Black Racer, Kanto or Waverider?"

Not any one particular reason, it's really just looking at every character and working out how we can adapt them and use them in out project. Sometimes they just aren't built to contribute in a way that works in our version of things.  This is actually something that I often find is unique in this specific fan project... When I talk to other people who do something similar they are often really excited to find ways to add everyone?  We just don't really do that.  We sort of prioritize the final product, and if a character like Black Racer doesn't really have much narrative of their own, rather than go out of our way to make them fit, we'll just set them down.  Maybe a role will materialize later, but we'd rather not use them then use them poorly.

In this case, I don't really know what a role for Black Racer would look like, but Kanto absolutely is on the list of characters that we should revisit down the road.  We just didn't have a role for him YET.

Waverider, however... isn't a New God?  He was invented for the Armageddon crossover in 91, and then became one of the  Linear Men? From context I'm guessing that you're talking about Takion, who does bear a passing resemblance to Waverider? He was a character invented in his own series by Paul Kupperberg in 96 to be the physical manifestation of the Source.  You do see him show up in later depictions of the New Gods, don't you...  it honestly never even occurred to me to consider including him. I've never seen anything from him that suggested we should.  Doesn't the idea of a physical manifestation of the Source kind of defeat the whole idea of what the Source IS?

~"You say in a few of these that there are certain characters that are the lifeblood of DC. What characters would you say those are?"

Wow, that's a big question.  I think it's probably more something I say while I happen to be in the midst of that particular character description, right?  Just to indicate that I believe this person is particularly important?  I didn't mean to suggest that I was maintaining a LIST. That said, I actually am in the middle of reorganizing the site dropdown menu, and I think the way I've organized it might do a better job of depicting how important certain characters actually are.

~"Cassandra is Chinese, not Japanese."

Well, hold on there... Shiva is Chinese. (Technically her ethnicity is deliberately ambiguous, but there's enough evidence here that we can probably safely presume that she's Chinese). Cassandra is Chinese because she's Shiva's daughter, but that's a retcon from later in the series and we're not including that, we wanted to return to the original concept of her being entirely a product of Cain's torturous training, not some sort of martial arts chosen one.  

Without that, we were free to make her whatever we wanted.  What we really wanted to do was find an identity Cassandra would take that feels like her moving closer to her idealized version of herself, because so often someone stepping out of a role that has defined them for so long feels like they are being pushed aside, and we wanted her to feel like she was growing. We wanted to find a way for her name to be 'Bat', a purer distillation of the principles she wants to represent.  We looked in a few different Asianic languages for their word for Bat, and found the Japanese katakana コウモリ, pronounced kōmori. I really am not great with other languages, but I was told that the Japanese Kanji for this name would be 蝙蝠, and I just really like the idea of Cassandra, whose relationship with language is so complex, discovering a pictographic language in which movement plays such a vital role, and to find a way to express her own identity there, as well as an expression of what she strives to be.
​
Bear in mind, I can't sit here and definitively say I've read absolutely every single panel Cassandra ever appeared in, but I can say that in my reading I haven't seen any reference to her nationality outside of her relationship to Shiva, and frankly even if I DID, I like this better. 

~"The Omega Man box under Allies & Teams on the Adam Strange page links to Aleea's page. Just letting you know."

Oh that's a good catch.  Links are kind or notoriously hard for me to make sure I have right, and the buttons are even harder, because in my interface in Weebly I use the text links to hop around between pages, but the buttons don't let me do that.  I'd have to test them from the actual website... and while building a website talking about superheroes is my hobby, testing one isn't.

We're currently out of the NORMAL No-Prizes, so instead we're giving you this rare early-production model No-Prize.  It doesn't have all the current features, but they really just don't make them this sturdy and beautiful anymore. 

~"​When the timeline says "now" what year is that?"

It's a sliding timeline, so "now" is just whatever year it is for you when you read it.

~"​Big fan, keep up the great work!"

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! We really appreciate it!

~"Omg, that ‘90’s panel of Gal Gardener is bonkers. Just pure excess. Excess sexualization. Excess guns. Excess everything. Thanks for that! Meanwhile, just a minor note: the phrase is “butt of the joke” with two “t”s, not one. Just discovered this site, and I’m enjoying it. Thanks!"

​​~"On the related characters section on Darkseid’s page, Killroy is spelled Killjoy (which is funnier). I don’t know if it’s like that on other pages."

Spelling corrections!  Not just any spelling corrections, but spelling corrections that aren't going to get caught with spellcheck.  You're doing the Lords work. Presuming the Lord enjoys deeply nerdy websites. 

Please accept this No-Prize!  It's vintage!

~"Been digging through this website and it’s pretty neat and it’s inspired to try and write a DC universe based on what you have laid out here. It’ll closely yours though with differences. for example being a bit more liberal with the use of time travel and featuring the multiverse in a limited capacity (though I do agree that those elements should be used very sparingly). I also intend to keep Jason Todd as the red hood (I do find your pick for his replacement to be an intriguing angle which I’m keeping in mind for something else) I sincerely look forward to seeing what ideas you have in store for the future."

Good for you, man!  If there's anything I've discovered from sharing this project for so long it's that pretty much every comic fan does some version of this; everyone has some kind of headcanon.  It's just certain types of brains that start to write it down :)

Our discord is filled with people doing exactly what you're doing, building out a headcanon of their own.  The really fun thing there is that we all share our ideas pretty openly, and I think we've managed to create a space where we're not really arguing about anything, because we all know that everyone can have their own ideas for their own projects and they don't have to be the same.  If you'd like to join the conversation, please feel free to shoot us an email!

​~"Do you think you’ll update the Penguin’s page now that the show has wrapped up? Any story beats you’d like to incorporate? (Also what did you think of the show?)"

I don't know if I should be embarrassed about this or not, but I haven't seen it.  I'm really not a person who feels any pressure to watch things as they come out, I tend to get to stuff when and if I get to it. I've been told by some regular contributors to the site that the Penguin worth watching, so its certainly in my future somewhere, but I am BAD at finishing TV shows.

​​~"Hello. I'm doing research on Dr Polaris. Would you mind telling me please the issues where the Asteroid Base is seen / built ? Or the fight with the JL and Kyle Rayner on this asteroid base ? Best regards, Nicolas"

Sure thing!  It's first appearance is right here!

Man I hope you clicked on that before you kept reading :)  Yea, there is no Dr Polaris Asteroid Base, that was something we added to lean into the idea that he is DC's answer to Magneto.  In all honesty, we thought the reference was so obvious we didn't actually need to explain it.

~"I'd like to point something out, just to have you aware of this. ​Firstly, great work. The site is amazing, you did a fantastic job compiling all of it!!! Now, my actual point: The name of the "Mad Hatter" is Jervis Tetch, not "tech". I feel like that is a detail that isn't insanely important but still something I noticed regardless. It's likely just a spelling error on your part, no big deal lol. Anyways, you did good. Keep it up!!!!! "

~"​On Frankenstein’s page, Grant Morrison’s pronouns aren’t up to date!"

Thank you so much! Misspelled character names are the bane of my existence, because I don't just have to correct it on ONE page, but all over the site.  This one wasn't so bad, other than the fact that CTRL-F-ing the word "tech" on a superhero website gets you a lot of results I have to fish through. Finding another instance of Grant Morrison's pronouns not being updated is always appreciated... In this case Frankenstein's page is probably due to be updated soon anyway, but it's still best to correct these whenever we find them.

Please accept these genuine, original edition No-Prizes for your efforts!

~"Nubia's page seems to be really glitching out; it's repeating the info from the Titans of Myth event from Diana, Donna, Artemis and the Titans' pages on top of hers"

Good find!  When I do a new page, one of the biggest steps is to get all the links to all the other pages to work, but also to rewrite all those pages so they all incorporate the new information.  The way I do that is to literally keep copying info from each page as I rewrite them to keep track of the changes I've made... and it looks like that.  in that particular case, I just forgot to delete everything and clean it up... so clearly I needed help spotting it!  Thank you so much!

You are now a proud recipient of our cherished no-prize!  It's collectable!

~"​I loved the Peter David run (which was 1994-2001)"

This was on Aquaman's page, but I'm sure you figured that out. 

Me too!  If you've been around the project long enough, you might have seen the original version of Aquaman's timeline, which was based on the Peter David origin.  That series was my jam, and this was just my preferred backstory.  It wasn't until the James Wan movie when i finally had to admit that the love story between a human lighthouse keeper and Atlantean Queen was just way better in it's simplicity.  It feels like a classic myth. 

But that doesn't mean this book is any less fantastic.  Everyone should check it out.

~"​How come you didn't mention Walter Slezak's performance as The Clock King in a 1966 "Batman" two-parter -- "The Clock King's Crazy Crimes / The Clock King Gets Crowned"? "

Why would I?

I'm assuming you left this comment after just reading this one page, and haven't looked around elsewhere.  I also didn't mention Eli Wallach as Mr. Freeze. I'm not trying to catalog every appearance of the characters, I'm just writing a fun little review of the character and their history.  It's not meant to be exhaustive. 

~"​My favourite thing about Mariah is how obvious it is that Mike Grell just really wanted to draw Black Widow"

It does kind of make you wonder if there was an existing trope of sexy redhead Russian femme fatales that they were both tapping into, doesn't it?

Part of the fun of Skartaris as a whole is that Grell was just drawing whatever he wanted, and he was clearly (I think I'm using this right) "being horny on main". The fact that you know what you're getting into when you read it makes it less jarring, like reading Conan or Heavy Metal, but I do think some of the depictions of Mariah actually managed to shock me a little, even still.  I mean look at the art I wound up using for her page. Scandalous. 

~"Because I’m into the new Penguin show do you have any plans to do a page for Carmine Falcone’s children, Alberto and Sofia? I know Alberto is in your timeline but he doesn’t have a page"

​~"was just wondering if you'd ever include julia pennyworth and your thoughts on her? She's just a huge favorite of mine."

~"​Any plans for Savant?"

~"​Will you ever include Jakeem Thunder, he's the only core member of the Johns JSA you haven't touched yet, and a good and fun character all around"

~"​​Any plans for Baby Doll? Her debut episode in the Batman:TAS is one of the best in the series imho"

I hope it's okay for me to answer all of these in bulk; I just don't have anything in particular to say about any of them individually…

As usual, I will be the absolute first person to follow your fan continuities if you find a way to use these characters that feels like a worthwhile contribution?  They obviously have their fans, and I'm sure a person can find stories to tell with them… I just personally don't have any connection to them, and haven't had a particular need to include them.​

~"​Wouldn't it make more sense to refer to the Omega Men as L.E.G.I.O.N. since most of the Omega Men aren't on the site anymore aside from Tigorr who has only now joined the team or is Omega Men just a name you prefer to L.E.G.I.O.N."

You basically got it… yea, L.E.G.I.O.N. is just an unwieldy name.  If you’re not deliberately trying to make a modern-day team reflecting the Legion of Super-Heroes (and why would you do that?) it really just doesn't make any sense.

​~"Is Richie still gay on top of being a trans-man here? I assumed he was and that Virgil knew about it from the beginning whilst not knowing about him being trans until the incident with Richie's dad, but reading over it again I'm not 100% sure of that"

A big part of making Richie trans was trying to find a modern version of the classic story that tracked to a modern teenager experience. I don't know if you’ve hung out with any teenagers lately… I'm sure it's different in different places, but observing my nieces and nephews and their friends, my big takeaway has generally been that they don't really concern themselves with labels like gay or straight anymore… They know people are attracted to other people, and don’t really care beyond that?

So… yea, I do think Richie is gay, but only because there's literally no reason for him not to be.

~​(from Bane’s page) "The fourth image is crazy."

​Yep, that's concept art from Arkham Asylum.  I think it actually appears in the game?  They did some good work with that one.

~"​Does James Jr become a serial killer in the future, or does he stay normal?"

​We’re generally not in the habit of writing future continuity around here, but I don't know if anyone really LIKES the idea of James Jr being a serial killer, do you?  You’re welcome to use it, if you do, but personally this has always felt completely unnecessary.

~"​On Man-Bat’s page, Grant Morrison’s pronouns aren’t up to date!"

​Thanks for catching it! Just for clarification; I wrote a lot of the site, where I fanboy about Grant quite a bit, before they came out as non-binary and stated that their preferred pronouns are they/them.  I've done my best to correct myself, but it's a big site, so if you find any instances where I still use the wrong pronouns, please let me know!

​~"Besides Marvel, would you like to do continuity sites for any other franchise?"

As far as doing whole SITES for them, no.  This is a labor of love, but it's a LOT of labor :)

We do talk about other franchises all the time, though.  I even cranked out what I thought was a very workable Mario Brothers continuity in the revisionist style of the DCCP over in our discord.  What's even better is a lot of our readers do the same thing, everyone is working on different continuity projects in there.  

If you're interested in joining us, you can email me at [email protected] and ask for a discord invite!

~"​MARK WAID complimented the site?! No way, congratulations!"

I KNOW!  Insane, right?

For those that don't know, I use the Black Book where we built the original timelines to collect signatures at conventions now.  I know most of these creators have seen every possible ridiculous fan project, so I try not to act like I'm trying to show it to them...  but let's be honest, I kind of am. 

Well, Mark Waid got it IMMEDIATELY.  It was very cool.  He asked me to send him a link and his response made me tear up a little bit :)

I asked for his permission to use his quote, by the way.  Class act, that guy :)

~"I'm a big fan of the rough outline for the Seven Soldiers of Victory that you laid out while talking about Vigilante a while back (it gives off big Hollywood blockbuster event vibes in the best kind of way), and I was just wondering whether or not you had locked it in as something that's going to be added to the timeline?"

Thank you!  It does definitely have a good VIBE... there's just some real logistical issues that need to be worked out, so it's not locked in yet.

Among the various lists I maintain of stuff to work on, one of them is called "half ideas".  It's on that one.

~"question i am just wondering if you are going to add in my boy Jonathan Samuel kent superboy as his little 10 year old self in your timeline and hopefully not age him up like bendis did which failed badly?"

~"​i love it ;)"

I'm combining these because the first question was on the front page, where they asked a very good question about how we're using Jon Kent, and the second one was on Jon's page, where I presume the original commenter found their answer.

Generally speaking, characters rapid-aging out of childhood is almost never a functional story device, it's almost always done to solve some other problem, like not wanting to cast a small child in your TV show, or in the case of Bendis, being lazy and short-sighted.  

To answer your question, though, Jon being 10 is ALSO him being aged up out of nowhere.  There really is no way for Jon and Damian to be the same age, but we've built a whole group of characters into the timeline to be his contemporaries as he grows up.

~"I found the source for the Adult Lian fanart! "

That's fantastic!  Thank you!  

Frankly I'm a little relieved, because the one little closeup image we'd found did show that string at her hip and I was worried the artwork might be... a bit more NSFW than I would be comfortable with using?  But this is really great!  Just a fantastic piece of design for a grown-up Lian.

Of course, this being a ten-year-old Tumblr post means we're not really able to reach out the artist for permission, but it's still really cool to get the complete character!

~"If Iris is black in this universe, shouldn't Bart's pixel art also depict him as black?"

We certainly could have done that, absolutely.

Bear in mind, all we've really done here is made Iris & Wally black.  For Bart, that just means his paternal grandmother is black. Barry is white, (Barry White!), so Bart's dad Don would be HALF black.  We don't know traditionally-white Meloni Thawne's ethnicity (until crackpot makes sprites for her), but we know that, while we haven't really made any familial connection with Eobard, they at least share a name, and he's white...

All that said, I think crackpot actually nailed Bart's particular look, remembering that at least some of his family is black.  What do you guys think?

~"​I wonder if whoever wrote this read young all stars"

~"just update about Tim please, he isnt talon anymore"

I'll just start by answering both comments. The first one was posted on the Pantheress page, where we absolutely mention the Young All-Stars.  Yes.  We read it.  This site is a fan continuity; we use things we like and ignore the rest. If you want to make yourself feel clever by naming content we deliberately didn't include, you're going to be here for a long time. As for the second post, Tim was never Talon.  That's an original idea.  We do that here sometimes.  If you don't like it that's fine, but I have a sneaking suspicion you didn't know that when you decided to write this.  

Our comment system is actually deliberately set up in this unwieldy format so that I have the option of just not bothering with comments like these most of the time; where someone is just being deliberately combative and not trying to contribute anything out of what I presume is a misguided effort for... attention?  I guess?  I just thought I'd share them this time as a general example to everyone else.  Don't be these guys.  

~"Have you ever considered making a "Miscellaneous Characters" page for characters who definitively exist in the project but aren't really worth devoting full pages for, like Alura and Zor-El? I imagine they'd consist of a brief timeline and a single paragraph beneath it, roughly as long as some of the oldest pages on here if not slightly shorter, and just speaking for myself I think it would make the project as a whole feel more complete/comprehensive."

So... I don't actually have a minimum length for what a usable character timeline would look like.  Even if I had a brief timeline and short paragraph to write about a character, then that would be enough to just include them normally.  What you're talking about here is people for whom I really don't even have that much. There are plenty of minor supporting characters who just get name dropped all over the place without needing a whole page... I hope you can accept that I don't need to tell the whole life story of every single person every single one of these characters ever interact with.  While I have done the parents of certain characters, it's only because those parents are actually narratively relevant, and have stories of their own. 

​~"Really love this take of Easy Company; I wish there was a clear stand-in for Dillon (though I suppose Bulldozer is a pseudo-composite of Dillon and Blaine?), but beyond that I think it's a really creative and fun way to streamline this group into something immediately recognizable"

Thank you!  This was, of course, something we came up with WAY back when we were doing the original Black Book timelines.  Not to toot our own horn, but I actually really do think this one stands out as one of our better ideas as a framework for integrating lesser-known characters.  

​Now, to your Dillon point (which is my favorite sentence I've written today)… Remember that Dillon wasn't actually on Dutch's team!  He was a "spook" that was tagging along on the mission, so he doesn't need to be represented in Easy Company.

~"​Jim Shooter did not create the Legion of Super-Heroes. Otto Binder did."

Wow, nice catch. 

I actually think I might have just fully not known that back when I made that page (which honestly wasn't THAT long ago?).  I've just always been so enamored with the idea of 13-year-old Jim Shooter building such an elaborate world in his Legion that this detail just shot past me.  Thank you for catching it, and please enjoy your no-prize!

~"Not going to lie, I find it odd to gloss over or omit the problematic bits of Deathstroke, a superhero, when you have not done so for other characters, particularly heroes, who have dealt with trauma- or even accentuate the less than savory aspects of heroic characters- such as the allegations of Green Arrow being a cheater.

I feel you’re omitting key facets of the character here with Deathstroke as his relationship and internal morality towards his repeated conflicts with the Titans- a team of predominantly teens, children and young adults, shouldn’t be ignored. Jericho, his scarring and his mother’s shooting of Deathstroke being omitted is a particularly glaring imho."

I ran this comment by the Discord server, because I really wanted to get a little perspective on it before I decided if I wanted to respond at all.  Just the fact that they refer to Slade as a hero really made me think that this was just one of the Deathstroke fans that I absolutely predicted I'd piss off with our page, but it was pointed out to me that this could just be worded incorrectly.  If you DO think of Slade as a hero... then we're just approaching this from wildly different directions and we're not going to agree no matter what.

I do want to always respond to this sort of thing by making it clear that we're never suggesting our take is the only viable one, right?  If you would like to see this character handled differently, well then that's just as valid as our choice to handle it this way.  I would, without sarcasm, love to see your own fan continuity.

In this case, however, I really do need to respond to the specific content we're talking about.  Without getting too specific about it, the content from Deathstroke's story that we're choosing to not include?  It has no business being in these comics.  We are ALWAYS going to take that content out.  If we changed nothing else anywhere, we would still change this.  

Lots of stuff I totally admit is open to debate.  We honestly were sad we couldn't work out a way to include Jericho, we LIKE him, he's just largely tacked into the timeline.  Often the fact that we work with timelines means we need to be pragmatic about what we include, and I'm very open to conversations about how that can be better!

But I just don't know that I have the emotional tools to debate you on this particular topic.  If you really, legitimately, believe that the Deathstroke content in question is somehow equal to Ollie cheating... I just don't know that I can meet you on that battlefield.  Sorry.

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