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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~"Unsure if this is the correct place for this, but regarding Crush's potential inclusion as a love interest in the great girlfriend debate, how about merging her and Slobo/Lil Lobo of Young Justice (1998) into a singular character?"

That's pretty solid.  My main issue with Crush was that her being so similar to Lobo actually didn't make sense; Lobo isn't a normal Czarian. Other than his strength, he is the way he is because of the circumstances of his life, not his biology, so behaving so similar to Lobo isn't something Crush can inherit.  It would have to come from being raised by him, and that's not something Lobo has room for in his story.

But you do pretty clearly circumvent that almost entirely by making her an actual biological copy of him.  You're basically talking about creating an X-23 of Lobo. Any similarity to him makes total sense, but it also explains any differences. 

I think my next question, then, is what should we do with her?  This is a good way to get Crush on the board, we'd just need some purpose for her to be there. 

​~"(Say, how's this for a deep-cut character?) Would you guys ever be interested in adding Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt, to your timeline?"

You ever have a plan to do something you're really excited about because you know it's really cool and unexpected, and then someone asks you about that exact thing, and you just feel yourself cackling internally?

I just added him to the Do You Have A Plan For This Character? FAQ, so you can keep track of him on his way to the site.  

~"Is the sprite art of Batman’s Extreme Stealth suit based on anything from comics, shows etc? It’s so cool, especially how it’s all black, no definition or details. A moving shadow."

That's a Crackpot original idea, but think I can safely say it didn't come to them out of nowhere.  Part of the fun of making the sprites is that you can sort of collect them like action figures, and when you're creating alternate figures for Batman the idea of doing "Extreme" suits like the Artic and Scuba suits just kind of follows naturally.  Because of the page layout I told them I wanted four extreme suits; I think the "Tactical" suit was my idea, something with electro-gloves and more armor, while I think the Stealth suit came more from Crackpot experimenting with how they were drawing the suits.  At one point the Stealth suit also had a cape, but it just lost any defining shape at all.  One fun thing with that sprite is that every time I download it, it's literally just a pair of eyes. :) 

~"OK, I've got to ask: Lucius Fox being fired by Ferris Boyle and then taking his job when Bruce Wayne returns... is that a reference to Batman Begins, with Rutger Hauer's character, Mr. Earle? "Didn't you get the memo?" "

Got it in one!  This character was written in my outline as (Rutger Hauer) for the longest time before I was able to reach into Batman lore and find an existing corporate baddie I could adapt.  When we were building the idea of making Batwing and Lucius Fox into a modern adaptation of Batman Beyond we knew we needed someone to be responsible for creating our take on Neo Gotham, and that character from the movie just popped out as the ideal candidate.  

It's kind of funny how often tiny pieces of a story you're not actively adapting into your continuity will make their way in there anyway.  The idea that Julie Madison was a childhood friend of Bruce's, explaining why he's engaged to her so soon after returning to Gotham, didn't just come out of nowhere. 

~"One thing you forgot about Scorch..... Her transformation from normal Human into Scorch.... was actually by choice. Sure, she didn't get exactly what she wanted, but it was the same general idea of what she wanted. She CHOSE to become a supervillain. Aubrey Sparks's later choices seem to indicate she realized this was a mistake, but... she never actually became a hero. She had a Heroic Sacrifice moment, but... still didn't become a hero."

I have to admit this one kind of stumped me.  This person clearly has a very clear sense of Scorch's comic journey, but.... I mean the character has 24 appearances TOTAL... it's not hard to read them all. I'd already been back and forth through them when i did the page and never saw any indication that Aubrey ever had anything resembling a choice.  She was a victim of Emperor Joker.  The closest I could find to anything indicating any kind of choice was this panel when J'onn is reaching into her memory, but even that is a stretch. 

Moreso... I'm not quite sure why you're arguing that she was never a hero.  I don't think anyone here is saying she ever was?  I reread my own essay about her, and I don't think I even suggested it. 

Best I can figure out, this is just someone telling us their own headcanon for this character?  If that's the case, more power to you!

~"Will you adapt the Tom King Supergirl story with Ruthie and Krem of The Yellow Hills?"

That's a tough one.  Generally the answer is no for most Tom King work: He writes a good story, but he is generally only peripherally adherent to existing character canon (which is kind of a big deal for me), and he tends to deconstruct everyone into an expression of his own depression and ptsd, which... I mean its hard to argue with the result, but I sort of liked those characters before you made them incredibly sad? 

In this case, however, the story in question is an absolute banger, and since it's the source material for easily the most visible piece of Supergirl media ever, its going to wind up pretty central to the characters entire ethos for the forseeable future.  Still, even the comics have kind of struggled integrating this story into their continuity (Most of Tom King's work is originally written as out-of-continuity).  They ultimately stuck it right after her time almost being recruited by the Female Furies to explain her whole mindset in the series...

Does that feel right to you?  Should we follow the mainline comic's lead and have that story play out right after she's saved from Apocalypse?

~"Hey, big fan. I’ve been so curious what the artifact Swift and Zatara fight over forty-four years ago is. Maybe I’m just blanking on their appearances but I can’t recall it for the life of me."

Good question!  This was actually intentionally left open back when i was doing these original pages, which I'm sure you can see were considerably more spartan that the timelines I create nowadays.  The intention wasn't to create a whole 'episode', just more of a story prompt.  So it could really be anything, as it is.  

I tell you what, though; Zatara is due to have his page pretty much completely redone.  I'm going to strip both him and Zatanna down to the frame and rebuild them, so that story is absolutely going to get fleshed out.  So why don't I turn this around to you?  What do you think this artifact should be?  How do you think this story should play out?  Let me know, maybe we can colab a little :)

~"(I apologize in advance for the long comment) So, I started reading comics around 2011, so the New 52 was in full force at the time. When I first discovered your project, around 2020, it was a little jarring to me when I found out two things were much more recent than I thought: the first was the multicolored Lantern Corps, the second was the idea that Eobard Thawne had murdered Barry's mother. I just assumed these were long-standing DC lore, like Krypton exploding or Bruce Wayne's parents being murdered. Now, you guys have already explained many times why you're not including the multicolored Lantern Corps, so I get that, but may I ask why not include Barry's mom's murder? It always seemed to me like the perfect reason for him to become a forensic scientist."

Woof.  Big question.  Okay.  

I wrote a crazy long answer to this one, and it was loaded with a lot of "to me" and "I think" and "in my opinions", until I realized that I was basically building a fort out of my own opinions... and I don't need to do that.  I'm sure you totally get that the whole idea here is that I'm creating my own idealized version of DC.  You don't need me to explain that, you're just asking me to extrapolate on the preferences that lead to this choice a little. 

So in short, (speaking entirely for myself), If you didn't grow up with the post-flashpoint Flash, it's a pretty drastic change to the character.  I really liked Barry as he was, with his story finished and the classic Silver Age persona, so injecting him with a whole dead mom story was like bringing back Krypton. Barry came back RIGHT as I was realizing that bringing back Hal was a bad idea, so I was very aware at the time of just how much every new thing they came up with was an attempt to justify his return, and none of it landed.  Flashpoint created this really endless, unfun "It was me Barry!" loop where the hero is just endlessly tortured by the badguy and can do nothing about it.  I don't LIKE that. 

I get how this is actually Barry as you know him, and I'm sure lots of people agree with you that this is worth preserving, but ultimately I think I just dislike it for the same reason I dislike the rainbow Corps.  It's deliberately undermining an existing lore that I prefer. I like Silver Age Barry, and I like his story being complete. I'm sure I'm about to get a bunch of messages telling me how wrong I am, but let me just say this in the hopes that maybe some of you haven't already pressed send: I know.  I know you disagree.  That's fine.  You don't need to tell me about it. :)

(Also... I am pretty sure people become forensic scientists all the time without their moms being killed by time travelers.)

​~"What are your thoughts on bringing Andrew Bennet, aka I, Vampire into the mix? To my knowledge, you actually have very little vampires in the current timeline."

You're right, we DON'T have any vampires.  Unless you include Vincent Velcoro, but he's not technically an actual vampire.  We've actually had a pretty elaborate conversation about ways to bring in a whole Vampire lore for our DC Project, and it does lean pretty heavily on Andrew Bennet.  I think it's far enough along now that you'll eventually see it, but it's a pretty preliminary status for now. 

​~"(I apologize in advance for the long comment) I noticed here that you guys didn't even try to give the Joker a backstory, and that reminded me of something that I also saw in your comment log. There you mentioned that you don't plan on giving a specific identity to the man who killed Bruce Wayne's parents (usually referred to as Joe Chill). Now, the first live-action Batman movie I saw was the 1989 Tim Burton film. There, it is eventually revealed that Thomas and Martha were murdered by the man who would eventually become the Joker. Now, when I was a child, I thought that this was actually canonical to the comics, because it made sense, thematically. The guy who set Bruce down on the path to become Batman eventually becomes his arch-nemesis. Only when I actually started reading the comics did I learn that this was not the case, and it was a bit of a letdown. Now since, in your project, the Joker's true identity is never revealed, and the identity of Thomas and Martha's killer is also never revealed... could it be that... maybe... if you catch my drift...?"

Yep, you could totally go with that.  I remember thinking that as well; the 89 movie defined a lot of my understanding of the character, and I think that's probably true for most people who weren't die hard comic readers (yet).  

Now, in my own headcanon (which is the engine driving this website) I really like the 'no backstory' Joker, and I like the idea of not really knowing who Joe Chill was... so that sort of prevents ME from adapting this idea.  Not to say it couldn't have happened, but we can't KNOW if happened, because that gives Joker a backstory and Joe Chill an identity, right? I'm actively choosing to leave those details as an unknown variable.

So this becomes, in a way, your headcanon of my headcanon.  Which is pretty neat!

​~"What's the point of doing this team without having them ever fight Superman?"

This was left on the Justice League of Earth page.  The answer should be pretty obvious; we're including them as Legion villains... this was part of a batch of comments where someone really took me to task for not adapting the Silver Age Superman more aggressively.  I just wanted to say... I'm happy to have a conversation with you guys about how our personal takes on DC differ, but I'm not really here to DEBATE you. You preferences are as valid as mine are. If you disagree, that's awesome, I will absolutely be the first person to come check out your Continuity Project. 

​~"Lois Lane did not raise Jon in Smallville in the comics. They raised him in rural California for the majority of his childhood, then moved to a town outside of Metropolis before returning."

Thanks, we're aware!  That's specifically one of the things we actively chose NOT to do.

~"Sorry for the small correction, but Big Words was born in 1918 and was 6 years old in 1925? Surely you mean 1924?"

I DID mean 1924!  Math, man.  

It's been a little while since someone earned themselves one of our vintage No-Prizes... this one is actually one of the original pressings.  

~"Have you given any thought on including the Space Cabbie somewhere down the line? He feels like one of those underdog characters people enjoy seeing."

I'm certainly not against it.  He wouldn't be a hard to do, you could basically just add him as-is.  The question becomes, what are we going to do with him?  What sort of contribution do you think we could get from this character such that making him a timeline would be necessary?

~"What do you think of the Amalgam Universe?"

The original comics were certainly fun.  That was at the height of my comic collecting so I actually have most of it. I don't know that it necessarily needs to be it's own universe, thought?  The appeal of the whole idea was really that it's a one-off.  Yet another example of my ardent belief that you should really stop when you're done.

~"Do you plan on adding Lena Luthor as Lex's daughter and Supergirl's friend/frenemy?"

​I had to reread this, because when you said Lena Luthor I automatically assumed we were talking about Pre-Crisis Lena Luthor, Lex's sister.  I went on a whole journey reading more of her classic appearances, because I can absolutely see the argument to put HER in Supergirl's orbit. You're talking about Lex's daughter (who is theoretically named after his sister, I imagine?) I think if I do add her (which I very well might do, this is a good idea), I would probably go with the original character.

~"From the looks of things you are looking to still expand your wild west characters a bit, have you considered Marilyn Moonlight? Even though shes a more recent character, a lot of people seem to like her and it would be another bit of diversity"

Marilyn Moonlight is a fantastic example of the the unfortunate state of original characters in comics.  She has a great design and concept, but rather than build on that to create a new comic (which would have a black lead, as it happens), they made her a Superman supporting cast member.  Nevermind that Metropolis is an east Coast City and therefore is thematically divorced from anything Western-based.

She clearly SHOULD be in her own comics, but she just won't move the needle as much if she's not appearing in a comic with another successful character.  The results being that they just sort of stop developing her.  There isn't content we can use, and frankly the overall concept is pretty underbaked.  Her design doesn't really work as a character in the classic DC Western, and her story doesn't give her enough space for her to function now.  

Which sucks, because this is clearly a good idea.  If we were going to use her, we'd really have to do a ton of groundwork just to get her to functional.  Which we still might DO, because again, good idea.  

~"You mention perhaps using Professor Pyg here and yet he doesn't appear in the upcoming character list. Is there any reason for this?"

I did say that, didn't I?

When I'm doing a character's possible future, that usually isn't something I have a specific plan for.  It's just me speculating on what could happen.  There are some things that are happening "soon", and those are reliably canon to our project, but otherwise it's not actually part of the plan.  

As a peak behind the curtain, however; we are still building out the events of the "Monkey Fist Tournament", an event happening in the timeline that you'll see referenced occasionally.  We've actually sat down and worked out the evolution of that whole tournament, including some of the jobber fighters who are just there to lose as others advance, and the Flamingo was actually in there.  

I don't know if we're doing pages for EVERYONE that appears in the Tournament, some of them are really minor (Shatterfist is in there.) but it does put Flamingo in the world, and if he's there he might make a solid enemy to put up against Nightwing at some point... and Professor Pyg can't be that far behind after that, can he?

~"Due to their nature as a story in the "future" they probably cant be 1 to 1 translated, but have you considered adding the Atomic Knights anywhere, perhaps in space rather than the future?"

You know we did take a LOOK at them when we were starting off.  (Fun bit of trivia: the original passes at this entire timeline were basically taken entirely from those DC Encyclopedias they put out in the mid 2000s) I think at the time we just set them aside as being unnecessary, but looking back now (and having actually read a good number of their appearances) I don't think an idealized version of the Atomic Knights would BE in space.  I think it's in a post-apocalyptic future.  

Now, it's understood that there IS a big stretching question mark of time between the current continuity and the 30th century of the Legion, right?  It's vital that there is some sort of cataclysm that separates those time periods, which explains why the Legion doesn't have prophetic knowledge of the past (and was also supposed to make them immune from major timeline changes, inasmuch as whatever happened in the past is ALWAYS what happened in the past).  This means that there's a big expansive stretch of time when all those post-apocalyptic worlds could happen. Kamandi's world is more of a reach, because that implies that for a while the Earth was populated by mutated animals only for it to later go BACK to humans... but the Atomic Knights fit almost effortlessly.

So while we're not plotting out these events, I think that if you ask the Legion, it's understood that some sort of unknown cataclysm happened on Earth somewhere before their time, and that humanity built itself back up again... and that one element of that particular period is the existence of the Atomic Knights. 

~"Just wondering if you actually have a more in depth explanation of how the League is able to defeat the Crime Syndicate. Do they lock them up? Find a way to make them go back to the Dream realm?"

Yea, it's really necessary that the Crime Syndicate only exists for this one story, because that's really only as far as our premise for creating them allows. Upon his return to the Dreaming, Morpheus spent some time just going around wiping away ongoing messes in the Dreaming, and ended all the ongoing dreams within Garrett's Dream Dome without a second thought. He certainly wouldn't allow a bunch of dream creations to be out in the waking world smashing it up.  If they were allowed to continue to exist, then it strains credibility of the whole thing.

So I think that defeating the Crime Syndicate basically means you end their attempt to extend their existence in the waking world.  This is why having Owlman actually assist the Justice League is an interesting twist, because he's literally admitting that they shouldn't exist, and helping that happen.

Of course... that actually means that if he IS pulling a fast one, he's using this as a way to secretly extend his own existence, even sacrificing the rest of the Crime Syndicate to do so.  Which is absolutely something Owlman would do... 

~"​Makes me curious if you think there's any room for Bat Mite"

I don't know if it's all the same person, but we had three really great questions this week all about possibly including other characters, all of which have some pretty fun answers. 

We actually do have an idea for how we'd use Bat Mite.  It's one of those times where we're really changing things around so that it all fits much better into my own personal headcanon, it's not based on any sort of canon story... I just happen to like the idea.  

The idea would specifically be that Bat Mite would appear in a single story, one that plays out on the page for Mister Mxyzptlk (I spelled that from memory just now!).  It would be a particular encounter that also includes Batman, in which Batman is ALSO visited by an imp of his own, one that is trying to be Batman's biggest fan... but over the course of the story it's revealed that Bat Mite is actually one of the creations of Mxyzptlk.  Undeterred, Bat Mite actually uses his abilities to help Superman and Batman defeat Mxyptlk even though he knows it will unmake him, allowing him to actually help his hero for real.

If we were going to use Bat Mite, that's how we'd do it.  Does anyone like that?  Do you want to see it in a future update?  

~"​ are you ever going to make a page for Joe Chill?"

Similar to Bat Mite, we actually have a specific idea for Joe Chill that isn't supported by any comic reference, it's just a thought that I have personally that I'm actually pretty insistent about.  Here we go: PERSONALLY... I don't think it helps Batman's story for him to know who killed his parents. 

Part of what he does for Dick is help him actually get closure early on.  He empowers him to capture (and chose to arrest) Boss Zucco, so he doesn't follow the same path Bruce did.  That's something we all agree on and I think we're all on board with. What I'm suggesting is that this is a stronger story beat if, in contrast with Dick, Bruce never found his parents killer.  He never got any sort of closure. It gives Bruce this lingering specter of that crime that, without a shape of it's own, morphs into something broader and intangible, making a small piece of that crime become part of the DNA of EVERY crime he stops.  

So... in my mind, I like to imagine that "Joe Chill" is literally young Bruce's Rollo Tomassi.  A name he invented as a child to give the faceless killer of his parents a persona. I know that's a completely non-canon idea, but personally it just works so so much better for me that for my personal headcanon, that's the way I'm going to go. 

(BTW that's Rollo Tomassi, the LA Confidental character. Not the manosphere hack.)

~"Any room for Jon Valor, the Black Pirate?"

One more new question about our character plans, and this time it's not someone I've ever thought about before.  DC has a ton of non-superhero historical characters from the 50s post-Golden Age era of publication.  Black Pirate is one of them, but there's also the Silent Knight, the Viking Prince, Captain Fear, the Golden Gladiator... you could even make arguments that World War II characters like Enemy Ace sort of hold a similar place in DC's lexicon.  These characters don't (and shouldn't) really interact with the main web of events that make up DC's tapestry of continuity, so it would be hard to populate their timeline without events to give it structure...

We DID include one of these characters already, though, in Super Chief, and you could make an argument that including DC's culture of Western Heroes is a similar undertaking.  

So to answer your question, yea I do think there's room.  I would basically need to just go read a bunch of atomic age comics to work out enough content to build a timeline from, since it would by definition need to stand alone, but I think we can safely say this is a worthwhile thing to do.  Are there any other characters like these that you think deserve to be examined?

~"​Hola, my friend As always, enjoying what you are doing on the site. I just am asking a question on the Light. Are those the only members that the group has? Why not Lex Luthor? Or is that the purpose of that is the long range control and developement of Humanity and those guys are people who can agree on that idea? If so, I think that the Ultra Humanite really would ve a worthy add. See you Adios"

Hola!  This is actually a really good question, because we had brought this up in the discord once upon a time and I actually couldn't remember the result... turns out we never actually finished the conversation!  

So the question is still kind of up in the air.  It's important to point out here, in the DCCP the Light aren't the same thing they are in the Young Justice cartoon, which invented them; they're just a supervillain think tank, they're not doing any of the Development of Humanity stuff.  Arguably that could make MORE sense for Lex to be a member, but he did just get out of the whole Injustice Gang and being manipulated by Mageddon to try to end the world thing... so honestly I'm not sure?  Maybe?

You second suggestion, about Ultra-Humanite, is actually really interesting, because lest we forget, he's actually dead.  However, we have some really interesting plans branching out of that death that actually do effect the Light, so you'll have to stay tuned for that one! 

~"Any plans for the Mad Mod? Animated series gave me a soft spot for the guy, plus I don't think you have an Edna Mode type yet."

Thank you for asking, I added him to the Do You Have Plans For This Character? FAQ.

~"​Love me some Mari"

Hell yea.  Vixen rules.

~"Just a thought, but couldn't there be a place for Lord Death Man (and then by extension Flatline) with your various Asian Heroes, rather than with Batman?"

You're certainly right that that's where he would go, specifically in Japan.  He's too street level to challenge Big Science Action, but he comes preloaded with his own heroic nemesis, Mr. Unknown, so If we were going to put him in the timeline it's pretty much a gimmie that this would be part of it.  

The truth, though, is that this just isn't a character you're likely to see on the site any time soon.  I added them to the Do You Have A Plan For This Character? FAQ, so you can see why.  

~"I genuinely didn’t know about Isis’ history besides 52, I assumed that was her first appearance. I had no idea she had her own tv show! Thanks for teaching me about her long and cool history!"

Well hey, I'm glad you enjoyed our update!  This is really cool to find out about, I'm really glad we could show you some new cool comic stuff!  This is exactly the sort of comment we love getting. If any of you guys feel compelled to let us know about stuff you learned from our website, we'd love to hear from you!

~"Did Harvey know Bruce growing up in this timeline or did they only become friends when they were adults? They're relatively close in age and even if they didn't go to the same school, they could've known each other through Leslie Thompkins like in the Arkhamverse Also since he became Two-Face years after Dick made his debut as Robin, I'm curious what their relationship beforehand was, if they ever got the proper chance to interact. Modern Batman stories tend to retroactively put Harvey's transformation into Two-Face before Dick becoming Robin, so him knowing Harvey beforehand adds a interesting element to their antagonistic relationship"

I don't think they would know each other from childhood... honestly I tend not to incorporate most stories that have much to do with Bruce's childhood.  He was kind of busy being horribly broken.  This relationship makes way more sense as a sort of casual one in their adulthood, insasmuch as they likely moved in a lot of the same circles. I think the animated series, as usual, is a really good model to follow. 

~"Slam Bradley was originally created by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson. Siegel and Shuster are the co-creators. “The Major,” communicated to Jerry Siegel in a letter dated May 13, 1936. He described a new magazine to be published, which would become Detective Comics."

This commenter went on to provide a really cool quote from Wheeler-Nicholson, which you can read on this unrelated but also cool article about the development of Superman. 

This is a really interesting point, because it does sort of speak to how we define "created", right?  Is Slam Bradley the creation of the guy who provided the artist and writer with the outline of what he wanted to see for his new comic magazine, or was it the artist and writer who actually did the thing?  I can see it going both ways, but I think that as a person who regularly commissions artwork, I wouldn't be comfortable then claiming that the artwork is mine, you know what I mean?  

~"Since the International Heroes are being fleshed out more now, I think having Freedom Beast around as a liberating force in early Apartheid South Africa akin to how Amazing-Man embodies the Civil Rights struggles of the early-to-mid 1900s would be really interesting. Obviously it's a very serious subject to delve into, but it's what the character was created for and even just from a lore perspective having this champion of justice standing up to an oppressive White Supremacist regime would naturally be a massive source of inspiration for the African heroes who'd come after him. Hell, even the name "The Kingdom" is evocative of the Animal Kingdom that Freedom Beast draws his power from, so there's probably some way you could tie that name choice back to him."

That's a pretty neat idea.  It looks like early Apartheid South Africa would be 1948 with the victory of the National Party, so that is certainly a time when we could safely integrate a new international hero.  

I think there are a few hurdles that we'd need to clear to make this work, but we can certainly talk about them.  We did have Bwana Beast in the timeline once upon a time, but we ultimately took him out for any one of a number of reasons.  Mostly, the concept just feels sort of silly at it's core, in a sort of playful Police Comics way. That would be fine, if there wasn't also something fundamentally associated with race built into the character.  I know that the creation of Freedom Beast ostensibly resolves the racial undertones of the character by replacing him with a black hero... but now we're left with a black character dressing in a notably jungle-themed costume, and honestly I don't know that I'm quite the person to determine if that's appropriate or not.  Coupled with the fact that its STILL kind of a silly character concept, I just don't think I'm comfortable with the character as-is.

I think if the core concept of Freedom Beast can be reimagined in a way that sets aside some of those concerns, we can have fun with this character in a way that doesn't quite raise as many hackles, your concept here is a really good one.  

~"Did Bruce Wayne ever take Carmine up on the offer he was promised? If so, what did he ask?"

​This is an EXCELLENT question.  I know that in most takes on this story (which specifically comes from Long Halloween) the fact that Bruce rejects this offer (and instead chooses to take apart the systems of power that allow Falcone to make this offer in the first place) is kind of the whole point, but I was curious if it's ever gone another way?  It turns out it HAS; this is a choice you can make in the Telltale Game, forging a short-lived alliance with Falcone.  This game is obviously very non-canon for several spoilers reasons far beyond this one, but what an interesting little divergence that I don't think I ever even noticed before!

~"On King Arthur’s page, Mordred’s link on the bottom goes to Lady Guinevere"

Lord it is insane how many of these there are. I think there's a thing that happens when I create these links where if I go too quick with the update, the actual link part of the link doesn't take.  No excuse for it really... this is just what happens when there's only one person doing this, and that person is usually doing it late at night after a full day of work :)  

There's no way to search for these, unfortunately, I'm just going to have to keep relying on you eagle-eyed tigers to find them. I'm trying to be more careful when I do them, but in the meantime, I went out and got these special, ultra-rare, limited edition No-Prizes specifically for people who find these broken links.  Do NOT start trading these and then set up a speculative market, okay?  

~"Why is there a Related Characters link back to Batman's page on Plas' page?"

Specifically because Batman is the reason Plastic Man has that resurgence in his career?  He's pretty much retired and just raising Luke, but Batman recognizes just how unbelievably powerful and useful he is and brings him into the Watchtower.  I hopped in and made that a little clearer in his page.

​

~"I think there is definitely something in connecting Alan Scott with the Starheart and the villain called Evil Star."

Thank you!  This is admittedly a controversial direction we took his story in... we've had some people let us know that we could just as easily have him internalize the power of the Starheart... which is more or less canon, and would allow him to just stop aging... but we didn't really want to go that way.  We didn't want a godlike Alan, we wanted a very human one.  So this is a departure and not everyone liked it... but we're glad you do! 

~"There are a few pages (such as the Batman one) that refer to Bill Finger as the artist and Bob Kane as the writer. But to my knowledge it is the opposite, with Finger as writer and Kane as artist or editor."

~"On the Red Hood page, the Detective Comics issue mentioned credits the story as "the Kane" era, but misses an opportunity to more specifically credit Bill Finger as the writer of the first Red Hood story."

~"Superman's link redirects to Batman on Perry White's page in the related characters section"

~"Bloodwynd's actual first appearance was Justice League Spectacular #1, a story that was continued in Justice League America #61, which was published over a month later."

A lot of these are all from one person, who did specifically say that I don't NEED to include their contribution here... but they didn't say that I COULDN'T, and I really do like making sure people see all the ways readers have helped me work out all the kinks on a website that, at this point, is probably big enough that people might be surprised that it's just me doing it. 

Obviously there was a specific interest in protecting the legacy of Bill Finger here, which is a noble enough effort.  I tried to reword them to correct for it... but this IS one of those times where the comment indicates a mistake without telling me what pages to go to, which means I have to go hunting. 

The other two comments are more traditional... yet another incorrect page link, a feature that I honestly think will never fully go away... and apparently I had Bloodwynd's first appearance wrong... but I mean, you can hardly blame me for having missed this... 

In any case, thank you so much for your help!  As always, I went and made sure I had an ultra-rare No-Prize for your efforts!  I need you to be careful with this one, It's very new, and I worry about how it will react to direct sunlight. 

~"HOLY $#!^ MARVEL CONTINUITY PROJECT!!!!"

~"You brilliant &@$^@%*, you made a Marvel Timeline! Thank you so %^#&ing much!"

~"Will you be updating each website at the same time? Or will they both have different schedules"

~"If you’re looking for inspiration for your Marvel Continuity project, I’d highly recommend artist Green-Mamba on deviantart. He’s drawn over almost 400 Marvel characters, and he has some really interesting ideas and stories."

Boy did this get a big response.  The funny thing here?  This site has actually been up since maybe 2017?

The big innovation here is just that I wanted to make it possible to have this site grow more organically.  So you're not going to see updates with whole "finished" pages being uploaded, but instead I'll just add events to the timeline on one character or another.

I do enjoy Green Mamba quite a bit.  My focus is generally more on building the timelines than the character designs, but you can't do this as long as I've been doing it and miss such a big fandom contributor as GM.  If you haven't already, shoot me an email @ [email protected] for a discord invite, where we're often talking about this stuff. 

~"Accidentally discovered your site. I'm greatly enjoying your timeline and reading through the different profiles. However, I've discovered a couple of typos. I'll start making comments to help you identify and edit them. Under the "Marvel Family" section, there is an error: Mary is written as having "Freeman" as a surname. ...'He created characters like Mary Freeman's "Mary Marvel", Freddy Freeman's "Captain Marvel Jr"'..."

Welcome to the site!  Usually I would give you a No-Prize for finding an error, but I'm pretty sure you also did the next few comments, so I thought I'd try to keep them all together.  

​~"I love how you've updated the Captain Marvel family mythos. Mergimg the old and new continuities, like Uncle Dudley as a foster parent, was genius. I also love that you're preserving the original trio. I was initially perturbed by making Mary lower tiered; as a twin myself, I loved her being Billy's sister and having the potential to be equally powerful. They said, I respect your take, which takes into account her meta history... a character who has always functionally been a derivative and often a sidekick. So foster sister and side character do make sense. This overall project is fascinating to me. I've found myself opening up tons of tabs (I have at least 20 open now) and can't wait to read more. A friend of mine and I did a similar DC shared universe years ago, where I ended up remaking the timeline. How inspiring me in one day posting my own take. Keep up this awesome work! I hope you do more with it, like stories, if you haven't already."

I'm glad you approve!  Dating all the way back to our original timelines, we actually had skipped giving Mary & Freddy their own powers at first... our goal was to prioritize Billy and the small army of Marvels felt like it diminished that, but I'm really glad we were able to make this change as a way to sort of have the best of both worlds. 

I maintain that we ALL build a sort of internal head canon, that its actually a core part of just being a comic fan.  I've had some amazing conversations with other fans about their personal fan timelines, and I have absolutely used more than a few ideas I got from them.  I don't mean to push the discord in every response, but I bet you would really enjoy joining the conversation!

~"I really love what you did with Lana. While I have grown accustomed to get current superpowered status, and her relationship to John Henry, I do love that she has agency in her life. I really love that she is the one to help Clark and Lois understand the affect they have on each other, and that she gets to move on from Clark before Clark and Lois get together, so that she doesn't feel like an afterthought, or second best. Great stuff."

Thank you very much!  This is one we really worked very, very hard on.  Creating a story for Lana that honored her tried and true role in Clarks story but also made her the star of her own life was a big priority for us.  This is one of those times where we REALLY like what we did, but I worry how well I did at conveying the idea to you?  So the feedback is extremely appreciated.  

Everybody else... this is the type of comment I'm looking for.  I'm going to feed off of this for a month. 

~"Maybe Count Vertigo could use an update? His page mentions his sister dying and Perdita becoming queen twice"

~"The Troy War could be from 1204 ... Before Christ. If we talk about 1204 a.c you are more into crusades' time."

~""Canon" It's often misspelled as "cannon" on a few pages (last noticed on Anansi's page)."

Ooo... these were all savage this time.  

Count Vertigo was hard because I'd apparently recreated the story where his sister dies and his niece becomes queen THREE times in his timeline.  They must somehow be artifacts left over from an update I did at some point  (probably the Merlyn update), and I had to work backward and figure out which one was the real one.  

The Trojan War one was just a blow to my pride.  This is stuff I usually do pretty well... I literally just looked up the date of the Trojan War (which is part of the original Zealot lore), and I literally just missed the BC.  I took your advice and used a reference to the Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople, and honestly I kind of like that even more than the Trojan War reference.  So this all worked out, but I still feel embarrassed about this one!

And this last one was just brutal.  They were absolutely right, I make that error a lot... but to fix all of them I had to spend a whole afternoon searching out the word "cannon" and correct every.  single.  one. of. them. This is the sort of homework feeling that you really thought you weren't going to experience once you graduated. 

Still... I can't thank you all enough.  This is the sort of help that totally sustains the project.  As a thank you, I'd like you all to look under your chair.  you'll find a brand new state of the art No-Prize.  ​

~"Rest well, hope you feel better soon!"

Thank you! I've been adapting to an appendix-free lifestyle really nicely!

~"​I don't really get how Black Alice's power-set is poorly defined? She's just Parasite but confined to stealing powers from other beings powered by magic. Her only issue is that she had an unlimited range originally, which is admittedly ridiculously busted, but if it's tweaked to being within a city block or so she becomes a lot more reasonably usable."

Maybe poorly defined was inaccurate.  Lets instead say "insufficient".  If she had her own power set and fueled it by absorbing the magic of others, that would be a different thing, but the whole thing where she keeps manifesting the powers and look of other people isn't quite a complete idea for me. It's an arbitrary standard, I know, but it really just comes down to my personal preference. 

As it happens, we've talked in the discord about characters like this who have random abilities. It was pointed out to me that liking Crazy Jane but not liking Dial H for Hero is incongruous.  I think what I ultimately want is for that hero to have a set of specific powers they're swapping between rather than it being completely original every time.  Think more Ben 10. 

~"​​What is your source material for the early historical stories regarding Atlan, Jebediah of Canaan, and the first Shadowpact? This story sounds fascinating but I can’t find where to read it."

Boy that's a tall one.  It's more or less original; the Shadowpact is understood to be group that has gathered previously in the past, so we used that to create a history of Shadowpacts... going all the way back to an event more or less built from different cataclysmic past events, most notably the origins of Atlantis as depicted in the Peter David series the Atlantis Chronicles.  We've also taken some liberties with the character Atlan, who is a blend of a few different mystic characters... but I have a suspicion we're going to rethink that by the time we get to him.  Jebediah is one of the origins that's been presented for the Wizard Shazam, who was an obvious candidate to be part of that first Shadowpact. 

So I guess the short answer is that it's kinda just built from lots of little bits?

~"​Wow, I really love this idea, and I'd love to see how this school expands over time. Off the top of my head I feel like Galaxy is a very fitting pull for one of the new students, and Miss Martian getting involved as maybe a Teacher's Assistant or (like in YJ S3) a school counselor also makes a lot of sense to me."

This was posted on our new Haven Project, and honestly I breathed a sigh of relief when I got some positive feedback on the idea, because it's more original than we usually get, and it's really nice to have that validation.

We have had quite a few suggestions for other characters that can be involved, and yes, Galaxy and Miss Martian have both absolutely come up.  I actually really liked the idea of using Beast Girl from the Dennis Culver Doom Patrol, and it also feels like there's a window here somewhere where you could work out a way to use Miguel Devante from the 2005 Scott Beaty Son of Vulcan series as a sort of apprentice space paladin?  

I think the trick here is that we don't want this to be the sum total of a character's story, right?  There are characters that can absolutely be incorporated here, but they also need to have an ongoing story of their own.  We'll see how it works!

~"​You’ve mentioned him in Lois Lane’s page, but do you have plans to make a separate page for her father; General Sam Lane?"

We do!  The Superman Supporting Characters we've done so far are all from my original Black Book timelines, but there are characters we still want to do that weren't in there.  Sam (and probably Lucy) Lane, Bibbo, and Steve Lombard come to mind.

~"​Greetings from Brazil. I've been a huge fan of this website for a while. I have a question regarding Miss America: in your timeline, she has a love interest named Derek Verheyen, but I couldn't find a reference to him in the comics. Is this a wholly original creation or an amalgamation of several different characters?"

Hi back! Thank you do much for reading!

You caught a very specific little change we made, and it's a pretty fun one.  In comic canon, Miss America's husband's name is actually Admiral Derek Trevor.  He's a function of the attempt to keep Infinity Inc character Fury in canon post-crisis.  She'd previously been Lyta Trevor, daughter of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor, but post crisis she's actually the biological daughter of a new Golden Age Fury, and the adopted daughter of Miss America and her husband. 

Of course, we don't have to deal with that, and we thought we could put some distance from that by changing Derek's name.  It's a Dutch name, so we just looked up common Dutch surnames and liked the sound of Verheyen.

~"​Why did you leave out harlequin??"

This one confused me at first before I realized this comment was left on Flamebird's page, so this is actually a reference to Duela Dent. 

I don't really ever need a reason to leave someone out.  It's probably more accurate to say that I need a reason to ADD them.  I absolutely acknowledge that every character, no matter how obscure, has their fans.  What's more, sometimes the point of something is just to exist for it's own sake, because that thing is cool and we like it.  That is subjective, though, so if a character doesn't present as fun or necessary or relevant to ME (or to one of my friends or followers willing to really go to bat and try to convince me), then I just don't have a reason to include them. 

~"​If you ever make a spin-off project centered around the mess that is Marvel Continuity, that would be the best day of my month!"

Well stay tuned, right?

Rather than be cryptic about it I can just say... Of course I work on a Marvel Timeline also.  This whole project was just something I was turning over in my head and chatting with friends about long before it ever became a website, and yes, There is absolutely a Marvel timeline taking shape as well.  

I think that, for a long time, the fact that the MCU existed kind of gave me an excuse not to work too hard on it?  Marvel was kind of GOOD, you know?  It didn't feel like a big mess I needed to clean up?  Of course... NOW... :)

For a while I've been intending to get to the Marvel Continuity Project... when I got to it, you know what I mean?  But the reality that's become evident is that I'm not ever going to be DONE with the DCCP.  It's my main hobby, I do this every single day.  So there just isn't going to be a point where I'm done with this and can start doing Marvel.  This is something we're going to think about in the new year, just what is the most sustainable way to start to include a Marvel project into the 'work' I do here.  I have a kind of weird method in my head that would be very different from the way the DC project works but might just work better for a very differently structured mythology. 

~"​I think you should flesh-out The Phantom Stranger’s page"

Well thank you, I will!

Of course, there's tons of pages I need to eventually get to, that's what the poll is for.  So as per your request, you'll find that the Phantom Stranger has been added to the poll!  Please let me know if there are other characters whose pages you'd like to see redone next!

~"Love this. Great Job!"

Thank you, we love you too!  

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