Let's make some Justice Leagues, part 8

(Continued from part 7)

            When it comes to superhero work there are many opportunities to interact with dangerous technology.  Shrink rays, robots, hacking computer terminals because people think that hacking involves a lot of fast typing rather than just looking up a person's facebook profile and using their personal information to brute force password possibilities in hopes that one of them sticks... I digress.
            The point is you need and want someone on the team who knows technology, not in the goofy weird science sort of way (Atom) and not in the vaguely believable sort of way (Batman), but it a very shiny tech kind of way.  Unfortunately there seems to be some sort of trend I have noticed in DC comics and I feel the need to point it out cause I find it to be a strange coincidence.

7) The Tech Savvy

            I do not know how this became a thing, but it is a thing.  Cyborg, Steel, and Mr. Terrific, three of the most prominent black characters in DC (mostly thru their involvement with the "Justice League Unlimited" and "Teen Titans" cartoons) are all very technology oriented, and all in very different ways.  They are not the only black characters, I have pointed out Jon Stewart and Icon in these blogs, but they are (to my knowledge) the 3 most prominent black characters in the current New 52 DC universe, and they are all based around very slick chrome technology that is actually a rather distinct appearance.

            I haven't seen any other superheroes with that sort of distinct look (maybe the Rocket Reds, Russian super cops who use power armor that looks deliberately cheesy, and while Adam Strange deals with alien technology, he's an archaeologist and is not tech savvy at all).  And when I went look for alternative characters to fill the more tech oriented roll for the group I only came across Hardware an obscure hero from the 90's publisher Milestone, invented by one of my favorite creators, Dwayne McDuffie... Hardware is a black man with a distinctly chrome technology appearance.  So this will be the first category I put in whose entire pool of candidates is African American... I guess that just stands out to me because all the prior categories I felt like I had to stretch a bit to not just have a bunch of white guys.

            The first candidate is Cyborg, or as he used to be known, Victor Stone.  Victor was harmed in an accident and his father used strange technology as a prosthesis to save Victor's life.  Cyborg is a genius in his own right who previously liked playing football, now he focuses on becoming the ultimate living machine and helping other heroes who use technology like his to become more powerful and effective.

BOOYAH!

            Steel, or John Henry Irons uses power armor.  Designed to emulate the powers of Superman so that he could follow in that heroic tradition after Superman had ostensibly been killed in the 90's (Superman was once dead, and that was considered a big deal) Steel is one of the most stalwart and heroic figures in comics, actually standing in contrast to Iron Man his closest counterpoint in Marvel.
            I also love him because of his involvement in my favorite "52" in which he fights off a plan by Lex Luthor to create an army of superheroes who suck at being superheroes and keep getting killed in action.  There is actually another Steel, John's niece, Natasha Irons who is a more headstrong and youthful character.  She is also a tech genius but more rash and impulsive, she tends to take on the mantel of Steel when John is too busy working on his company.

John Henry was a Steel driving man.

Unfortunately Nat has some notoriously bad power armor designs.  This is the best.

            Mr. Terrific, aka Michael Holt is a super genius who uses gadgets and his wealth to be more Batman than Batman.  His family died in a car accident and overcome with grief he nearly committed suicide before discovering and taking on the legacy of the original Mr. Terrific (a white guy with no gadgets).  He actually had his own title at the launch of the New 52 and it quickly tanked, but I still love the character because he was the thinker/leader of the Justice Society of America comic from the late 90's and early 2000's that I really got into.

He also got one of the worst costumes of the New 52.  Put him on the League for no other reason than he can get a new suit.

            Hardware I think should also be considered, though I do not think he should get the seat at the table, mostly because he has not appeared in a cartoon or other media for the last 20 years.  Curtis Metcalf was a child prodigy who grew up to use his fantastic intelligence and the backing of a business icon to fight against organized crime... Only to find out the person running organized crime was his financier.  While I do think that he is an interesting character, he does not have the presence to be on a Justice League, I would hope that they would give him his own series to try and grab some audience and if he proves to be well liked then have him join a team, but as of right now he is so obscure that even I had to look him up.

His costume is part of 90's comics commitment to pure insanity and his modern look is still rather silly.

            Mr. Terrific, Cyborg, and either Natasha or John would be great additions to a Justice League.  They are all are fun, interesting, and flawed in their own ways and are far more than their race, even though their inclusion in much of the work they appear in always itched me as a form of tokenism (for instance, in the early 2000's when Steel decided to leave the League, Plastic Man out-n-out states, "the one black guy can't quit", which bothered me then and it bothers me now even though it was a joke).  I would really like to include each of them because I like all of them and want them to continue to be cool characters beyond the demographic appeal.

(Continued in part 9)

Intro to Comics: "BEYOND!"

            If you are a fan of comic books then you might know that last week Dwayne McDuffie died do to surgical complications.  He was an acclaimed writer of comics, having created the original character of Static, and having written for Justice League, both the cartoon and the comic.  He was also a writer for Marvel on occasion and did one of my favorite miniseries ever for the company, "BEYOND!"

Buy it.

            A long while ago an event took place in the Marvel Universe that could have been penned by Gene Roddenberry for all the laziness of premise it presented, that comic was "Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars".  In it, a being from beyond the bounds of our universe called The Beyonder, uses his godlike powers to gather most of the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe, along with the god called Galactus, to have a good old fashioned good versus evil game of war.  Doctor Doom, managing to keep his priorities straight through all the chaos manages to look past the conflict and instead of killing all the heroes by leading all the villains, he instead invents a machine that steals the Beyonder's powers.  Needless to say the power is too much for him and eventually the status quo is returned and the Beyonder disappears for a while only to return in a stupid outfit and squander any dignity that he had left in "Secret Wars II".

Seriously, this is the Beyonder.  *Sigh*

            Thing is "BEYOND!" took the idea of a godlike chess master and limited the scope, rather than getting everybody in the Marvel universe that has ever had an action figure and throwing them together so that no one gets adequate screen time for the fans to appreciate the story at all, "BEYOND!" instead grabbed only a handful of obscure characters along with Venom and Spider-man so casual readers would buy the book based on the cover, cause god forbid anybody buy a book that only has Hank Pym, Medusa, and Deathlok in it.

            The story's small cast allows each of them, especially Venom, Hank Pym, Medusa, Red Hood, Gravity, and Deathlok to all have moments of awesome and to really showcase characters that do not get enough time to explore the spotlight.  The overarching mystery of the book is who is holding the contest, as while they claim to be the Beyonder, the toned down and mysterious nature of the figure suggests that it isn't, because by this time the Beyonder was an ostentatious jackass.

Cameos Ahoy!  But since nobody but me knows who half these guys are,the idea of them being some name drop to get fans giggling seems unlikely.

            The action is fun, the characters are interesting, the setting is exotic and takes turns through the really out there, the art is one of my favorites as I think that Scott Collins doesn't get enough laurels for his work, and while the ultimate resolution is a bit of a weird "Who the Fuck is that?" moment if you don't read comics, there is an epic moment of sacrifice at the end that leaves the door open to more adventures down the line (and the story does continue when McDuffie wrote for "Fantastic Four")

            But here is the thing, shit happens in this book.  No name characters means you can kill people for pathos and editors won't knock the idea down because "you can't kill Spiderman, he makes us too much money."  Each of the characters is properly built up so that you want them to succeed, it doesn't just bank on you knowing them, even while it refers back to past adventures.  You are shown a glimpse into possible adventures from the past that sound cool, and that you can go and find, continuity bait as it were.  That is cool.

Heroes sometimes lose.

            This is one of my favorite miniseries and I recommend it highly as the best McDuffie work I have read in comic form.  Like I said before.  Dwayne, you will be missed.