Welcome to the one hundred and first version of ASK…THE QUESTION, the month-to-month column the place we do our greatest to unravel all of the mysteries within the DC Universe for which you demand solutions. I’m Alex Jaffe, your appointed champion of fact and the inquisition, higher identified in the DC community like HubCityQuestion. Your urge for food for solutions has confirmed to be nearly as prodigious as mine, my fellow comics! Let’s have a look at what this month has in retailer for us.
Classes discovered
RexRebel asks:
LL persons are a giant a part of the Superman mythos. When was he first talked about within the comics?
Lois Lane and Lana Lang’s equivalent initials have been the topic of a recurring joke in early problems with Superman’s girlfriend, Lois Lane—the place Superman “settles” the rivalry between Lois and Lana by promising that he’ll marry the girl with the initials “LL.” In Action comic #252, Kara Zor-El’s first look as Supergirl, Superman curiously notes that his cousin selected an id with the identical initials as the opposite girls in his life, earlier than dismissing it as coincidence.
However the sheer proliferation of LLs in Superman’s life is brazenly acknowledged in its entirety for the primary time in 1962. #157. In “Superman’s Day of Doom!” written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel himself, a prediction machine from a distant galaxy informs Superman that his life can be saved that day by somebody named “LL”, main him to contemplate for the primary time how many individuals in his life bear these initials. (Seems it isn’t Lana Lang, or Lois Lane, or Lori Lemaris, or Lightning Lad, or Linda Lee, and even Lex Luthor, however a Little League baseball participant.)
That is the story of a (n Aqua)woman
Reaganfan78 asks:
At the moment I used to be studying Aquaman: A seventy fifth Anniversary Celebration. In a single story, earlier than Mera, there was an Aquagirl who was additionally blonde. What occurred to him ? Was she ever seen once more as Aquagirl or was she become Mera?
You’ve got stumbled upon a curious artifact of Aquaman historical past: the unique Aquagirl, Lisa Morel, whose first and solely look was in 1959 Journey comics #266 precedes Mera’s debut by 4 years, and even the primary Aqualad by three points.
As we discover out within the story, Lisa was an Atlantean who was exiled to the floor world because of the unreliability of her evolutionary variations and was raised by a marine biologist who hid her origins from her. When Lisa unintentionally discovers her personal partial Atlantean powers, she tries to affix Aquaman within the struggle in opposition to maritime crime as the primary Aquagirl, however is pressured to retire when she learns it is solely a matter of time. earlier than his powers fully fade away.
Though Lisa Morel has not returned since this story, she does introduce a component into Aquaman lore that has remained vital to this present day – the purple eye marker, like Lisa’s, being a trigger for ostracism and ostracism. exile from Atlantean society.
Robin regression
Corpsmember.78 asks:
Did Dick Grayson ever placed on the Robin uniform after turning into Nightwing to assist Batman or another person? Has there ever been speak of a present the place we have now a Dick Grayson who by no means grew to become Nightwing and remained Robin? With the launch of the brand new DCU, it looks as if there needs to be a world the place that is a risk.
Since turning into Nightwing, Dick has taken on quite a lot of alternate identities, from Agent 37 to Batman himself, however he by no means grew to become Robin once more. Nevertheless, the world the place Dick by no means grew to become Nightwing and remained Robin shouldn’t be solely potential, however properly established. That is the case of Pre-Disaster Earth Two, the place Dick stays Robin till maturity (aside from a short interlude as Batman). After Batman’s retirement, Robin turns into the senior member of the Dynamic Duo, mentoring Huntress, Bruce’s daughter Helena Wayne.
The longest bench
moonknightrider2.98991 asks:
Final summer time on Stargirl’s Earth-Prime TV tie-in, James Robinson requested authentic Blue Beetle sidekick Sparky to make his first comedic look in many years. In addition they talked about Fawcett’s hero, Diamond Jack, within the new difficulty of JSA. This bought me questioning what was the longest interval so far between DC buying characters from different corporations and really utilizing them?
DC acquired Charlton Comics heroes like Blue Beetle, Captain Atom and The Query in 1983, which DC inherited from Sparky, beforehand from Fox Options Syndicate within the Nineteen Forties. From its acquisition to its first use by DC in 2022, this might symbolize a interval of 29 years. As for Fawcett, DC first licensed his character assortment in 1972, buying them completely in 1994. From 1972 to 2023, when Diamond Jack most lately appeared, is 51 years previous. Mathematically, no Fawcett or Charlton character can beat that quantity based mostly on when it was acquired.
However what about High quality Comics? High quality, the unique dwelling of Plastic Man, the Blackhawks, and the Freedom Fighters, offered its personal character assortment to DC in 1956. If there are any High quality characters that have been first utilized by DC in 2007 on the earliest, this might probably beat Diamond Jack’s report.
Initially, I believed I had a solution on the lock. Miss Homicide, as soon as the title of a Doll Man villain from the High quality Comics years, appeared as a Fraction enforcer in Lightning #791 this month of January. However once I spoke about it Flash author Jeremy Adams, he assured me the title was a coincidence.
Happily, I’ve a solution nearly nearly as good. In 2018 Harley Quinn #52, High quality Comics characters Biff Banks and Kim Meredith seem for the primary time for the reason that Nineteen Forties. Crack Comics’ Captain Triumph. It is a 62-year absence, beating Diamond Jack by greater than a decade. And till somebody decides it is time to carry Tommy Tinkle from Hit Comics #1 out of retirement is the place the report stands.
Velocity Drive Intensive Course
Wrightline1.42741 asks:
Why has no member of the Superman household ever been concerned with the Velocity Drive? Is there some kind of unique possession of the Flash of us that does not permit for any “sharing” of the Drive? Or is it one thing else?
Alright, here is a fast and soiled lesson on how the Velocity Drive works. It is not nearly going actually quick, however tapping right into a sub-planar realm of pure pace by making a reference to it. Barry Allen did this when he was struck by lightning whereas standing subsequent to an array of chemical substances, which coincidentally allowed him to faucet into it.
The bursts of the Velocity Drive in our personal realm are what empower the Flash and his allies. It is not the speedsters who initially acquire entry to the Velocity Drive, however the Velocity Drive that chooses them…very similar to a extra localized Inexperienced Lantern ring. There have been quite a lot of villains who tapped into the Velocity Drive by means of, properly, pressure, however that was by no means factor. Enjoying with the basic underlying forces of the universe on your personal acquire all the time leads to a catastrophic imbalance. Which could clarify why heroes like Superman by no means appeared for a means to hook up with it.
That is to not say it is by no means occurred earlier than. Take, for instance, Batman, who seeks the Velocity Drive in Dark Nights: Batman – The Red Death. As I discussed… the outcomes are lower than supreme. Greatest to go away the Velocity Drive just about alone, till lightning comes for you.
And that brings us to the conclusion of one other version of our illustrious column. Till #102, you’ll be able to all the time discover me in my detective’s headquarters prepared and able to ASK…THE QUESTION.
Do you have got one thing that retains you up at evening? If in case you have a query concerning the DC Universe that you desire to answered, you’ll be able to head over to to the DC community and request it here.
Alex Jaffe is the creator of our month-to-month “Ask the Query” column and writes about superhero TV, films, comics and historical past for DC.com. Observe him on Twitter at @AlexJaffe and discover it in the DC community like HubCityQuestion.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed on this column are solely these of Alex Jaffe and don’t essentially mirror these of DC Leisure or Warner Bros.
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