Comic-Con
2010:
The Future of the DC Universe?
Let's
spend the next few days speculating about the meaning of
the image below, done by Ivan Reis. Someday I really hope
DC will release a book of just these teaser images with
explanations of how they all represented elements of their
major events. Click on the image below for a huge, detailed
one. My few speculations after the picture.
This
represents big revelations coming in Brightest Day,
which, by the way, suddenly started moving forward at an
excellently violent pace. Please feel free to write
me with your own speculations.
Starting vaguely rom left to right:
The
Hawks seem to be fighting back the denizens of the just-revealed
Hawkworld, joined, perhaps by Ganthet, Guy Gardner and Atrocitus
of the Red Lantern Corps. We know that Ganthet and Guy Gardner
are forming a more proactive team that will be featured
in a book called Emerald Knights. But who's in
the coffin? Just for fun I'm going to say it's Kyle Rayner.
Below them, Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch
are burying the Black Lantern Firestorm. Suuuuuure they
are. That would be too easy. Next to them lies a shield
-- I want to say that's Wonder Woman's, but it could also
be Hawkman's. Wonder Woman did become a Black Lantern, so...Hmmm.
Hawk and Dove cradle the lifeless (?) body
of Jade, daughter of the Golden Age Green Lantern. She's
currently being dealt with in the pages of Justice League
of America and Justice Society of America.
Next
comes Mera reaching up to the exploded corpse of Black Lantern
Aquaman.Standing on the other side of Deadman (Aliveman?)
is the new Aqualad, who I just realized has a costume styled
very similarly to the brief-lived second Aquaman, whose
fate post-Final Crisis remains a mystery.
So let's get back to Deadman -- he's wearing
his white mask, which he hasn't been in Brightest Day.
Carving out a tombstone that says "RISE" -- well,
we already know that his new power does seem to be resurrection,
IF the subject wants to come back. He failed to resurrect
Don Hall, the original Dove. We also know that he'd prefer
his old status of being a disembodied spirit capable of
possession.
Above
him lies Hal Jordan sprawled in the remains of the white
lantern power battery. Because really, if it were easy for
the White Lanterns, bearers of life, to triumph, there wouldn't
be much of a story, would there?
Of course, looming behind Hal is the Anti-Monitor,
who has kicked Deadman's butt once already in the course
of Brightest Day, a lesson for Boston Brand in
not biting off more than he can chew. The Anti-Monitor is
dedicated to anti-life, and has been since his first appearance
twenty-five years ago.
Back
to Aqualad: he's standing over a broken trident, the symbol
of the first Aquaman's broken rule of Atlantis. Next to
that is a pile of boomerangs, apparently made of black force,
which is the resurrected Captain Boomerang's weapon of choice.
I don't see any other signs of Digger Harkness, though.
Notice to the right that the Martian Manhunter
stokes a fire -- his one weakness, by the way -- burning
a tree marked with the symbol of the White Lantern. Which
side is J'onn J'onnz on, then? Destroying the Tree of Life
in conjunction with the appearance of the Anti-Monitor?
This is once again a threat to all creation?
Or will
we all need to be saved by Smokey the Bear?
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