The Secret Huntress Fan Club! (DC Comics: The New 52)

BlankZoe

Non comic book readers know about the Trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman but on Earth-Two, while these characters exist, there is a different Trinity of Jay Garrick, Alan Scott and Al Pratt. Can you shed some light on these characters?

One of things that I have been trying to do is -- because everyone knows that I love the concept of Earth-Two, and they know I love the Justice Society -- I wanted to distinguish what makes those characters such unique personalities. Even though these aren't 40 and 50 year-old characters anymore, they are young characters in their twenties, there are elements that I felt were strong in original characters, which still resonate.

With Al Pratt, beginning with the first issue, we see part of his journey on Earth-Two is his life as a soldier. He's defending the country and the world. We see this resilient, brave character. He's short on stature but he's big of heart. He's a committed soldier that doesn't back down from any threat despite not having the degree of power that other people might have, in terms of his size. And I really wanted that to shine in the first issue so that as all the fantastic stuff starts to happen to him, as the book unfolds, that element of his personality will stay and will remain a consistent element of Al Pratt.

Alan Scott really is the big guy of Earth-Two. Quite literally. He's very tall, he's dynamic, he's charismatic and he's also the bravest, most gallant man on the planet. He's like the great knight defending the Earth. He would die for his planet, he would die for his people. He is the epitome of what a hero should be. And I think even if he wasn't that way when he first began in the 1940s, he is kind of evolved to that in terms of his place in the Justice Society. I have always felt that he was that character and I have tried to keep that spirit and element of him alive.

And Jay Garrick, what's there to say? I've always loved Jay Garrick because there is this sense that he's this everyman. He's this guy that you trust and that you would hang out with and he brings humility. He's represents middle America. He's grounded, almost like a Will Rogers-type of character. I don't know if people will get that reference but he has that kind, sincere, everyman quality that I would like to keep going.

I am very, very proud about how I have begun to let him grow as a character in the four that I have written. He's 21. He's starting out his life. And then he basically has to become a hero. Some people are born into greatness and some people have it thrust upon them, he's very much a character that has his greatness thrust upon him. He accepts it and goes about his duties as a hero all the while looking at this world with fresh eyes and wonder. He's a way, as a writer, that I can explain things to the reader, including all the concepts of Earth-Two, and make it clear for them to understand and enjoy the comic book.

welp

Centipede Damascus

what on earth is going on in that picture

JyrenB

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

what on earth is going on in that picture

Well. There's a serious case of crazy-eyes going on, for one.

Munch

Alan Scott is the most gallant man on the planet.

Here he is, sitting atop a smoldering pile of corpses, and looking not unlike Jake Busey.

Tairu

He looks like Parallax there

But the description sounds pretty good to me

We'll see

Solar

The description sounds pretty good and also very different to that art

I feel that there is an event horizon of quality beyond which all the different vagaries of terrible sort of merge into the same singular point of awfulness

and that Earth-2 is going to be beyond that horizon

other things beyond that horizon include Jim Lee's art/costume design and Wonder Woman (okay she is not that bad)

HadjiQuest

Superman 7 was pretty good.

I think the four Superbooks are pretty strong at this point, although I honestly feel like they're all just short of A status still.

Solar

Aquaman was alright this week

shame that the seer died

that was not cool Johns

but alright

Tairu

Yeah I liked her and her powers were cool

But Black Manta was also cool

Why couldn't they just coexist

Automaticzen

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

what on earth is going on in that picture

I'm guessing he gets his ring in an accident. He should be dead, is now a superhero.

Arivia

so
so
so not interested in this earth-2
yuck

Robos A Go Go

Man, nobody gives a shit about Al Pratt.

BlankZoe

Seriously

why the hell did they choose Al Pratt over Ted Grant

Wildcat is objectively better

Solar

Yeah Al Pratt is like

some dude that has been gone forever

Arivia

So I read the first part of the JL Dark/I, Vampire crossover

kind of interesting, even with the giant sledge of Batgirl in there

is Mary always that...punk-ish? It's a nice twist on the vampire queen archetype.

Arryn

Automaticzen wrote: »

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

what on earth is going on in that picture

I'm guessing he gets his ring in an accident. He should be dead, is now a superhero.

Which is what happened originally right? IIRC, he got his lantern and ring as the sole survivor of a train wreck.

I'm still going to wait and see what happens with E-2, pass my personal judgement then.

Also was a little bummed The Seer got axed so quickly. Her powers actually looked interesting. Black Manta came off as a good villain though.

Hawkman was greatly improved this month, now that Daniel's not writing the script, but not yet improved enough that I would recommend it to anyone who wasn't a Hawkman fan.

Flash, still amazing.

Tairu

Arivia wrote: »

So I read the first part of the JL Dark/I, Vampire crossover

kind of interesting, even with the giant sledge of Batgirl in there

is Mary always that...punk-ish? It's a nice twist on the vampire queen archetype.

Have you read I Vampire from the beginning? Yeah, Mary is fantastic.

Robos A Go Go

Blankzilla wrote: »

Seriously

why the hell did they choose Al Pratt over Ted Grant

Wildcat is objectively better

And it sounds like the basis of Pratt's character is still the fact that he's only five feet tall, which is treated like some kind debilitating weakness that only a man of tremendous determination could overcome.

Arivia

Tairu wrote: »

Arivia wrote: »

So I read the first part of the JL Dark/I, Vampire crossover

kind of interesting, even with the giant sledge of Batgirl in there

is Mary always that...punk-ish? It's a nice twist on the vampire queen archetype.

Have you read I Vampire from the beginning? Yeah, Mary is fantastic.

No, I read the four page preview of #1 and skipped it based on that. Maybe I'll get the trade.

Arryn

I dunno, it's not that Al Pratt is a bad character. He was pretty awesome as he was written in Golden Age.

Seems most of the problem is that we're seeing this as him taking Ted Grants place in the "JSA Trinity" but really, that's mostly an invention of Johns' solo time on the JSA title that subsequent writers just kind of picked up and ran with.

Robos A Go Go

Doctor Mid-nite is blind, Batman's parents are dead, and Al Pratt is five feet tall.

BlankZoe

It is also because Al Pratt is kinda boring and hasn't been relevant in a while. Atom Smasher has been infinitely more interesting, I personally think.

and Wildcat is a really great character. He is just a dude. Not even like Batman who is super rich and an expert in all fields. He's just a boxer who hates criminals so he gets by on sheer grit and determination. He's one of my favorite JSA characters, really.

Arryn

I definitely like Ted Grant (pretty much all the old time JSA characters), but I'd be willing to bet that Robinson plans on having him show up somewhere along the line. The only way I'd be ticked by this Al Pratt thing was if that somehow procluded us from getting Ted, and Kent, and Rex, and Charles ... etc.

It does kind of bum me out that we've lost the whole "Ted Grant trained Bruce Wayne" angle though. Always made him feel like an extended part of the Bat-family in some way.

UltimateInferno

Anyone who wants to see the First Shazam chapter can by following the instructions here
http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2012/03/28/get-a-free-shazam-comic-for-the-next-24-hours

(you dont have to sign up for the newsletter)

Tairu

I want to see Sandman more than anyone.

But I mean, if Robinson can get me to care about Al Pratt, more power to him.

Also, that digital version of Shazam has a really cool cover

Arivia

Sandman? Sandman by David Finch and Jim Lee, joining the JLA nowwwww

BlankZoe

For reference, he means

not

Tairu

Or so you assume.

But yes.

That is exactly who I meant.

Robos A Go Go

Sandman would do a good job of rounding out a trinity, being that he's a street level guy akin to Batman unlike the other two

Witch_Hunter_84

UltimateInferno wrote: »

Anyone who wants to see the First Shazam chapter can by following the instructions here
http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2012/03/28/get-a-free-shazam-comic-for-the-next-24-hours

(you dont have to sign up for the newsletter)

Dang, I missed the window by only 11 and a half hours! My policy of staying away from GV until I read my pool has worked to my detriment once again.

Caveman Paws

HadjiQuest wrote: »

Superman 7 was pretty good.

I think the four Superbooks are pretty strong at this point, although I honestly feel like they're all just short of A status still.

I dropped Superman after issue #3, picked up #7 via comixology and like what I read. The artist is the same (I think?) and it's not bad work, but I'm not a fan. I've been happy with Superboy so far but it feels like it is plateauing with it's most recent issue. Haven't really seen enough of Super Girl to comment (though I hear it's great from everyone).

Arivia

Caveman Paws wrote: »

HadjiQuest wrote: »

Superman 7 was pretty good.

I think the four Superbooks are pretty strong at this point, although I honestly feel like they're all just short of A status still.

I dropped Superman after issue #3, picked up #7 via comixology and like what I read. The artist is the same (I think?) and it's not bad work, but I'm not a fan. I've been happy with Superboy so far but it feels like it is plateauing with it's most recent issue. Haven't really seen enough of Super Girl to comment (though I hear it's great from everyone).

Supergirl is really fun. It's not doing anything sparklingly new, but the idea of a slightly more alien, more feral Superman is cool. It's just fun.

Brainleech

So last week I picked up 1-6 of Blackhawks
and O boy it was inconsistant and with a meh storyline {I know JLD was sooo slow 1-6 but still this was rather sad}

The Lovely Bastard

man there is no way i can defend al pratt without eyes getting cast at me

also there is no way i can defend al pratt when puck is over here in marvel actually being interesting

Antimatter

Brainleech wrote: »

So last week I picked up 1-6 of Blackhawks
and O boy it was inconsistant and with a meh storyline {I know JLD was sooo slow 1-6 but still this was rather sad}

hahahahahahahaha

Blackhawks was written by Mike Costa, the guy who wrote the horrible and slow transformers ongoing from 2009-2011

his style is so fucking decompressed, three of his issues make up a single normal one

his GI Joe run was good, though, so I'm a little bit surprised that he can't write Blackhawks

then again, his best work was about a guy infiltrating Cobra

Harry Dresden

Antimatter wrote: »

Brainleech wrote: »

So last week I picked up 1-6 of Blackhawks
and O boy it was inconsistant and with a meh storyline {I know JLD was sooo slow 1-6 but still this was rather sad}

hahahahahahahaha

Blackhawks was written by Mike Costa, the guy who wrote the horrible and slow transformers ongoing from 2009-2011

his style is so fucking decompressed, three of his issues make up a single normal one

his GI Joe run was good, though, so I'm a little bit surprised that he can't write Blackhawks

then again, his best work was about a guy infiltrating Cobra

Isn't he the guy who couldn't find anything sympathetic about the Transformers?

Antimatter

Harry Dresden wrote: »

Antimatter wrote: »

Brainleech wrote: »

So last week I picked up 1-6 of Blackhawks
and O boy it was inconsistant and with a meh storyline {I know JLD was sooo slow 1-6 but still this was rather sad}

hahahahahahahaha

Blackhawks was written by Mike Costa, the guy who wrote the horrible and slow transformers ongoing from 2009-2011

his style is so fucking decompressed, three of his issues make up a single normal one

his GI Joe run was good, though, so I'm a little bit surprised that he can't write Blackhawks

then again, his best work was about a guy infiltrating Cobra

Isn't he the guy who couldn't find anything sympathetic about the Transformers?

yup!

He has stated that during his first year, he found himself burning out on the job and finding it "not as fun" as he'd thought, because the immortal, robotic nature of the characters difficult to get a handle on. Aside from the general oddness of the concept, he felt they lacked the usual motivations of an action-adventure character and he didn't see how they could realistically have personalities like humans, and the need to have them act human-esque was a big logical flaw. "They don't have all of the basic things that humans have that motivate them and give them motivation for drama for a story. They don't really get hungry, they don't get tired, they don't have women or relationships like that [which] they value because they don’t have females that they can love; maybe brotherly love but how, they don’t have parents? They don't have religion or spirituality... you have to manufacture [these things] and that makes it very incoherent." That, and the restrictions from the toy-centric nature of the premise (like Optimus only turning into a truck all the time), caused him major problems.

Harry Dresden

Antimatter wrote: »

Harry Dresden wrote: »

Antimatter wrote: »

Brainleech wrote: »

So last week I picked up 1-6 of Blackhawks
and O boy it was inconsistant and with a meh storyline {I know JLD was sooo slow 1-6 but still this was rather sad}

hahahahahahahaha

Blackhawks was written by Mike Costa, the guy who wrote the horrible and slow transformers ongoing from 2009-2011

his style is so fucking decompressed, three of his issues make up a single normal one

his GI Joe run was good, though, so I'm a little bit surprised that he can't write Blackhawks

then again, his best work was about a guy infiltrating Cobra

Isn't he the guy who couldn't find anything sympathetic about the Transformers?

yup!

He has stated that during his first year, he found himself burning out on the job and finding it "not as fun" as he'd thought, because the immortal, robotic nature of the characters difficult to get a handle on. Aside from the general oddness of the concept, he felt they lacked the usual motivations of an action-adventure character and he didn't see how they could realistically have personalities like humans, and the need to have them act human-esque was a big logical flaw. "They don't have all of the basic things that humans have that motivate them and give them motivation for drama for a story. They don't really get hungry, they don't get tired, they don't have women or relationships like that [which] they value because they don’t have females that they can love; maybe brotherly love but how, they don’t have parents? They don't have religion or spirituality... you have to manufacture [these things] and that makes it very incoherent." That, and the restrictions from the toy-centric nature of the premise (like Optimus only turning into a truck all the time), caused him major problems.

How did Costa get hired? The editors must have noticed something was off if he had this much trouble executing the concept.

Antimatter

I honestly don't know. The worst part is, this fuckup has written the third greatest amount of Transformers issues, behind Bob Budiansky and Simon Furman.

Harry Dresden

Antimatter wrote: »

I honestly don't know. The worst part is, this fuckup has written the third greatest amount of Transformers issues, behind Bob Budiansky and Simon Furman.

I'm glad I didn't buy his run then.