Hello, I’m Alex Jaffe, your appointed champion of truth and inquisition, better known to the DC Community as HubCityQuestion. Welcome back for the 102nd edition of ASK…THE QUESTION, our regularly scheduled feature where we do our level best to solve all the mysteries of the DC Universe that keep your minds ever wandering and wondering. We’ve got quite the buffet of revelations this installment, so let’s get right into the things that keep you up at night…and discover whether we can get you a little rest.
Long Lost Super Friends
Numbuh1Nerd asks:
What’s the current status of the original characters from Super Friends (El Dorado, Black Vulcan, Samurai, Apache Chief, Rima, The Wonder Twins, and Wendy and Marvin) in proper continuity, and how different are they from their Super Friends counterparts?
That’s a big question and it demands a big answer. Let’s open up the old personnel files.
El Dorado’s first appearance in DC comics continuity didn’t occur until 2016’s Suicide Squad Most Wanted: El Diablo & Boomerang #5. He’s seen there as the leader of Justicia, a Mexican team of superheroes who haven’t appeared again since that series. El Dorado claims to have formerly been a member of the “Super Friends” with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman. A cameo in 2019’s Wonder Twins #6 seems to back this up, appearing on call in the Justice League’s reserve roster.
Black Vulcan, as a character of convenience employed due to sticky creative rights around Black Lightning at the time, hasn’t made the leap into comics. The only time he’s ever appeared at all in a comic is for a cameo with the rest of the extended Super Friends in DC One Million 80-Page Giant as one of many Justice Leagues from throughout the multiverse. Outside of comics, his most recent appearance, along with many other Super Friends, was in the 2017 Lego Batman Movie.
In 2009’s Justice League of America 80-Page Giant, the Justice League is scattered across different eras of history. Batman and Doctor Light (Kimiyo Hoshi) find themselves in the 13th century, where they encounter a hero named Samurai protecting the feudal states of Japan. 2010’s Justice League of America #46 briefly establishes that a modern-day Samurai remains active in Japan as well, though we don’t know much about him apart from the fact that his powers seem to be similar to the Samurai we know from Super Friends. 2018’s Doomsday Clock #7 confirms that Samurai is still active in Japan, as a member of the Japanese superhero team Big Monster Action.
Like Black Vulcan, Apache Chief has never made the leap to continuity outside of the aforementioned DC One Million special. But a character inspired by him, Tye Longshadow, plays a supporting role in Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti’s Young Justice universe, particularly in Season 2 of the animated series.
Rima the Jungle Girl is a very interesting case, because she technically never belonged to DC. As of right now, she doesn’t belong to anybody. Rima originally debuted in the 1904 novel Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest by W.H. Hudson. In fact, in 1959, Green Mansions was adapted into a movie starring none other than Audrey Hepburn. DC temporarily licensed the Rima property to publish a comic book adaptation in the 1970s, which just so happened to be when they were putting together an extended roster for Super Friends, which is how she ended up in the mix. Rima has since lapsed into the public domain, but returned once more to DC in their short-lived “First Wave” line in 2010, a shared comic universe of licensed and public domain pulp heroes including Doc Savage, the Spirit and the original 1939 incarnation of Batman.
If Naomi was the heart of Brian Michael Bendis’s “Wonder Comics” imprint of 2019, then the Wonder Twins were the spine. Appearing in their own twelve-issue series, throughout the Wonder Comics books, and in Bendis’ own Justice League run, Jayna and Zan were most recently busy interns for the Justice League at the Hall of Justice. What’s become of them since the Justice League’s dissolution in Dark Crisis is unknown. But in alternate universes, Zan’s early death and Jayna’s quest for justice has been one of the central plots from the beginning of DC vs. Vampires.
Wendy and Marvin have been a part of the DC Universe since 2006, appearing as fraternal twin caretakers of Titans Tower. (In the show, they weren’t related to each other, which is one big difference.) It’s eventually revealed that Wendy and Marvin are children of the villainous information broker Calculator. In Sean McKeever’s Teen Titans run, Wendy loses the use of her legs when she’s attacked by the monstrous Wonderdog. The Battle for the Cowl tie-in series Oracle: The Cure sees Wendy beginning training as Oracle’s new protege, but after seeing some development in the 2009 Batgirl series, that storyline was abandoned with the New 52. Wendy and Marvin made their only Post-Flashpoint appearance to date in 2017’s Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #12, de-aged considerably into the young children of Calculator.
Nana, Nana, Papa, Papa, Batman!
TravisMorgan asks:
Has DC ever addressed Bruce or Dick’s grandparents? Were they also killed in some kind of accident (involving pearls or not)? Were they estranged from them? Why didn’t the grandparents step in when their parents passed away?
Side question: Did Bruce or Dick have godparents who could have raised them? I’m assuming Alfred was Bruce’s godfather, but what about Dick? Did the Haly Circus Family just release Dick to Bruce because he was a billionaire and could take better care of him?
Finally, would these questions lead to a good Elseworlds tale?
While there's no record of the nature of their deaths, Thomas Wayne's parents were already deceased by the time Bruce was orphaned in Crime Alley. 2010's Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5 shows us that Martha's parents were still alive at the time, but had become estranged from her to the point that they felt no responsibility to take in their grandchild.
Thomas Wayne did have a brother in Pre-Crisis continuity, however—Philip Wayne, who took custody of Bruce as a child. The story is told in 1969’s Batman #208. As his work required him to travel, he was rarely home, so Bruce was largely cared for at the time by Philip’s housekeeper Mrs. Chilton—who, by cosmic coincidence, was also the mother of Joe Chill.
Dick Grayson’s parents were close to the other people in Haly’s Circus, but we’ve never been told if Dick (or Bruce, for that matter) had any godparents. All we know about his grandparents is that John Grayson’s father was the son of William Cobb, a Talon for the Court of Owls. Dick may have been raised in the circus, but without his parents to watch over him there, it was apparently no environment for a boy on his own. According to 1995’s Robin Annual #4, Dick was briefly released into the juvenile services system after his parents died until Bruce took him in.
But it wasn’t too long after Robin’s debut that he had relatives calling for him. In 1943’s Batman #20, Dick’s shady uncle George and aunt Clara Grayson arrive to demand legal custody of Dick, only to extort him in order to wheedle money out of Bruce and further their own criminal enterprises. Dick’s less nefarious Aunt Harriet came to Wayne Manor to help raise him for a time after Alfred Pennyworth’s death in 1964’s Detective Comics #328. Why she never took custody of Dick in the first place has never been addressed.
To address your last question, I think there’s a larger discussion to be had on the difference between DC’s “Elseworlds” and Marvel’s “What If?” stories, as the two are often conflated. The story you’re proposing would be more in the latter category. DC’s Elseworlds titles sometimes indulge in this idea of creating new stories out of turns of fate, such as Justice League: The Nail, or the recent Dark Multiverse one-shots, but usually an Elseworld isn’t predicated on a character having a slightly different fate. Even something like Red Son completely reimagines Superman’s world from the ground up, as opposed to merely relocating his rocket. Elseworlds are typically representative of universes vastly different from the main continuity, as opposed to that single alternate variable which defines a “What If?”. That said, anything could be a good story, depending on who’s doing the telling.
2 Good 2 B Fog-otten
moonknightrider2.98991 asks:
While letting my mind wander, as I frequently do, I started thinking about the late, great Harlan Ellison for some reason. And as I did, I recalled an interview he did many years ago. During the interview both Ellison and the host talked about their love for comics and Ellison’s creation: the Silver Fog. Ellison created him for the original Dial H series way back when. The host asked Ellison if he had any plans for that character and Ellison replied how he couldn’t use him because he gave the rights to DC and it was their choice if they wanted to use, not use or misuse the character. So I wondered if DC ever used him since his first appearance in the original Dial H series?
Esteemed sci-fi and horror author Harlan Ellison’s contribution of a minor villain to the original Dial H for Hero run in Adventure Comics is one of my favorite pieces of DC trivia. It’s right up there with the original pitch for Salvation Run coming from George R.R. Martin. And you’re not the only person who’d like to see him again. Six years after his original appearance in 1981’s Adventure Comics #479, Marv Wolfman and Eduardo Barretto introduced a new Silver Fog in New Teen Titans #40, a former scientific colleague of the original, Sam Toth, who replicated the experiment to become a new Silver Fog himself. This second Silver Fog, named Edward Arling, had only one appearance. But he did have a teenage son to whom he passed on his powers, Nelson Arling, appearing as an action figure-obsessed third Silver Fog in 1999’s Impulse #51.
Stonehenge, Where the Demons Dwell
MatthewHecht asks:
Did Blackbriar Thorn actually build Stonehenge or was he just lying?
Ted Grant’s note that Blackbriar Thorn claimed to have participated in the construction of Stonehenge in 2000’s JSA #10 was new information at the time, but not entirely without precedent. In the villain’s first appearance, 1984’s DC Comics Presents #66, Jason Blood says that Thorn would lead ancient druidic rituals, exposition accompanied by an image of Thorn at Stonehenge in ancient times. Many stories have been written about Stonehenge in DC history, but most of them are concerned with why Stonehenge was built as opposed to who built it. Some stories involve Merlin or King Arthur in Stonehenge’s construction. Nearly all of them clarify Stonehenge’s mystical significance as a focal point among intersecting ley lines. In 1992’s Birth of the Demon, we even learn Ra’s al Ghul built a Lazarus Pit there at one point. It’s been a burial site for powerful beings and artifacts, a meeting place for sorcerers to channel their power, a landing zone for the Millennium Giants, and even a gateway to Azarath in the New 52.
Most of these stories, save an account in 1962’s Rip Hunter #12 where it’s claimed Stonehenge was randomly formed by a meteorite striking a mountain, are in agreement that Stonehenge was constructed by a group of humans—likely the druids who used them as a place of worship. Given his established presence in pre-history, little suggests that Blackbriar Thorn couldn’t have been one of them.
However, while Blackbriar Thorn may have participated in Stonehenge’s construction, he may not have been the mastermind. In 1998’s JLA: Year One #12, Vandal Savage takes the credit for designing Stonehenge himself.
In summary: there’s never been a story where Blackbriar Thorn is literally seen constructing Stonehenge with his own two hands. But given what we know about him, it’s not too far-fetched a claim.
That’s all from me this time. I could go on for more, but my editor keeps telling me about something called a “maximum word count.” Apparently, I’ve just got 23 left. Well, until next time, you can always reach out to me in the DC Community, and never be too shy to ASK… THE
Alex Jaffe is the author of our monthly "Ask the Question" column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Community as HubCityQuestion.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of Alex Jaffe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC Entertainment or Warner Bros.
