Welcome to another edition of ASK…THE QUESTION. I’m Alex Jaffe, better known as HubCityQuestion in the DC Official Discord server where I’m active every day in the “#ask-the-question” channel. I’m here on DC.com today to answer or otherwise research any great or small mystery you have about the broad strokes or particulars of the DC Universe in all of its incarnations. These are just a few of the cases which have crossed my desk within the past month—and if you’d like my assistance with any of yours, drop by the Discord and I’ll be there to help.
Now, let’s get some answers!
Souron1 asks:
I don’t know if this is too broad a question, but what is the heaviest thing Supergirl has lifted?
I'm not really a "power scaling" person because comics don't actually operate on those principles outside of fandom conversations. Supergirl can lift whatever the story requires her to lift.
With that in mind, the above sequence from 1962's Superman #156, where she pushes an entire planet, may be her personal record.
ComedyAlpha asks:
Do you think Nightwing should take over as Batman? I know he's already done that before, but do you think he could work as a full-time Batman?
This is just my opinion, but I don’t, actually. Unlike other legacy sidekicks like Wally West, Dick has always been determined to define himself on his own terms. Ask Batman himself, and he’ll tell you he raised Dick to be a different kind of hero than he was. Dick has stepped into Batman’s role when he’s had to, but I think he’s proven himself many times over that Nightwing is just as important a role to the DC Universe.
Now, if you ask me who should be Batman if we ever had to lose Bruce Wayne, that’s a different question. But one I am prepared to answer:
MasterBruiseWayne asks:
What do you think Batman’s favorite cookie is?
I'm going with these custom-baked chocolate frosted Bat-Cookies from his appearance in Scooby-Doo.
He serves them with Bat-Milk, which I at least hope is not literal.
TWOFACE! asks:
Who killed Jason Todd’s dad up to date?
Actually, as of right now, Willis Todd is alive. This was revealed in 2019's Red Hood: Outlaw #36, where the reader learns of his secret identity as the occasional Batman Incorporated ally Wingman, but no one has followed up on it. Jason doesn't know.
cornholio asks:
Hi Question, I was curious how Roy Harper got his arm back? I’m still relatively new to Green Arrow comics, but I feel like I remember him having a prosthetic before, onlyhe seems to have a human arm in the current Williamson run.
It’s a side effect of death and resurrection. Roy regained his full physical form between Dark Nights: Death Metal and Infinite Frontier, when he was restored to life after being killed in Heroes in Crisis, and during the restoration of the universe following the battle with the Darkest Knight.
Reaganfan78 asks:
I find it interesting that Livewire was first introduced in Superman Adventures #5 before ever appearing on Superman: The Animated Series. Harley Quinn first appeared in Batman: The Animated Series before she made her first comic appearance in The Batman Adventures #12. So why did Livewire appear in comics first before the show?
It’s kind of the same reason Batgirl appeared in comics before appearing on TV back in the ‘60s, despite being originally developed for the show—television simply takes longer to make than comics. It takes about a year to develop an episode of most animated shows, while comic production is typically about one or two months. Because of that, the Superman Adventures comics were able to outpace the show they were designed to tie into.
Twent asks:
Why did Lex Luthor choose Pete Ross as his VP?
As we see in 2000’s Superman #162, prior to being chosen as Luthor’s running mate, Pete Ross was a senator representing the state of Kansas. Luthor picked Pete as part of an appeal to the American heartland. It’s also implied that Luthor knew about Pete’s relationship with Clark Kent and was intentionally trying to get under his skin. Though Luthor didn’t know Clark and Superman were one and the same at the time, both figures had proven to be thorns in his side in their own capacities.
Rain asks:
I’m guessing that Kryptonians were DC’s first alien race. What was the second?
This is kind of an unexciting answer, but it's got to be Martians. Martians have been part of DC since 1939, introduced in All-American Comics #2. Early issues of All-American had a feature called "Adventures in the Unknown," starring Alan Kane and Ted Dolliver, who traveled through space and time in the series' first 25 issues. The first aliens they encountered were the buglike "Mystery Men of Mars."
Martians would appear in many forms through many different comics through DC's Golden Age. Fortunately, the debut of Martian Manhunter gives us a way to explain these discrepancies, as we now know that Martians are shapeshifters.
Silent King Mefilas asks:
How far away are Gotham and Metropolis from each other? Also, how far is Hub City in relation to those two?
The locations of Gotham and Metropolis are typically obfuscated, but when acknowledged, they’re usually across the bay from each other in New Jersey and Delaware, respectively. That would set them about thirty miles apart. That’s a quick trip as the Kryptonian flies, but by car requires navigating around a large body of water. Hub City’s exact location is given by the 1990 DC Atlas as Illinois, which would set it about 900 to 1,000 miles from either.
Jurisdiction asks:
In Justice League of Aliens, it shows Guy Gardner as an alien. It then says he's a "Vuldarian-human hybrid". This leads me to a few questions.
1) Since when is Guy Gardner part alien?
2) What is a Vuldarian?
3) Is this still canon, or has it been retconned?
You've stumbled across an artifact of the ‘90s here. One of the revelations in 1994’s Zero Hour and Guy Gardner's solo series, Guy Gardner: Warrior, is that Guy was descended from an alien race, the Vuldarians, who arrived on Earth hundreds of years ago and interbred with native humans. They were a race of self-appointed interplanetary protectors, much like the Guardians of the Universe on a smaller scale. Because the Guardians and the Corps were mostly absent from the universe at this period thanks to the events of “Emerald Twilight,” the Vuldarians were one of the groups that came in to fill the vacuum of their absence.
In Zero Hour, Guy awakens the Vuldarian racial traits in his DNA, allowing him to manifest weapons and armor from his own skin. For the rest of the Warrior series and other contemporary appearances Guy Gardner made, Guy fights crime and threats to Earth without a ring, relying on his Vuldarian powers.
As far as we know, Guy is still descended from Vuldarians to this day. But in Geoff Johns' 2004 Green Lantern: Rebirth, Guy's DNA was rewritten to be completely human after temporarily hosting Parallax, disconnecting him from his biological Vuldarian ancestry.
Something asks:
How does Lex Luthor know kryptonite is Superman’s weakness?
Each new iteration of comic book continuity has its own account of the discovery of Kryptonite, and its relationship to Luthor and Superman. I'll be honest: originally, I misremembered the classic explanation as being in 1960's Adventure Comics #271, "When Luthor Met Superboy," when a young Luthor infamously begins working on a cure for Superboy's Kryptonite poisoning, leading to the accident which would render him bald for life. However, regular column reader and forthcoming Justice League Unlimited writer Mark Waid wrote in to correct me—by the second page of the story, it's clear that Luthor already knew about Superboy's weakness before this story. Mark suggested a more accurate origin of 1960's "The Secret of Kryptonite," in Superman #136. There, a flashback to Superman's time as Superboy reveals an incident where a celebration in Superboy's honor exposed him to a large chunk of kryptonite intended as a gift for him as a remainder of his home planet, leading the world to discover his weakness. Thanks, Mark!
John Jester Jr. asks:
Hey HCQ, why does Batman wear blue in some comics?
I don’t know, do you wear the same color shirt every day?
All right, more seriously, the style in which comics were shaded for a time meant that a blue costume stood out better in issues with a darker color palette than making it all black. The blues were used to make Batman pop better on panel. Artistic choice!
Cinqo35 asks:
At the end of Zero Hour, did they ever reveal who the woman in the robe was? The implication was that it was some version of Batgirl from the crossover, but I can't remember it being followed up on.
That's the Time Trapper! The long hair is meant as a clue that while the identity of Time Trapper was revealed as Rokk Krinn during the events of the series, after the changes of Zero Hour, Time Trapper's identity may be someone else entirely.
This new Time Trapper, as explored in subsequent Legion stories, would turn out to be the future Lori Morning, a new member of the team and wielder of the H-Dial in the 30th century.
superthebillybob asks:
Hi HCQ! Barring a clean slate universe reboot, what's been the longest amount of real world time between a character's in universe death and resurrection?
There are a lot of ways I could answer that depending on your parameters for “death” and “resurrection,” but I’m personally giving it to Superman’s father, Jor-El—killed in 1938’s Action Comics #1, but saved by Doctor Manhattan in 2016’s DC Universe: Rebirth #1 from the moment before his death. That’s a 78-year death!
Paul Rabin asks:
What’s the origin of the Basil Karlo Clayface in the comics? How did he get his clay powers?
Originally, Basil Karlo didn’t have any powers. It was only in the ‘80s Detective Comics storyline “The Mud Pack” that he imbued himself with those powers by taking blood samples from Lady Clayface and Preston Payne.
In the New 52, Basil’s origin was revised to one where he had been transformed by the Penguin using a mystic clay that would give him the power to transform himself for his acting career in exchange for services as his henchman.
That origin was ultimately rewritten in James Tynion’s Rebirth era Detective Comics run, where Basil was given an origin similar to the one most fans are familiar with from Batman: The Animated Series and that’s the one that’s stuck today. It’s all in 2018’s Detective Comics Annual.
That’s the thing about superpowers, they’re often not what you’d expect or want. Fortunately, if you’re looking for an answer to a perplexing DC question, you don’t need superpowers and you certainly don’t have to go picking a fight with Batman. All you need to do is ASK…THE QUESTION.
Note: This article has been changed since publication to more accurately reflect how Lex Luthor learned about kryptonite.
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 Bluesky at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Official Discord server as HubCityQuestion.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Alex Jaffe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.
