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Showing posts 6 - 10 of 15 matching: generations

Friday, January 29, 2021

Lateral Men

It's been three weeks since Generations: Shattered was released, so you should have your copy by now, yes? Good. Because we're going to talk about it today. Specifically, we're going to talk about this panel:

© DC Comics
art by John Romita, Jr., Danny Miki, Hi-Fi

If you've been reading DC Comics for a long of time, you may recognize most of those people, but Booster boosters in particular should probably have a pretty good idea who the Linear Men are. This is an unusual line-up of that team. It's no coincidence that many of them directly pair up with a Multiversal heroic counterpart, a contrivance that is explained in the story as the nearly omnipotent Dominus bends reality to his will.

But even accepting that, one of those Linear Men stands out. Can you spot which one?

© DC Comics
Hint: It's this guy.

Whoever that guy is, I doubt anyone calls him "Rayak the Ravager."

Quick history lesson: The Linear Men concept was created in Adventures of Superman #476 (by Dan Jurgens) in 1991 with the introduction of The (singular) Linear Man.[1] That Linear Man died, sacrificing himself in the 30th-century to "correct" the history he'd unintentionally broken while trying to bring justice to Booster Gold. (You'll find more information on the interactions between the Linear Man and Booster Gold here.)


art by Dan Jurgens, Art Thiebert, Glenn Whitmore, Todd Klein

Shortly thereafter, in Superman #59 (by Dan Jurgens), we learn that the Linear Man was a rogue member of the mysterious Linear Men of Vanishing Point who are "dedicated to guarding the linear sanctity of the time stream." By the time of Superman #73 (by Dan Jurgens), it is well established that there are three remaining Linear Men: Matthew Ryder, Liri Lee, and Hunter.[2] (The impetuous Waverider is often an ally of the group but isn't really a member.[3])

In our group shot at the top of the post, both Liri Lee[4] and Matthew Ryder are clearly identified by name in our Generations: Shattered confrontation. Naturally, the third Linear Man should be Hunter, especially since he appears earlier in the issue beside both Liri and Ryder.

© DC Comics
art by Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Hi-Fi

So why in the big team shot is Hunter misidentified as "Rayak the Ravager"?

If I had to take a guess, I'd say that whoever wrote the label was trying to recall the name "Ryak the Rogue" from memory. Ryak is the newest Linear Man — the first not created by Dan Jurgens. Ryak makes his first appearance in The All-New Atom #7 (by Gail Simone) in 2007, and he looks nothing like Hunter. For one thing, he's green.

© DC Comics
art by Mike Norton, Andy Owens, Alex Bleyaert, Pat Brosseau

As his moniker might suggest, Ryak was a solo actor in Atom, but he made a cameo appearance beside the other Linear Men on Vanishing Point in Dark Nights: Death Metal: Rise of the New God in 2020. Look closely at that panel, and alongside Ryak you'll spot Ryder, Liri, Rip Hunter, and Waverider, but Hunter is missing, replaced by none other than the original Linear Man himself![5]

© DC Comics
art by Jesus Merino, Vincente Cifuentes, Ulises Arreola

As you can see, keeping the Linear Men straight takes as much work as the convoluted continuity they are sworn to protect. The DC Multiverse is a big place. Every once in a while, we should probably expect the writers, artists, or editors to confused a name and a face.

On the other hand, the events of both Dark Knights: Death Metal and Generations: Shattered involve realities and timelines altered by gods themselves. In which case, if Dominus wants to call Hunter "Rayak," who are we, mere mortal readers of comic books, to correct him?


1 As for the original Linear Man's real identity: it is commonly assumed to be Travis O'Connell. That name comes from the "Linear Men" entry in the Who's Who in the DC Universe Update 1993 #2 (by Roger Stern) which identifies four Linear Men by name and states that "[Travis] O'Connell eventually sacrificed his own life in the late 30th Century." Unless there were multiple Linear Mans chasing Booster Gold in the 30th century, I think we've solved that mystery. (DK apparently agrees; they identify O'Connell by name in their entry for the Linear Man in their officially-licensed The DC Comics Encyclopedia.)

2 Hunter is, as you might have guessed, Rip Hunter. But he's not the one we know. According to the story "Falling in Line" in Legends of the DC Universe 80-Page Giant #1 (by Dan Jurgens), Hunter is the evolution of the young, mischievous Rip Hunter from an alternate history that appears to closely mirror the original Rip Hunter, Time Master, whose pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Earth-1 adventures were chronicled in a book of the same title.

3 Technically, Waverider, like Rip Hunter, is two Linear Men. See, Waverider and Matthew Ryder are the same person, separated into two timelines by the accidental death of his/their parents. In violation of the Linear Men's prime directive, Waverider himself changed the history that forced the divergence that allowed his alternate self to grow into his role as the Linear Men's Ryder. (For details, see Superman #61 by Dan Jurgens.) And while we're on the subject, I might as well mention that Matthew Ryder and Waverider first appeared in Armaggeddon 2001 #1 by Archie Goodwin... and Dan Jurgens.

4 Liri Lee is the only female member of the Linear Men. I probably don't need to tell you, but she was created by Dan Jurgens for Superman #59. She takes the name Linear Woman in Time Masters: Vanishing Point #6 (by... oh, you know). That may take place in a different reality or at a different point in Liri Lee's future chronology than the events of Generations: Shattered. The biggest problem with hanging out at Vanishing Point is that time and space don't have meaning anymore.

5 This isn't the first time O'Connell has been seen since his "death" in Adventures of Superman #478 (by Dan Jurgens), and there are many well-intentioned websites that appear to confuse O'Connell and Hunter, which is understandable. (Heck, I did it myself when I first listed my annotations for the issue, and I obviously know better.) Both O'Connell and Hunter share a 1990s affinity for shoulder pads, pointless belts, and cybernetic parts. And, of course, they are both Dan Jurgens creations. Rule of thumb: if he has black hair and a holster, it's O'Connell; white hair, Hunter.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: characters dan jurgens fernando passin gail simone generations hunter jesus merino john romita jr linear man linear men liri lee mike norman rayak the ravager rip hunter ryak the scout waverider

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

New Release: Generations Shattered

The big event is finally here! There's so much Booster Gold in this week's Generations: Shattered #1, he's on both covers!

© DC Comics

You could read the preview at GamesRadar, but you don't really need that, do you?

And while you're shopping at your Local Comics Shop, you might want to consider picking up Dark Nights: Death Metal #7, not just because it's the last issue of the mini-series — at least until DC debuts the inevitable Dark Nights: Doom Metal: Now With Extra Colons next fall — but mainly because it has a panel of Booster Gold dancing!

© DC Comics

Break it down, buster.

Buy these issues and make Skeets happy.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: covers death metal gamesradar.com generations new releases previews

Friday, November 13, 2020

Forged Future

Quick recap: In early 2021, Booster Gold will be appearing in a two-part mini-series, Generations: Shattered (January 15) and Generations: Forged (February 23). This story will not be related to the "Future State" event DC is publishing over the same period. (More details available in these Boosterrific posts.)

Until now, we've talked only about Shattered, but we're finally starting to get some good information about the second half of the series. Noah Dominguez and CBR.com and Michael Doran at Gamesradar.com have the advanced solicitation text:

GENERATIONS FORGED #1
written by DAN JURGENS, ANDY SCHMIDT, and ROBERT VENDITTI
art by BRYAN HITC, MIKE PERKINS, BERNARD CHANG, PAUL PELLETIER, and others
covers by LIAM SHARP and RAFAEL ALBUQUERQUE

Dispersed through time by the villain Dominus, our ragtag team of generational heroes -- featuring 1939 Batman, Kamandi, Superboy, Steel, Starfire, Sinestro, Booster Gold, and Dr. Light -- must find a way to restore the timeline... and what they ultimately discover is something far, far greater You'll have to read it to believe it as time dies... and generations rise!
ON SALE February 23, 2021

© DC Comics
standard cover by Liam Sharp

© DC Comics
alternate cover by Rafael Albuquerque

Booster boosters know that our hero's planned origin story relied heavily on Superboy's continuity which was erased from the DC Universe by the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. It will be pretty cool to see the two characters finally interacting.

By the way, if you don't recognize "the villain Dominus," Russ Burlingame has the explainer of this 1990s Superman foe at Comicbook.com.

It's looking like it'll be a very Boosterrific 2021! Hooray!

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: cbr.com comicbook.com covers gamesradar.com generations michael doran noah dominguez russ burlingame solicitations

Monday, November 9, 2020

Two of a Kind: Shattered and Forged

If you read Detective Comics #1027 back in September, you might remember its last page:

© DC Comics

When I saw that last panel, I thought, "what the heck is Generations: Future State?" The answer wasn't immediately clear because DC was keeping its plans to itself.

We eventually learned that Future State is going to be a two-month alternate-Earth event interrupting whatever it is that passes for continuity in the DC Rebirth Universe. But how would this new title connect to Dan Jurgens' Generations comic which we'd already heard solicited as Generations: Shattered? (Or was Generations: Shattered a different book altogether? How many Generations books were there going to be?)

Despite what we may have guessed, according to Newsarama Senior Editor Chris Arrant, they aren't related at all.

"Originally, we were going to touch on what's coming with Future State," Dan Jurgens, one of Generations' writer/artists told Newsarama. "We're detouring from that a bit to focus more on our own story."

In other words, for readers under the impression that Generations: Future State #1 (as mentioned in Detective Comics #1027) on September 15 and Generations: Shattered #1 announced by DC on September 9 are two distinct projects, they are not. They are one and the same. The one-shot was renamed from 'Future State #1' to 'Shattered #1' sometimes in between its September 9 announcement and whenever Detective Comics #1027 went to the printers prior to that. DC has also seemingly made the editorial decision to remove any story connection between Generations and Shattered.

The 'Generations' story will play out next in January 5's Generations: Shattered, and then continue in February with Generations: Forged.

Whew, 2020 has been a mess, hasn't it? Thanks to Newsarama for finally setting that record straight and untangling all those names and projects. (I recommend that you read the full article at at Gamesradar.com for all the details.)

Personally, I'm glad that the two events are unlinked. Future State sounds like it's going to be a lot, and I still suffer a little PTSD from trying to keep up with all those Convergence mini-series back in 2015.

Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: chris arrant dan jurgens detective comics future state gamesradar.com generations

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

What Dan Jurgens Said

No sooner do I post one Michael Doran Newsaradar interview about the upcoming Future State event than he releases another, this time with Generations: Shattered writer (and Booster Gold creator!) Dan Jurgens.

Nrama: Dan, the [Detective Comics #1027] story pretty much is a lead-in to what we know about Shattered #1 from the solicitation. The "original" Batman is recruited from his timeline to serve on a time-crossed team (somewhat reminiscent of Avengers Forever). The most interesting new detail not in the solicitation seems to be that despite his appearance on the covers we've seen, Kamandi twice refers to Booster as an old man.

Jurgens: Yes, Kamandi refers to Booster as an old man, but that's by design and all meant to lead to part of the overall mystery of what's happening—not to mention the idea that we can have different generations of characters.

Nrama: So then it suggests to us he's referring to a Booster not from the current main timeline or his original timeline, but from a timeline years-decades removed from the current core DC timeline. Did we interpret that clue correctly?

Jurgens: You did!

Nrama: Will any other time-plucked characters be part of the story?

Jurgens: Yes, one in particular, who'll play a key part in the story and, we think, serve as a very pleasant, fun surprise for readers.

Nrama: Speaking of surprises, most "mysterious" comic book foes (in solicitation terms, as Shattered #1 promises) turn out to be established characters in new guises or making surprising returns. Can you give any clues as to who your's is?

Jurgens: Sure! He has definitely appeared before, but I think it's been a while since we've seen him. His power level has definitely positioned him with the ability to manipulate time into something he can shatter, dominate, and shape to his own desire.

Please, please, please let it be Black Beetle!

I guess we'll find out when Generations: Shattered #1 arrives January 15, 2021. In the meantime, you can read the whole interview at GamesRadar.com.

Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: dan jurgens gamesradar.com generations interview michael doran


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