DCU : The Original Universe

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Started reading the Amalgam Comics. My initial response to the idea is but theyre turning out to be Surprisingly fun reads. The writers all mishmash DC and Marvel characters in creative ways.

Amazon Ororo Munro washes up on Themyscira and eventually defeats Queen Hippolyta's daughter Diana for the right to wear the mantle of Wonder Woman. By John Byrne.
Assassins Elektra Kyle is Catsai (Catwoman+Elektra) and Slade Murdock is Dare (Deathstroke + Daredevil...except as a chick). Theyre trying to kill Big Question aka Enigma Fisk (Kingpin+Riddler) is Mayor of New Gotham. There's also a reporter named Jimmy Urich.
Bruce Wayne, Agent of SHIELD After Green Skull (I think a combination of Red Skull, Lex Luthor, and Green Goblin?) killed Wayne's secret agent parents he joined SHIELD under the training of Nick Fury and Joe Rock. Now he's their top agent with his sidekicks Moonwing (Dick Grayson+Moon Knight) and Barbara Danvers is the Huntress. Tony Stark is confined to a high tech wheelchair and is their "Q". Green Skull has Deathlok(Jason Todd) and Nuke(Bane) for henchmen, as well as Baron Zero(Zemo+Mr. Freeze)
Bullets and Bracelets. Trevor Castle is a blonde Punisher. He hooks up with Diana of Themyscria and they have a baby. The baby gets kidnapped by Thanoseid of Apokalips.
Legend of the Dark Claw Dark Claw(Logan as Batman) and his sidekick Sparrow(Jubilee in Robin's costume) fight the Hyena(Sabretooth+Joker). Larry Hama has a sense of humor writing this one.
Dr. Strangefate. The mysterious Strangefate and his acolytes Skulk(Bruce Banner+Solomon Grundy), Jade Nova aka Frankie Rayner(Kyle Rayner+Frankie Raye = Green Lantern +Nova) and Wanda Zatara, White Witch track down Access(remember him? The guy from Marvel vs DC?) Strangefate is trying to prevent the merged Universe from being split, because it would mean his end. Access tells him to piss off. At the end, the dramatic reveal is that Strangefate is Charles Xavier.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Another batch of Amalgam books. BTW, these are in the DC section only on account of a coin flip. Half these books were actually solicited by Marvel.

JLX The Mutant members of the JLA(Judgment League Avengers) break off and form their own group. They include Mariner(Namor+Aquaman), Apollo(Cyclops+The Ray), Mercury(Impulse+Quicksilver), Nightcreeper(Nightcrawler+Creeper), Firebird(Fire+Phoenix), Wraith(Gambit+Obsidian), Runaway(Rogue+??) all led by the mysterious Mr. X who is really Martian Manhunter who is really a Skrull.
Magneto and the Magnetic Men Erik Magnus animates robots named after various metals to fight his evil brother Will Magnus' Sentinels and henchman Sinistron(Sinister+Ultron).
Speed Demon I've talked about this before. Blaze is combination of Etrigan, the Flash, and Ghost Rider. His nephew Wally West discovers his secret and becomes a motorcycle riding version of the same demon.
Spider-Boy A secret Cadmus Labs clone is derived from a lab accident that kills promising young scientist Peter Parker. Cadmus labs employs just about every amalgamation of scientist from both M and DC. Reed Richards, Dabney Donovan, Rocky Grimm, Red Storm, Otto Octavius, etc. Sue Storm is an agent of SHIELD. At the end, Otto sets up Spider-Boy on a blind date with the Insect Queen, who turns out to be MJ.
Super Soldier The Army finds a crashed rocket with a dead baby inside. They take cell samples and add them to their super soldier serum, turning an unnamed volunteer into a flying, superstrong hero with heat vision, super breath, etc. He wins the war but crashes into the ocean fighting Ultra-Metallo, the Nazi war machine. He's revived 50 years later and takes the secret ID Clark Kent working at the Daily Planet.
X-Patrol Amalgam of X-Men and Doom Patrol. Niles Cable(Niles Caulder+Cab--oh you get it.) recruits a team of Shatterstarfire(yeah that ones obvious), Elasti-Girl(Janet VanDyne+Rita Farr+Domino), Beastling (Beast+Changeling), FerroMan(Colossus+??) and H.U.S.K(Dial H + Paige Guthrie) fight Dr. Doomsday(also obvious).

[anarky]

Amalgam: perhaps the last time either Marvel or DC showed any sign that they were having fun with this stuff and not just trying to make a buck.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Since Quesada and Johns came to power, the two Publishers have been real dickish towards each other, JLA/Avengers notwithstanding.

I think a huge crossover would help the industry immensely.

I'm reading the second batch that came out in '97 now.

[anarky]

JLA/Avengers was originally from something like 1985, right, and they just made a few changes to make it current, right?

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Yeah. I think they even had some of Perez's original art work from way back then. But Wolfman was writing the original, and Busiek did the new/final version. I'm pretty sure Busiek had to completely start from scratch considering all the continuity that was different in the intervening two decades.

[anarky]

Ah, more extensive than I'd thought.

Thinking about a related conversation elsewhere, what female characters does DC have who A) don't suck, B) aren't derivative of a male superhero, and C) could be considered B-list or better?

Wonder Woman sucks. No amount of polish or redefining her will ever work to get her beyond cult status.

Most of their female heroes fall under B: Batgirl, Batwoman, Supergirl, Power Girl, Artemis/Arrowette, Lady Blackhawk, Miss Martian, etc, etc, etc. If there's a male hero, there's a version in a skirt.

As far as I can tell, we're left with Oracle (who no longer exists), (sorta) Catwoman, Huntress, Black Canary, Fire, Ice, Raven, and Starfire. You could even make the argument that Huntress is a sort of female Batman.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Lessee, you also have Mera(who is Aquawoman in deed, if not in name) and Aquagirl(s) being derivative of Aquaman.
Poison Ivy is a sometimes anti-hero.
Bombshell(the chick version of Captian Atom)
Mary Marvel(Shazam with a vag)
Ravager(Deathstroke's daughter)
Dr. Light II(the female hero version of the male villain)
Firehawk(Firestorm's GF, who is not a direct ripoff, but close enough)
Jesse Quick(the only feminine speedster in Flash's team of fast friends)
Speedy(one of Green Arrow's many many many protégés)
The GL corps has had many female members, but obviously all derivative.
Jade from Infinity, Inc. is original GLs daughter, so derivative.
Dove from "Hawk&" fame. But the second one after Don died. There was also a female Hawk until Johns killed her off in Blackest Night.
Hawkwoman and Hawkgirl. Duh. Obviously derivative.
The latest Manhunter was/is/was(DCnU is confusing) a woman.
Big Barda. Although she's hardly "B-List".
Katana and Looker from Outsiders. Even less B-List than Big Barda.
Question II (Renee Montoya. Also might not exist anymore)
Stargirl, derivative of 20 different Starmen.
Natasha Irons, who is derivative of Steel, who is derivative of Supes.
Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark being derivative of WW.
And Zatanna. Who is derivative of her obscure Golden Age father character. Although she's arguably more recognizable, she's still derivative. Not to mention her fishnets/coattails/top hat costume is pretty much a cliche of the whole magician meme in the first place.
Then there is all the Legion of Super Hero women. But I don't know any of them and they'd hardly make it Onto a B-List.
And a bunch of Wildstorm characters like Voodoo and Zealot for WildCats or Fairchild, Rainmaker, and Freefall from Gen13, but I would think you'd discount them for not being true DC characters.

[vynsane]

And a bunch of Wildstorm characters like Voodoo and Zealot for WildCats or Fairchild, Rainmaker, and Freefall from Gen13, but I would think you'd discount them for not being true DC characters.

which just furthers the point, really, that most DC female superheroes other than WW are derivatives of male counterparts.

[anarky]

They're all female versions of X-Men, anyway.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

They're all female versions of X-Men, anyway.

Even the guys.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Okay, another batch of Amalgam books.

Bat-Thing Kirk Sallis prowls the rooftops of Gotham while cops Bullock and Montoya track down the monster he has become. A fun mash up of ManBat and ManThing.
Callengers of the Fantastic Reed"Prof"Richards, Sue"Ace"Storm, Ben"Rocky"Grimm and John"Red"Storm didn't get cosmic radiation and survived their rocket crash. Deciding they were living on borrowed time, they became the Challengers! Uatu the Guardian shows up and warns then Galactiac(Galactus+Brainiac) is coming. And his herald, the Silver Racer(Surfer+Black Racer)! In a fun ironic twist, Grimm is turned into a four armed rocky 'Thing' and after he turns human again, Richards vows to do whatever it takes to make him the monster again in case Galactiac returns.
Dark Claw Adventures Dark Claw done in the DCAU style. Talia tries to kill the man she loves because he killed her father Râ's A-pocalypse.
Exciting X-Patrol The X-Patrol is back, this time fighting Brother Brood and his alien invasion.
Generation Hex Jono Hex(Chamber+Jonah Hex) and his band of 'malforms'(what they call Mutants in the 1800s) up against steampunk Sentinels built by Marshal "Bat" Trask, as well as bigots in the town of Humanity.
Iron Lantern Hal Stark has a Green Lantern in his chest that keeps him alive and forms a magic armor around him. His galpal is ace pilot Pepper Ferris who secretly becomes Madame Sapphire. Also fights H.E.C.T.O.R.(Hector Hammond+MODOK) and Madarinestro.

[vynsane]

Madarinestro.

hrm.... they tried way to hard on that one. and failed.

the 'dark claw adventures' ish was lots of fun.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

The last of the Amalgam books!(Except Lobo the Duck. And I think we can all imagine what that one's about.)

JLX Unleashed. The mutants were all hunted down in the "Armageddon Agenda!" crossover. Now Amazon discovers she's a mutant and helps what's left of the JLX fight the immensely powerful Fin Fang Flame!!
Magnetic Men feat. Magneto. Magneto continues his fight with his evil brother Will with the help of his now sentient robot allies.
Spider-Boy Team Up. Spidey travel into the future and meets the Legiom of Galactic Guardians 2099(mash ups of Legion, Guardians of the Galaxy and 2099. Way too many to list. Pages.) then he gets caught in a time loop, so he's reintroduced to them every few pages, and they're all slightly different. Humorous.
Super Soldier: Man of War. Golden Age tale of SS and Sgt Rock's Easy company Howling Commandos in WWII.
Thorion of the New Asgods. A big mash up of all things Thor and New Gods. Thorion sacrifices himself in the end to become the first Celestial.

And that's that. I have to say, even though I give 1995-2000 a lot of crap for being the low point of comics, I continually find there were genuinely fun books from that era. Marvel vs DC was a total gimmick, but some of these books were pretty decent, clever reads.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

I just read the first Anarky 1997 mini series. Anarky butts heads with Etrigan, Darkseid(yup, he goes to Apokalips and chats with ol' Omega Beams himself) and finally Batman. The story itself is just a foil for Anarky's(and by Anarky, I mean Alan Grant's) Manifesto. Wow. That deserves a topic unto itself. It's simultaneously thought provoking and obvious.