Welcome to the primary ASK…THE QUESTION of 2023! I’m Alex Jaffe, and if you happen to’re a member of the DC Group, you could already be aware of my work underneath the sobriquet of HubCityQuestion. As all the time, it’s my endeavor to reply no matter questions you could have in regards to the breadth, historical past and trivialities of the DC Universe, irrespective of how granular or obscure. In case you’d prefer to submit a query of your individual, you’ll be able to cease by my digital workplace at any time to make your inquiries, every of which I’ll in time handle to the perfect of my capability. Let’s get some solutions!
Gents, Let’s Broaden Our Minds
IYQbd asks:
When did the Joker begin writing big HA HA HAs on the whole lot?
The Joker’s laughter as rendered in graffiti has grow to be one of many character’s signature staples, from the film posters selling 2008’s The Darkish Knight to the adornment of Robin’s costume in Batman v Superman: Daybreak of Justice. However when precisely did the Joker start expressing himself in vandalism?
1946’s Detective Comics #109 is the primary time we see the Joker’s HA HA HAs expressed in writing. Nevertheless it wouldn’t be honest to name that graffiti. On this occasion, they’re written on bricks that the Joker is laying to construct his personal home of jokes. That very same yr, in Detective Comics #114, the Joker vandalizes indicators all through the town to seem to learn “HA HA HA,” however he does this by eradicating letters or lights in current indicators, moderately than spraying it on. It’s shut, however not fairly the identical gag.
1948’s Batman #46 is the primary time Joker explicitly defaces a wall with the “HA HA HA,” as a part of an extended message. It’s not the massive predominant letters we’re accustomed to although, the place the laughter is the thrust of the message.
The under cowl of 1949’s Detective Comics #149 has completely nothing to do with this query. I simply needed you to see it.
Possibly we should always again up just a little. If not the “HA HA” message particularly, the place does the concept of Joker as an inventive vandal come from? Like a lot of our pop cultural associations with Batman’s principal forged, I’d hint it again to an episode of the Sixties Batman tv present—particularly “Pop Goes the Joker,” a season two caper the place Joker and his gang by chance begin a pop artwork sensation after they break into an artwork gallery to deface the work. It’s a scene which might encourage the well-known artwork museum heist in 1989’s Batman movie, simply because the Penguin’s run for mayor within the ’60’s Batman TV present would offer the idea for Batman Returns.
Because it seems, the primary occasion of the “HA HA HA” graffiti motif we’re aware of at this time wasn’t dedicated by the Joker in any respect. We see it for the primary time in 1999, within the pilot episode of Batman Past, an obvious crime by the Jokerz gang of Neo Gotham marking their accountability for the homicide of Terry’s father Warren. In fact, we might be taught that Warren’s precise killer was Derek Powers’ enforcer, Mr. Fixx, performing on his employer’s orders. However regardless of these a number of layers of abstraction, the laughing graffiti has remained a staple of Joker’s repertoire ever since—even defacing the Batcave a yr later in Batman Past: Return of the Joker. Absolutely, vandalism would be the cost that retains him in jail this time.
Prize Fighter
MiscellaneousSoup asks:
What number of Pulitzers does Lois Lane have? Has a comic book ever proven her accepting one?
So far as we all know, Lois Lane has solely obtained one Pulitzer Prize, extensively thought of the very best recognition within the area of journalism, as established in 1967’s Superman’s Woman Buddy, Lois Lane #80. Nevertheless, we’re by no means informed precisely what story she gained the Pulitzer for. Thus far, the primary and solely textual supply for Lois’s Pulitzer is within the 2006 movie Superman Returns.
Within the movie, Lois gained her Pulitzer for an editorial piece entitled “Why the World Doesn’t Want Superman.” The piece was written throughout Superman’s lengthy absence from Earth implied to have elapsed between the unique Christopher Reeve movies and the fashionable Brandon Routh-led follow-up, entreating the folks of Metropolis who had come to rely upon the Man of Metal to imagine in themselves as soon as extra.
That’s to not say that no authority on Lois has ever weighed in on this situation. In 2019, New York Occasions editor and comedian e-book information correspondent George Gene Gustines posed this very query to Greg Rucka and Mike Perkins, the artistic group of the up to date Lois Lane restricted collection. Rucka and Perkins had been of two minds: Rucka believes that Lois gained her Pulitzer for a narrative on Superman’s debut. Perkins, however, believes that Lois earned her Pulitzer earlier than Superman confirmed up, establishing her credibility as a reporter even earlier than she grew to become the best-known byline on the Superman beat. Personally, whereas I’ve all of the love and respect on the earth for Rucka, I like Mike’s idea greatest.
A Poor Synnar’s Hand
jetblackrlsh.82332 asks:
Again within the day it was established that Synnar created the DC Multiverse in Rann-Thanagar Holy Warfare #6. However not too way back, it was established that Perpetua created the DC Multiverse. One of many huge initiatives of Infinite Frontier was to ascertain that the whole lot occurred. So did each Perpetua and Synnar create the DC Multiverse? And if that’s the case, how? Are Perpetua and Synnar associated in any means, and can we ever get to see these two characters work together sooner or later?
No connection between Synnar the Demiurge or Perpetua of Scott Snyder’s Justice League has ever been explicitly established in textual content. In truth, no person’s even talked about Synnar, who was initially an enemy of Jemm, Son of Saturn within the Nineteen Eighties, in any respect, for the reason that 2008 miniseries by Jim Starlin which introduced collectively a number of the extra obscure cosmic characters from DC historical past. Nonetheless, there are a selection of how we will clarify this discrepancy. In Justice League and its conclusory Darkish Nights: Demise Steel occasion, we be taught that Perpetua has been expressing her affect within the DC Universe by means of its best villains all this time, from the Anti-Monitor to Darkseid and past. One could interpret Synnar’s actions as yet one more expression of Perpetua’s will—and even forged Perpetua because the lord Synnar speaks of in Holy Warfare as granting him the ability to dream all of creation into existence.
There’s one other clarification in a distinction inside the penalties of Darkish Nights: Demise Steel and the following Infinite Frontier, which I worry usually goes ignored. It’s not essentially that the whole lot which has ever taken place in a DC comedian e-book is now concurrently, canonically true, however that our principal gamers have been awoken to the concepts inside them. They’ll keep in mind every model of their full historical past, even with out it being true to the present expression of actuality. So, simply because Adam Unusual or Hawkman would possibly have the ability to recall a universe the place Synnar was behind its creation doesn’t essentially imply that he had any position within the creation of the universe because it exists now.
There’s a a lot easier clarification than all of this, although, and one I believe makes probably the most sense. When studying this situation of Holy Warfare, it’s important to think about the place the knowledge is coming from. Synnar is a monomaniacal despot who believes himself to be the final word energy within the universe. In fact HE’S going to inform you that he’s chargeable for making all of creation. He would possibly even imagine it himself. However Maxie Zeus isn’t the ruler of Mt. Olympus both. As a common rule of recommendation, I’d say to not imagine the whole lot a super-villain tells you.
Our Higher Angels
Wrightline1.42741 asks:
My question includes the Spectre and maybe my understanding (or misunderstanding) of his nature. Each time God’s creations (the Earth, and all upon it) are threatened with whole destruction by forces past the talents of mortal males to cope with, why is the Spectre solely often concerned? Does he not actually signify God’s presence on our little blue/inexperienced marble in house? And if that’s the case, ought to he not act to take away such threats? Or is planetary destruction outdoors the scope of his “jurisdiction”?
Wrightline, what you’ve stumble on right here is the central battle of most Spectre tales themselves. Police detective Jim Corrigan, chosen after his homicide to grow to be an instrument of God because the human host of the Spectre, usually needs he might make use of his powers in service of defending humanity. However the Spectre, for all his divine energy, isn’t fairly like different superheroes. He doesn’t get a say during which circumstances he does or doesn’t get to intervene.
In lots of religions which embody the idea of angels, every angel is claimed to have one particular objective from which they could not deviate, as that objective defines their very existence. So too is the case with Aztar, the angel who offers his human host with the ability of the Spectre. Like all angels with specified features, the Spectre will not be an instrument of God’s will in whole, however particularly an instrument of divine vengeance. The Spectre will not be approved to behave to forestall calamity, as that will each be an imposition on free will and outdoors his job description—he’s solely in a position to carry retribution for an injustice already executed. And whereas there have been occasions the place Corrigan has been allowed to pursue circumstances of his personal autonomy, his divine powers in these situations are drastically decreased. Suffice to say that whereas underneath the right circumstances, the Spectre is without doubt one of the strongest beings within the DC Universe, he’s on the identical time powerless to make use of these skills in a means which defies his perform.
That presents an fascinating philosophical quandary by itself: what kind of god would grant the world a determine of vengeance, however not safety? Does God exist to create and guarantee his guidelines are adopted, however with no capability for mercy? Earlier than you reply that, let me ask you this: how do you suppose Earth ended up with so many superheroes, all granted highly effective skills by means of astronomical coincidence, within the first place?
Pronunciation Station
KookieSuperApe asks:
What’s the correct pronunciation of Chemo? Key-mo or Khem-mo (or one thing else)?
As tempting as it’s to say “Key-mo” because the phrase is used within the context of “chemotherapy,” each adaptation of the character to this point which makes use of the identify aloud—Batman: The Courageous and the Daring, the DC Nation Steel Males shorts, and Batman Limitless: Mechs vs. Mutants—pronounces it “Khem-mo.”
That’s all of the house we’ve this month, however hold checking in for extra solutions to your entire burning questions in regards to the forged of hundreds which makes up our favourite fictional world. I’ll all the time be listening, so long as you ASK… THE QUESTION.
Alex Jaffe is the writer of our month-to-month “Ask the Query” column and writes about TV, films, comics and superhero historical past for DC.com. Comply with him on Twitter at @AlexJaffe and discover him within the DC Group as HubCityQuestion.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed on this column are solely these of Alex Jaffe and don’t essentially mirror these of DC Leisure or Warner Bros.
