Giffen: It's basically, "Whatever happened to Fast Forward from Arcudi's Doom Patrol?" You know, the guy they jokingly called Negative Man because of his attitude?
It's sort of involves him and alternate realities and things that can come through doors that are open in alternate realities.
So we're having some fun with Doom Patrol doppelgangers. Feral Rita, and Nazi Larry, and Steampunk Cliff.
Ted's back! That's so incredibly cool!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely interested to see what's become of Fast Forward. I believe Fever reappeared in Teen Titans (was she killed off though? awww, I loved her). Anyone know if Kid Slick and Ava/Freak ever showed up again?
ReplyDeleteI could have sworn Ted went insane after his medication ran out and became the new Clock King. At the end of the Arcudi series he tried pushing the limits of his powers and got stuck somehow. Either Thayer Jost or Cliff covered the expenses, but after the group dissolved I'm not sure how he could manage to pay for that.
ReplyDeleteI thought the series ended w. Dorothy Spinner's life support being turned off by Cliff and the remaining 4 members of Arcudi's DP (including Ted) driving off together to find new adventures. I don't remember anything about him being the Clock King. Did that happen during the Arcudi run?
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ReplyDeleteI knew Cliff didn't drive off with the others. I didn't say he did.
ReplyDeleteI guess we'll just have to see what Giffen does with Ted Bruder. Maybe the "Ted as Clock King" idea was planned and then discarded.
Sorry, that's my fault; I read the line break incorrectly after I came back to the computer with my Arcudi run to double-check stuff.
ReplyDeleteAnd God, let's hope Giffen tosses that stuff out, or at least steers it back to whatever Johns might have been planning with the Titans before he left. In fact, if you haven't read AMBUSH BUG: YEAR NONE, it boils down to fight between AB and Didio parallel to Darkseid's scheme in FINAL NIGHT. AB winds up transporting through time as well as space, but constantly being drawn into specific scenes from the annual Crisis stories, undoing events from what they were headed to be and causing them to be as we remember reading them. Giffen (or Fleming)'s implied-but-never-stated message is that much of what we've been reading could have just as easily been the result of some Holy Fool-type screw-ups as deliberate plotting. Hopefully Giffen has a fail-safe file for Irwin, a number of possible "we can only get away with this once" story ideas for DP or the DCU generally. I can't think of any other reason for bringing back both Irwin and Danny at the same time. Superficially, they both function as transporters, right? So what distinguishes each of them? Well, as a sentient location, Danny is rare but not unique (Fiddler's Green, Mogo, and the Original JLA HQ are all thinking/alive). Irwin is unique in that he is aware (or believes, to others) that he is a comic book character and can interact with any aspect of DC continuity without actually having any impact on it. The YEAR NONE LS hints that the reason he can't change continuity is that, unbeknownst to him, he's directing it. He drove Jean Loring to murder, distracted Blue Beetle for the split second it took for him to be shot, etc. The five years leading up to FINAL CRISIS were so wonky because Irwin had nothing else to do. At the end of FINAL CRISIS we see reality 'rebooted' using Superman's vision as a template. Hopefully that reboot provides enough wiggle room to give the Jost team updated appearances or at least a more fitting coda than "I can't tell if that's him/her".