The Flash S4 adds Hartley Sawyer as Elongated Man

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One of the best things about CW’s stable of superhero shows is their willingness to add swaths of additional superheroes to their single hero programs.  The name of the show might be Arrow or The Flash but both series also feature a rotating cast of supporting superheroes that help the world feel larger and more engaging.  It’s an approach that took Smallville years to stumble on but now they’re doing right out of the gate, like with Martian Manhunter appearing as a supporting character for Supergirl season 1.  And they aren’t slowing down, either, with new heroes joining the shows all the time and now we’ve got another name to add to that list.  The most recently announced new hero joining the CWnivere is Ralph Dibney, the Elongated Man, who will appear in The Flash season 4 and be portrayed by Hartley Sawyer. 

Panel Vision - History of Deathstroke: A Plea Against Modern Deathstroke

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Edited by Robert Beach 

It’s starting to look like the DC villain Deathstroke will appear in next year’s Justice League and will more than likely be the villain of Ben Affleck’s solo Batman film.  I’ve been hesitant to address this news because, frankly, I’ve been holding out the hope that it was all some elaborate misdirection meant to obfuscate the real villain being Clock King, Dr. Destiny, or someone else, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. If that bit of misplaced optimism wasn’t an obvious enough giveaway, I’m not terribly excited over this Deathstroke news. I get the sense I’m an outsider in this particular arena. 

Most Bat fans are salivating at the notion of Deathstroke making his second live-action debut while a good number of more moderate comic fans are happy to see their favorite Teen Titans villain make it to the big time. Even some older fans out there are happy to see Deathstroke’s return to culture prominence. To understand this along with the character’s future, we need to look at his past, so let’s dive into the history of Deathstroke to see why I’m the only one not thrilled about his adaptation. 

Cover Story - Top 20 Firestorm Covers

So, by now Legends of Tomorrow has managed to get through its pilot storyline and polish off its first major story arc, a sleek cold war spy thriller revolving around attempts to create a Soviet Firestorm.  Given that this show is full to the brim with superheroes pretty much everyone will get their day on Cover Story but the show’s emphasis on Firestorm in this first major story arc means he gets his shot first.  Specifically, I’ll be drawing from across Firestorm’s history rather than limiting myself to any one version like the show does, mainly because there’s not nearly enough of any one Firestorm to make up an entire Cover Story article.   

Panel Vision - The History of DC Comics' Many Firestorms

Edited by Robert Beach 

This past week CW’s The Flash featured an episode entitled "The Fury of Firestorm." The character of Firestorm has been a major part of the show’s continuity since about mid season 1, but this latest episode has had to deal with the tricky situation of Ronnie Raymond actor Robbie Amell dropping out of the series due to scheduling conflicts with his film career. 

This means working out a way to swap in a new Firestorm actor, a task that would normally be pretty tough if this was any other hero but Firestorm. Firestorm is one of those weird superhero cases where multiple identities and various characters are built right into the characters DNA as well as populating his thoroughly bizarre history. 

Panel Vision - Martian Manhutner

I am a huge fan of Martian Manhunter.  A lot of this has to do with how I first entered the world of advanced comic readership.  When I was younger my first entry point to comics that wasn’t in the form of animated TV was the extensive work of Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis.  These two guys basically invented the tropes and ideas of modern comics, from character identities to universal events 90% of the stuff we like in modern comics can be traced by to Giffen and DeMatteis.  One of their first comics I ever read was a 1988 four-issue mini-series spotlighting the Martian Manhunter and his origins.  This series alone stands as a testament to how influential their work was as it’s still the defining mythos by which Martian Manhunter is written today. 

Since reading it I’ve always been keen to check out any appearances of the Manhunter from mars so when DC announced a new comic series I was intrigued.  So far DC’s post-New 52 titles have been a mixed bag but both Batman and Action Comics turned out very well, so I was optimistic going into Martian Manhunter.  The result doesn’t so much sore as it stumbles at the starting line but makes a decent effort in the process.