October 1, 1956: The Silver Age of Comics Begins

October 1, 1956: Showcase Comics #4 is published, featuring the debut of a new version of an established superhero, the Flash. This is considered to be the beginning of the Silver Age of Comic Books.

The Golden Age of Comics had ended 2 years earlier, with the publication of Seduction of the Innocent by Dr. Fredric Wertham, which resulted in the creation of the Comics Code Authority, designed to reduce the amount of violence and sexual innuendo (intended or perceived) in comic books. Sales tanked, so new heroes, and new versions of old heroes, were created.

The original version of the Flash was Jay Garrick, a college student in Keystone City, who inhaled "heavy water vapors," and gained super-speed as a result. The new version, introduced in Showcase #4, was Barry Allen, a "police scientist" in Central City, the kind of character who would later be represented by the likes of Gary Dourdan's Warrick Brown on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Pauley Perrette's Abby Sciuto on NCIS.

In other words, he  was old enough to have gotten his doctorate, and had been helping to solve crimes even before he got his powers. That happened when a lightning bolt crashed through the window of his lab, electrifying some chemicals, knocking them over, and dousing him in them.

The success of the new Flash led to a new version of Green Lantern in 1959, and a new version of the Atom in 1961. Also in 1961, DC would bring their old and new versions of heroes together with the story "The Flash of Two Worlds," introducing the concept of the multiverse, with the new versions on Earth-One and the old ones on Earth-Two; and Marvel Comics began their "Marvel Universe" with Fantastic Four #1.

In 1971, the Silver Age of Comics gave way to the Bronze Age, marked by the challenging of the Comics Code Authority with drug stories, first Spider-Man's "Green Goblin Reborn!" and then, a few weeks later, by the Green Lantern and Green Arrow story "Snowbirds Don't Fly." Comics became darker, even world-weary.

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October 1, 1956 was a Monday. Theresa May, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 2016 to 2019, was born.

There were no scores on this historic day: Baseball was between the regular season and the World Series (which the New York Yankees would win over the Brooklyn Dodgers), football was in midweek (there would be no Monday Night Football for another 14 years), and the NBA and NHL seasons hadn't started yet. 

September 1, 1961: DC Comics Introduces the Multiverse

September 1, 1961: DC Comics publishes The Flash #123, with the story "The Flash of Two Worlds." It introduces the concept of the "Multiverse."

In 1940, Flash Comics #1 marked the debut of The Flash. Jay Garrick is a science student at a university in fictional Keystone City, who inhales hard water vapors, and becomes the fastest man alive. He was a major superhero of the 1940s. But in the mid-1950s, various circumstances brought "The Golden Age of Comics" to an end.

In 1956, Showcase Comics #4 began what came to be called "The Silver Age of Comics." It introduced a new Flash. Barry Allen was a forensic scientist for the police department in equally fictional Central City, and the joke was that he was always late for everything.

A lightning bolt crashed through the window of his lab, electrified some chemicals, knocked them over, and doused him in them. This made him the fastest man alive. He took on the Flash name, and a costume with a lightning bolt on it, although it was different from that of Garrick's character.

In September 1961, Flash #123 was published with the story "The Flash of Two Worlds." The story was written by Gardner Fox, who created the original Flash, Garrick. Robert Kanigher created Allen, but had no role in this particular story, which explained that the Flashes lived in parallel worlds. Eventually, DC would name them "Earth-1" (or "Earth-One"), on which Allen lived; and "Earth-2" (or "Earth-Two"), on which Garrick lived.

At a charity event organized by Iris West, a journalist and Barry's girlfriend (and, eventually, his wife), the Flash performs super-speed tricks to entertain the children there, as the scheduled magician has not come. Recreating a rope-climbing trick, he begins vibrating his molecules when he suddenly disappears from the stage. He finds himself outside near an unfamiliar city, which he discovers to be Keystone City.

On Barry's world, Jay's Flash is thought to be a fictional comic book character. Barry looks Jay up in the phone book, and introduces himself to the older speedster. On this Earth, Jay had retired as the Flash years earlier, the year his comic book series was canceled on Earth-One, and married his longtime girlfriend, Joan Williams. Barry claims Gardner Fox's thoughts must have been tuned in to the events of Earth-Two.

Jay says he is preparing to resume being the Flash, and describes for Barry three incredible crimes that were committed recently. These thefts were perpetrated by three of Jay's former adversaries, who have joined forces: The Fiddler, The Shade, and The Thinker. The Flashes split up, with Jay taking on the Thinker and Barry against the Shade, but they are unable to defeat them. The Flashes regroup and go after the Fiddler together, saving a man from a falling steel girder along the way.

Shade and Thinker meet up and realize that there are two Flashes. They hurry to warn the Fiddler of this turn of events, but the Fiddler has already managed to stop the Flashes with his musical powers. He commands the two speedsters to commit robberies for him. Just as the villainous trio are about to flee with their loot, the two Flashes capture them. It turns out that they had put small jewels in their ears to block the Fiddler's mind-control music after he told them to put them down and take larger jewels, then played along in order to fool the criminals. Barry returns to his Earth after Jay announces he is coming out of retirement, and will continue as the Flash of his world.

The story was so successful, DC brought back the other Golden Age heroes, and put them on Earth-Two, showing them as older, since they had debuted in the 1930s or '40s. But there were some differences, some bigger than others:

* Superman: On Earth-One, Clark Kent was born Kal-El on Krypton, and he was still trying to prevent his Daily Planet teammate, Lois Lane, from finding out his secret identity. On Earth-Two, he was born Kal-L, and Lois knew, and they were married.

* Batman: On Earth-One, Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, Catwoman, had a flirtatious relationship, as Catwoman played both sides, sometimes an anti-hero, sometimes a villain. (On the 1966-68 Batman TV series, she was only a villain, and yet, she and Batman had the never-resolved hots for each other.) On Earth-Two, Bruce and Selina were married, and their daughter Helena Wayne became a superhero, the Huntress. She would marry Earth-Two's Robin, Dick Grayson, who never became Nightwing (but did, on occasion, wear the Batman costume), while there were no other Robins (Jason Todd, Tim Drake, etc.).

* The Flash: The power in question was the same, but the names and costumes were different, and they didn't even live in the same city. On Earth-One, Barry Allen lived in Central City. On Earth-Two, Jay Garrick lived in Keystone City. And neither man's city even existed on the other man's Earth.

* Green Lantern: On Earth-One, Hal Jordan was a test pilot who followed an alien ship's crash. The alien was a member of the Green Lantern Corps, and, as he died, handed Jordan his "power ring," telling him, "It tells me you are worthy," and Jordan becomes the Green Lantern assigned to protect the sector that includes Earth, and meets the other members of the Corps, frequently teaming up with them. His costume is green with black trim.

On Earth-Two, there is only one Green Lantern, Alan Scott, a railroad engineer who finds a lantern whose backstory doesn't matter here, and he fashions a ring out of it, and his costume is multicolored. Also, Jordan wears his ring on his right hand, while Scott wears his on his left.

* The Atom: This was a huge difference, and an early 1980s story revealed that a man calling himself "the keeper of the cosmic balance" did just that by briefly switching the two men's powers. Both Atoms are, as you might guess (this was very common with both DC and Marvel heroes-to-be), scientists. The Atom of Earth-One was Ray Palmer, a science professor who discovered a way to change his size, allowing him to shrink to subatomic size. Usually, he limited his shrinking to 6 inches, yet he could punch someone with the full force of his usual 180-pound body.

The Atom of Earth-Two was Al Pratt, a college student who was called "The Atom" because he was only 5 feet tall. As an unexpected result of an experiment, he gained super-strength, but that was the extent of his powers.

The Earth-Two heroes had already had their own team, the Justice Society of America (JSA). The Earth-One heroes developed a team, the Justice League of America (JLA). Each team had its world's Flash, Green Lantern and Atom on it. Occasionally, there would be crossover team-ups.

The JSA included some heroes who only existed on Earth-Two, such as Dr. Fate, Dr. Mid-Nite, Hourman, Starman, and the Star-Spangled Kid. In contrast, there weren't many heroes from Earth-One that weren't also on Earth-Two. J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, was one of the exceptions.

Eventually, other worlds were created. There was an Earth-Three, in which the classic heroes we know were all villains: Superman was Ultraman, Batman was Owlman, his sidekick Robin was Talon, Wonder Woman was Superwoman (and her real name was Lois Lane, suggesting a relationship with Superman), Green Lantern was Power Ring, The Flash was Johnny Quick, and so on. They called their team the Crime Syndicate of America. And the villains were heroes, including Alexander Luthor (apparently, the Earth-One Lex's full name).

DC bought Fawcett Comics, including Captain Marvel -- or, as his stories had to be titled, since Marvel Comics won a court case over the right to that name, "Shazam!" -- and his stories were placed on "Earth-S," S for Shazam. DC bought Charlton Comics, including The Question, and those stories were put on Earth-Four.

In 1979, to celebrate Batman's 40th Anniversary, a story was written in which the Phantom Stranger tells Batman and Robin that there is a parallel world where the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne, Bruce's parents, is about to happen, and gives Batman, for once, a chance to prevent it, even sending Robin with him.

Robin discovers that there are not only no superheroes on this world, but no fictional heroes at all. No Sherlock Holmes, no Tarzan, no Zorro -- and in most versions of Batman's origin story, the movie the Waynes went to see right before it happened was a version of Zorro, a character Batman would come to resemble. (His co-creator, Bob Kane, even admitted as much.) Batman and Robin stop the murder -- and inspire little Bruce to become this world's first superhero. As the closing text says, he becomes his world's Batman not out of a desire for vengeance, but out of gratitude for the man who saved his parents. This world was later named Earth-Five.

There were many others, until, in the early 1980s, DC executives realized how confusing it all was, so they decided to consolidate everything onto one world. Marv Wolfman wrote the story, and in 1985, the 12-part Crisis On Infinite Earths was released.

In Issue #7, Superman's cousin Supergirl sacrificed her life to stop the Anti-Monitor, the villain who wanted to destroy all the Earths. In Issue #8, Barry Allen, the Earth-One Flash, sacrificed his life. Each of these was just a temporary reprieve. Finally, in Issue #12, the heroes of all the Earths triumphed, with the Superman of Earth-Two, the first superhero, appropriately being the one to deliver the deathblow.

When it was over, there was one Earth. A retroactive continuity (or "retcon") revealed that the Earth-Two heroes, the JSA, were active in the 1940s, retired in the 1950s because the House Un-American Activities Committee suspected them of Communist ties since they wouldn't reveal their secret identities, and had been exposed to something that reduced their aging, so that they could still be alive and fighting crime into their 70s, their 80s, and beyond. (Most of them would now be around 100 years old.)

Specifically to the Flash, it was revealed that Barry's home, Central City, and Jay's home, Keystone City, were neighbors, across a river and a State Line from each other. Given their location in the middle of the country, they could have been analogous to Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas. Barry's nephew, Wally West, had been his sidekick, Kid Flash. At this point, he told Jay that he was taking the Flash name and Barry's costume, and says, "The Flash lives on!" Jay gave his blessing.

As the years passed, there were new retcons, and the 2006-07 series 52 would reveal that the Multiverse had been restored. Later, Barry Allen was brought back from the dead to resume his heroism.

Before The Flash #123, it never would have occurred to anyone to put 2 different versions of the same character together. No one thought of pairing Ronald Howard, who had recently played Sherlock Holmes on television, with Basil Rathbone, who had played the defining version on film a few years earlier. No one thought of putting Guy Williams, the recent TV Zorro, together with Tyrone Power, who starred in a 1940 film version. (It wouldn't have mattered: Power died while Williams' show was still on the air.)

But TV and movies have done it since. In 2012, The CW network began airing Arrow, starting the "Arrowverse" series of superhero shows. In 2014, it began to include a new The Flash series, starring Grant Gustin as Barry.

In 2019, it broadcast a 5-part Crisis On Infinite Earths series, with appearances from Burt Ward, the 1966 TV Robin (that show's Batman, Adam West, having died the year before); Tom Welling, the Clark Kent of Smallville from 2001 to 2011; Brandon Routh, the Superman Returns Superman of 2006 (hinted to be the same Superman played by Christopher Reeve from 1978 to 1987); Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman in the DC Animated Universe; Ezra Miller, who was playing Barry Allen in the DC Extended Universe films; and John Wesley Shipp, who played Barry Allen on the 1990-91 CBS series The Flash, and now played both Jay Garrick and Barry's father Henry Allen on the current CW series.

Left to right: Ezra Miller, John Wesley Shipp, and Grant Gustin.
"My name is Barry Allen, and I'm the fastest man alive."

And in 2021, the film Spider-Man: No Way Home brought the current version of Marvel Comics' web-slinger, Tom Holland, together with Tobey Maguire, star of 3 Spider-Man films from 2002 to 2007; and Andrew Garfield, star of the Amazing Spider-Man films of 2012 and 2014.

UPDATE: The 2023 film The Flash starred Miller as 3 different versions of Barry Allen, and also starred 3 different Batmen: Current DC Extended Universe Batman Ben Affleck, 1989-92 film Batman Michael Keaton, and 1997 Batman and Robin star George Clooney.

It ended up using computer-generated imagery to bring back George Reeves, who starred in the 1952-58 series The Adventures of Superman, but died in 1959; Christopher Reeve, who died in 2004, and Helen Slater, who starred in the 1984 film Supergirl, still alive at the time of the film's premiere, but appearing as she did in 1984; still images and voice recordings of West's Batman, Cesar Romero's Joker, and Eartha Kitt's Catwoman from the 1966-68 Batman series; a version of Jay Garrick, played by Jason Ballantine; and even Nicolas Cage as Superman from a movie that was announced, but never made.

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September 1, 1961 was a Friday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 1-0 at Yankee Stadium. Don Mossi had not only outpitched Whitey Ford, but, with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, he almost had the shutout. Then came 3 straight singles by Elston Howard, Yogi Berra, and Bill "Moose" Skowron to win it for the Yankees. Luis Arroyo was the winning pitcher in relief. Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris both went 0-for-4. At the time, Maris had 50 home runs, Mantle 49. Al Kaline had 3 of the Tigers' 7 hits.

The Tigers never recovered: Although they won 101 games this season, they finished 8 games behind the Yankees. Maris ended up with 61 home runs, Mantle 54.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-4 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson hit 2 home runs for the Orioles, and another was hit by Whitey Herzog, who would later manage Kansas City and St. Louis to Pennants.

* A doubleheader was split at Griffith Stadium in Washington. The Chicago White Sox won the opener, 3-2. The Washington Senators won the nightcap, 5-1.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-3 with a walk. Rookie Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Bowman tripled Joey Amalfitano home with the winning run in the top of the 14th inning. Willie Mays went 2-for-6. Ernie Banks went 1-for-4... with 3 walks.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Braves, 4-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. John Roseboro singled Ron Fairly home with the winning run in the top of the 9th inning. Hank Aaron went 0-for-4.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-4 at the original Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Stan Musial did not play. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-2 before being replaced due to injury.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Kansas City Athletics, 6-4 at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. Yes, Los Angeles: The Pacific Coast League's earlier Los Angeles Angels were a Cubs farm team, and William Wrigley Jr. built this ballpark to look like the Cubs' home in Chicago. In fact, this one was named Wrigley Field before the one in Chicago was.

* And the Philadelphia Phillies and the Cincinnati Reds were rained out at Connie Mack Stadium (formerly Shibe Park) in Philadelphia. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the following Monday (which was Labor Day). The Reds won the 1st game, 5-0. Ken Johnson pitched a 4-hit shutout. The Phillies won the 2nd game, 5-3. Over the 2 games, Frank Robinson went 2-for-8 with a walk and an RBI.

June 14, 2013: "Man of Steel" Premieres, Beginning the DCEU

Left to right: Ezra Miller as the Flash, Jason Momoa as Aquaman,

Henry Cavill as Superman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman,

Ben Affleck as Batman, Ray Fisher as Cyborg

June 14, 2013: The film Man of Steel premieres, directed by Zack Snyder, and starring Henry Cavill as Kal-El, a.k.a. Clark Kent, a.k.a. Superman. It began the "Snyderverse" series of movies based on the superhero stories of DC Comics.

The Snyderverse bred a group of fanboys -- and they were mostly teenage boys and young men, too young to remember Christopher Reeve playing Superman and Michael Keaton playing Batman -- who decided that this was the only version of superheroes that mattered. That previous versions of Superman were "boring," and that previous versions of Batman, even Christian Bale's recent "Dark Knight," weren't dark enough. And that the "Arrowverse" group of TV shows on The CW network wasn't good enough.

In the words of the immortal Gene Wilder, "You know, morons."

Man of Steel -- or "Man of Stool," as those of us who think it's shit like to call it, and I will hereafter abbreviate it as MoS -- was a crime against the character of Superman. The 2016 follow-up, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (BvS from here on out), was worse, its only saving grace being the introduction of Israeli actress Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman.

Snyder fanboys told us to wait for the "Extended Edition." All that did was make a very long, very bad movie longer and worse. Even the brief glimpse of Ezra Miller as the Flash only helped to confuse things.

Indeed, in most of these cases, the problem isn't with the actors. Henry Cavill as Superman and Ben Affleck as Batman played the characters as they were written. The problem is with, as Snyder fanboys like to say, his overall vision, which stinks. I don't mean it "sucks." I mean it smells bad.

But before I explain why -- not that I expect Snyder fanboys to understand; as the saying goes, "I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you" -- let me give 3 things I liked about the Snyderverse.

1. S Means Hope. Superman has always been a symbol of hope. In the Snyderverse, the crest on his chest, previously always meant to be an "S" for "Superman," was rewritten to be the symbol for "hope" in Kryptonese.

Even with this, though, the Snyderverse was surpassed by the Arrowverse. In their version of Crisis On Infinite Earths (2019), Brandon Routh again played the Superman he played in Superman Returns (2006), which we are led to believe was the Superman from the Superman movies that starred Christopher Reeve (1978-87). But a terrorist attack by the Joker (described, but not named, for legal reasons) killed Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, and many other Daily Planet employees, meaning that he lost so much of what had made him human. Still, he hung on to what he had left.

He wears an S-crest similar to the one that a potential future Superman wore in the 1996 graphic novel Kingdom Come. He says to another Earth's Lois Lane, played by Elizabeth Tulloch, who went on to reprise the role in the CW series Superman & Lois (which debuted on The CW in 2021):

Superman: When I put this on, this crest, I made a promise: To keep fighting, no matter what.

Lois: Hey, why'd you add black to it?

Superman: Because, Lois, even in the darkest times, hope cuts through. Hope is the light that lifts us out of the darkness.

In so doing, the Arrowverse got Superman right in 30 seconds. Zack Snyder, if you count his cut of Justice League, had over 7 hours to get Superman right, and either failed, or refused.

2. The Original Warrior Princess. There are many reasons to appreciate the 1975-79 TV version of Wonder Woman, as played by Lynda Carter. But even then, it occurred to me that she'd have to be really fast to block bullets with those bracelets, which looked too small. Instead, Gal Gadot's Snyderverse version wore gauntlets, which covered almost her entire forearms, and made much more sense than blocking bullets.

Also, because The New Original Wonder Woman was aimed at a family audience, Carter rarely threw punches or engaged in real fights. Most of the time, she threw her opponents aside. She was a symbol of restraint and, where possible, peace. This would later be matched by a line that Diana delivered in the comics: "Don't kill if you can wound, don't wound if you can subdue, don't subdue if you can pacify, and don't raise your hand at all until you've first extended it."

While I liked Gadot's gauntlets, I wasn't crazy about the rest of her costume redesign. (Not that it was her redesign: She didn't design it.) I didn't like that her tiara now pointed down instead of up, and, as with all the heroes' costumes, it was in darker shades of its traditional colors. It reminded me of Xena: Warrior Princess.

But the DCEU films also reminded us that Diana is a warrior, and handy with any weapon, especially a sword. Carter was never allowed to show Diana's full potential; Gadot was. The fact that Carter gave Gadot her full approval -- something Reeve, already dead, couldn't give to Cavill -- went a long way.

3. The Redemption of Aquaman. Jason Momoa, a Native Hawaiian, looks nothing like the traditional Arthur Curry, a.k.a. Aquaman, who has short blond hair, and is clean-shaven. The version from the comics, and seen in the Super Friends cartoons (1973-86), has often been mocked as "the guy who talks to fish" -- even as that power, even then, was frequently shown to be rather handy. And he could fly. And he was very strong, if not on the same level as Superman or even Wonder Woman.

Indeed, if we were in the interregnum between Batman and Robin (1997) and the preparations for Batman Begins (2005), and it were the beginning of a chance to make DC movies, and I were going to cast Momoa (who was 24 in 2003, when Batman Begins got started), I would cast him as Katar Hol, a.k.a. Carter Hall, a.k.a. Hawkman, the very buff Thanagarian warrior whose original version went back to ancient Egypt. He would have kicked ass in that role.

But he did kick ass as Aquaman. The DCEU showed us just how powerful the character can truly be: He went toe-to-toe with Steppenwolf in Justice League: The Whedon Cut (2017, JLWC from here on out), and led an army (navy? marines?) to victory in his standalone film, which showed him totally proving worthy of his royal heritage. Even the much-mocked scene in JLWC, where Aquaman, not knowing he's sitting on Wonder Woman's lasso and lets the truth fly, ennobles the character.

Still...

The Top 10 Reasons Why the Snyderverse Stinks

Honorable Mention: Lois Lane. Amy Adams is a good actress. And one of the few things I like about the Snyderverse is that she figured out that Clark was a hero not only before he could tell her, but before he had even put on the Superman costume for the first time, thus saving the storyline of Lois trying to figure out that Clark was Superman, which took some truly stupid turns in the comics.

But Adams is a redhead, like Lana Lang; not a brunette, like Lois. This is a minor gripe, so I'm not putting it in the Top 10. Certainly, she was better in the role than was Kate Bosworth, who was way too young to play a veteran reporter with a 5-year-old child in Superman Returns.

10. Jimmy Olsen is wasted. In more ways than one. And I don't mean he's "drunk." In the comics, he was the Daily Planet's teenage photographer, befriended by Clark Kent and Lois Lane, and grudgingly accepted but often bullied by editor Perry White.

Most live-action versions have embraced this: John Hamilton's Perry to Jack Larson's Jimmy in The Adventures of Superman (1952-58), Jackie Cooper's Perry to Marc McClure's Jimmy in the Chris Reeve movies, and Lane Smith's Perry to first Michael Landes (1993-94) and then Justin Whalin (1994-97) on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

Jimmy Olsen wasn't in MoS. In BvS, we find out that Jimmy is an undercover CIA operative, probably around the same age as Lois and Clark. He gets his cover blown, and he's killed. That's it for him. He's a lousy CIA agent, he never works for the Planet, and he never becomes "Superman's Pal." In fact, there's no evidence that the DCEU's Superman and Jimmy even met.

9. The Flash is comic relief. In his comics introduction, Barry Allen was already a "police scientist," the kind of character who would later be represented by the likes of Gary Dourdan's Warrick Brown on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Pauley Perrette's Abby Sciuto on NCIS. In other words, he's old enough to have gotten his doctorate, and had been helping to solve crimes even before he got his powers. He had a sense of humor (although that was, typical for superheroes of the time, more common in his sidekick, Wally West, a.k.a. Kid Flash), but he was, mostly, a serious man.

The Snyderverse Flash, played by Ezra Miller, was first shown in, well, a flash during a time-travel attempt, already a grown man, trying to contact a past version of Batman in BvS. He gets a very brief scene in Suicide Squad (2016), apprehending Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney). But we don't really see him until JLWC: He's a teenage goofball who happens to be the fastest man alive. He provides much of the film's silliness, mostly in his interactions with Batman and Aquaman.

The fanboys demanded the release of Zack Snyder's Justice League, a.k.a. The Snyder Cut (ZSJL from here on out), swearing it existed prior to Snyder leaving the project due to the tragic death of his daughter. They demanded the completion of "his overall vision." Their online harassment of Warner Brothers led the studio to contact Snyder, whose Cut did not yet exist, and they let him finish it, resulting in a 4-hour HBO Max miniseries rather than a theatrical release.

They took a bad movie, a.k.a. Josstice League, and made it much longer, much darker, and much worse, worse than MoS, though not quite as bad as BvS, which is so bad, it makes the 1997 Batman and Robin look like Citizen Kane, and the 1987 Superman IV: The Quest for Peace look like The Godfather.

But ZSJL did make the Flash better, giving him the chance to travel through time and prevent the failure of Victor Stone, a.k.a. Cyborg (Ray Fisher), to prevent the destruction of Earth. It's one of the few good things about the film. And the subsequent Flash film, while full of serious things, did lean on the humor more than was necessary. When the Flash tells Batman's right-hand man Alfred Pennyworth (Jeremy Irons) that he feels like "the janitor of the Justice League," it's silly -- even though he has a point.

8. What Snyder did with the Joker. The character was written as more of a gangster type than he's usually portrayed. That wasn't the problem: The 4 traditional Batman villains, the ones most often shown in the 1966-68 Batman TV show -- the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler and Catwoman -- were, on that show, and in the comics before that, traditionally shown as gangsters with themed identities, costumes, gadgets, henchmen, etc.

But what the hell was up with the teeth? And the tattoos? I've said before that Heath Ledger's character in the 2008 film The Dark Knight seemed, to me, not so much like the actual Joker, but more like someone who, many years after Batman had defeated the original Joker, was masquerading as his interpretation of the original, and had come close to getting it right, but was a little off. But only a little: He wasn't a better Joker than Jack Nicholson was in Batman (1989), but for overall performance, he earned that posthumous Oscar.

Whereas, as played by Jared Leto in Suicide Squad and in the Knightmare sequence at the end of ZSJL, this Joker was a lot more than a little off. And I don't mean "a little crazy." After all, craziness is the Joker's thing. I mean that it seemed like Snyder was trying to make a Joker for a new generation, and, instead, came up with what Epic Rap Battles of History called someone who looked like rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine.

7. What Snyder did with Lex Luthor. Jesse Eisenberg might have been a good Joker. He might have been even better as the Riddler. But as Luthor? No way. He was far removed from even the somewhat jokey Gene Hackman version in the Reeve films, let alone the more serious versions played by John Shea on Lois & Clark, Michael Rosenbaum on Smallville (2001-11) and Kevin Spacey in Superman Returns, and now also by Jon Cryer on the Arrowverse.

And while the land-grab plans of both 1978 Luthor and 2006 Luthor are dumb in hindsight, why would 2016 Luthor create Doomsday? If he wants someone, or something, to kill Superman, why would he create something that was, for all intents and purposes, Superman without the moral code, at least equal in power, more willing to kill, and totally out of his control?

It's possible that someone as ridiculous as Eisenberg's Luthor could have made billions of dollars. But anybody that ridiculous would have been killed by his rivals before he could become the threat that Luthor usually represents.

Disclaimer: Jesse Eisenberg and I are from the same town, East Brunswick, New Jersey. But we have never met. My assessment of his version of the character is not based on any personal issue. Or even with his portrayal. Again, he played the character as it was written, very well. The problem was with the writing.

6. Dick Grayson is the Robin that the Joker killed. This precludes any future Robins: No Jason Todd, no Tim Drake, no Stephanie Brown. Snyder's Batman suggests Frank Miller's Batman, opening the possibility of Carrie Kelley. And there is nothing that can rule out Ra's al-Ghul, and therefore Talia al-Ghul, and therefore Damian Wayne. But those characters aren't suggested, either. 

Furthermore, no more Dick means no development into Nightwing. It also means no Teen Titans, which gets backed up by the fact that no younger sidekicks are suggested at any point in this films. (Cyborg started as a Titan. How he got promoted to the Justice League, I don't know. And this version of the Flash sure seems a lot more like Wally West, who was Kid Flash before he was Flash III, than Barry Allen, Flash II.)

One defense that has been marshaled is that only the loss of his first and favorite "son" could turn Bruce into the man he is in BvS, one who has forsaken his code against lethal force. But that opens a whole other can of worms: If this Batman kills, and does so because the Joker killed Robin, wouldn't that have made him kill the Joker before he killed anybody else? In the Knightmare at the end of ZSJL, he tells Joker, "Make no mistake, I will fucking kill you" -- the 1st F-bomb in any DC superhero movie. Big talk for a man who knows that the Joker killed Dick, and did nothing about it at the time.

5. Wonder Woman fights the wrong war. Setting the 1st Gal Gadot movie in late 1918, toward the end of World War I, would only have worked without the World War II background of the character, which was established when the character was created, during World War II. And it forces the question: If WWI was serious enough for her to leave Themiscyra, why wasn't the even more serious WWII enough to bring her back? This plot hole is big enough to fly an invisible plane through.

4. Daddy Issues. Superheroes being inspired to fight for justice due to the death of their father (or father figure) is a common trope. The Flash and Marvel's Hulk are among the few motivated by the death of their mother; the former saw his father falsely accused of the murder, while the latter's father actually did do it. Batman and Marvel's Iron Man are among the few motivated by the death of both parents.

So there was no way around the death of Batman's father, Thomas Wayne; or the incarceration of the Flash's father, Henry Allen. Superman lost both birth parents, Jor-El and Lara, in the destruction of Krypton; if, when and how he loses his Earthly parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, depends on the storyteller.

Snyder made Jonathan Kent a jerk. More on that later. And look at what happens to the fathers of the other 3 Justice League members in the Snyderverse:

* Wonder Woman: She never had a father until DC's 2011 "New 52" reboot, where, instead of being molded from clay by the Amazons' Queen Hippolyta and given life by the ancient Greek gods, she is the product of an affair between Hippolyta and Zeus, the King of those gods. The Snyderverse follows this difference, which may explain her more militaristic attitude in the films, although she still becomes an advocate for peace and love.

* Aquaman: Arthur's father, Thomas Curry, was portrayed as a noble man in the comics, worthy of the love of Atlanna, the Queen of Atlantis, who becomes the father of Arthur, the future Aquaman. Tom teaches Arthur in much the same way that Jonathan Kent taught Clark, and Thomas Wayne taught Bruce, before their respective deaths. But the Snyderverse portrays him as a bit less noble, and a heavy drinker.

* Cyborg: Victor has a complicated relationship with his father, Dr. Silas Stone, a brilliant scientist who means well, but Victor doesn't see it that way. Eventually, they reconcile shortly before Silas dies. In JLWC, when the Flash says he can't save all the people that Steppenwolf is threatening, Batman says, "Save one." The idea being that, with his speed, the Flash can save one at a time. The first one he saves is Silas, who is still alive at the end. But in ZSJL, the character is killed off halfway through.

I can find no reason for this: If there is any conflict between Snyder and his father, Ed Snyder, an executive recruiter from Green Bay, Wisconsin, it hasn't been made public. Zack himself seems to take fatherhood seriously, having 8 kids, and taking time off from filmmaking after his teenage daughter's suicide. But his films have "daddy issues" beyond what superheroes usually have. They make the ones Aaron Sorkin gave his characters on The West Wing look minor by comparison.

3. 3-D: Death, Destruction and Darkness. Snyder learned the wrong lesson from Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy (2005-12): He put the emphasis not on the Knight, but on the Dark.

The 1st time we saw Superman fight General Zod, in Superman II (1981), it happened on 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan in downtown Metropolis. And how many people were killed? Seeing it again with adult eyes, and estimating based on the damage to buildings and cars, I'm going to say around 100. Given the damage from the Superman vs. Zod fight in MoS, someone estimated that the death toll in Metropolis was about 120,000 -- or 40 "9/11s." Someone else called it "disaster porn."

Snyder also doubled down on the darkness for Batman, showing him as a killer, almost bloodthirsty, even willing to kill Superman, when we all know -- as former Batman nemesis Jack Nicholson said in a different role, "deep down, in places you don't like to talk about at parties" -- that there's no way that Batman could beat Superman. (No, Kryptonite is not an "ace in the hole." Kryptonite doesn't kill a Kryptonian immediately. He could lose 99 percent of his strength, and still fight through his pain, and knock an Earthman's head off with one punch.)

And, of course, the Knightmare sequences of BvS and ZSJL. Snyder so badly wants to have Superman go to the Dark Side, become evil, serve Darkseid, and enslave the world, while his dark-but-shining hero Batman (who, let's face it, does not shine in any of his movies), rather than Superman, represents the last, best hope of humanity.

I've saved my 2 biggest criticisms for what Snyder did with the 2 biggest heroes in DC Comics:

2. Batman goes too far. I understand why Superman had to kill General Zod (Michael Shannon) at the end of MoS. But Snyder made Batman a homicidal maniac, willing to kill some bad guys, willing to brand some others. That's right: Brand, with a hot iron.

1. Superman is more like Batman, and it's Jonathan Kent's fault. So this is 1A. and 1B.

Jonathan and Martha Kent taught their adoptive son Clark right from wrong. He's super-powered because he's a Kryptonian on Earth. But he's Superman because he's a Kent. Without Jonathan and Martha, or another pair of parents like them, there is no Clark; without Clark, there is no Superman, just a guy with powers, acting on what he thinks is right -- which might be right, but, as with such characters as Homelander (Antony Starr on The Boys) or Omni-Man (voiced by J.K. Simmons on Invincible), might not be.

Snyder had Jonathan (Kevin Costner) tell Clark to hide his powers, even if people died as a result. Since Superman: The Movie (1978) established that Smallville is in Kansas, and every iteration of Superman since (including the post-Crisis On Infinite Earths comics from 1985 onward) has followed this, they are in "Tornado Alley." Clark could easily save his father from a tornado -- Costner was 57 when filming the scene, and the character may have been more than 10 years younger -- but his father waves him off, to tell him to let him die. No other version of Jonathan would have ever told Superman to sacrifice anyone's life, even his.

Cavill's Superman was as whiny and moody as Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker was in Episodes II & III of Star Wars. He's not a "wooden actor," as many Lucasians complain. He played the part as it was written.

Cavill played Clark Kent as a reluctant hero. The reason for this is that Costner's version of Jonathan was totally opposed to previous portrayals, such as those of Glenn Ford (1978), Eddie Jones (Lois & Clark), and John Schneider (showing more depth in Smallville than he ever showed as Bo Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard).

Ford's version told Clark, "What I know, son, is that you are here for a reason. I don't know what that reason is, but I can tell you this: It's not to score touchdowns." That was believable. There's no way Jonathan Kent would ever tell his son, essentially, "Let them die." Or even, "Let me die."

*

And how has Snyder responded to criticisms like these? Like the ass that he is:

It's a cool point of view to be like, "My heroes are still innocent. My heroes didn't fucking lie to America. My heroes didn't embezzle money from their corporations. My heroes didn't fucking commit any atrocities." That's cool. But you're living in a fucking dream world.

Yeah, well, Zacky boy, I'd rather live in my dream world than in your Knightmare.

Sure, we like to see explosions, and it was cool to see Chris Reeve catch the TV antenna from the Empire State Building (how'd that get in Metropolis?) in Superman II, and then use it to temporarily trap Non (Jack O'Halloran). But do we really want to think about the 100 or so people who must have died in the battle with 1981 Zod, let alone the 100,000 or more who may have been killed by 2013 Zod? No, we don't.

We go to Batman movies to see a guy carry out our fantasies of kicking criminals' asses. But we know, in the end, as Batman does, that this is not an end in and of itself. We go to Superman movies to see Superman save people. We go to see him stop needless destruction, not to avenge it. We go to see him face Lex Luthor, Brainiac, ordinary bank robbers, what have you, and, in effect, give them Gandalf's message from Lord of the Rings: "You shall not pass!" And then insure that they don't pass. That's why DC's hero group is called the Justice League, while Marvel's is called the Avengers.

In other words, just as J.J. Abrams' take on Star Trek is designed to appeal to people who don't like Star Trek, and want a Captain James T. Kirk who blows shit up and takes alien women to bed, without all that high-minded pontificating about peace and man's place in the stars, Man of Steel was designed to make Superman appeal to Batman fans.

Superman isn't supposed to appeal to Batman fans. He's supposed to appeal to fans of superheroes -- and so is Batman. It's like being a fan of a sport first, and your own team second: A Yankee fan like me, for example, should appreciate a great performance by a player on another team: "Hey, did you hear, while Aaron Judge was hitting 2 home runs last night, Clayton Kershaw pitched a no-hitter?" Even if it's against your own team: "Man, we couldn't get that guy out. No wonder he was named the MVP last season. He totally deserves it again."

As I've said before: If I want to see a Batman story, I'll read or watch a Batman story. When I see Superman, I want to see a man acting in the name of hope. We watch Batman to watch him kick ass; we watch Superman to watch him "fight a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way."

People who prefer Superman to Batman do so because he's not dark, disturbed and brooding; and, indeed, embraces his role as protector of Metropolis, Earth as a whole when necessary, even (in some versions) planets he'd never even heard of before. We prefer Superman because, even more than the symbol on his chest as a Kryptonian word, he means "hope."

*

June 14, 2013 was a Friday. Football was out of season. The NBA Finals were between Games 4 and 5, and the Miami Heat would beat the San Antonio Spurs in Game 7. The Stanley Cup Finals were between Games 1 and 2, and the Chicago Blackhawks would beat the Boston Bruins in 6 games.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 5-2 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. C.J. Wilson outpitched Andy Pettitte. Derek Jeter did not play.

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 6-3 at Citi Field.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 2-0 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. How many Orioles does it take to pitch a 3-hit shutout? This time, 4: Chris Tillman, who allowed all 3 hits in the 1st 6 innings; and 1 inning each from Darren O'Day, Tommy Hunter and Jim Johnson.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-0 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. How many Giants does it take to pitch a 3-hit shutout? This time, 2: Madison Bumgarner allowed 2 over 7, and Sandy Rosario allowed 1 over 2.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 7-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Miami Marlins beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 at Marlins Park (now LoanDepot Park) in Miami.

* The Pittsburgh Prates beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-0 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. How many Pirates does it take to pitch a 6-hit shutout? This time, 3: Jeff Locke allowed 2 over 7, Mark Melancon 2 in the 8th, and Jason Grilli 2 in the 9th.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Washington Nationals, 2-1 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-3 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. It was the only extra-inning game of the day, and Jay Bruce won it with a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-0 at Target Field in Minneapolis. How many Tigers does it take to pitch a 3-hit shutout? This time, 4: Rick Porcello went the 1st 7 innings, Drew Smyly got the 1st out in the 8th, Joaquin Benoit got the last 2 outs, and José Valverde pitched the 9th.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers, 8-0 at Rangers Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. How many Blue Jays does it take to pitch a 5-hit shutout? This time, 3: Mark Buehrle allowed 4 over 7 innings, Aaron Loup pitched a perfect 8th, and Darren Oliver allowed a hit in the 9th.

* The Houston Astros beat the Chicago White Sox, 2-1 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Colorado Rockies, 8-7 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-1 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-2 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the O.co Coliseum).

January 3, 1985: DC Comics Begins Publishing "Crisis On Infinite Earths"

Issue #7, featuring the death of Supergirl

January 3, 1985: DC Comics celebrates its 50th Anniversary by rewriting its history, beginning its 12-part series Crisis On Infinite Earths, with an issue dated April 1985.

Essentially, it eliminates Earth-One (which features the current heroes) and Earth-Two (which features the heroes introduced before and during World War II), along with every other "alternate Earth" they'd ever depicted, and combines them into a single narrative.

This provides an explanation of why the WWII-era heroes can still be fighting for justice when they should be elderly -- in many cases, as mentors to the younger versions of their characters, i.e. Jay Garrick, the 1st Flash, doing so for Wally West, the 1st Kid Flash, who becomes the 3rd Flash after the 2nd, Barry Allen, sacrifices his life to save the universe in issue #8. (Barry would later be brought back to life in 2010's Blackest Night, DC's insane attempt at a zombie story.)

It also enables a reboot of the origin stories. Among the notable changes: Clark Kent was never Superboy, his parents Jonathan and Martha Kent are still alive as he begins his career as Superman, and, as Clark, he's not pretending to be the mild-mannered milquetoast he's usually seen as, making him seem more believable as a big-city reporter -- and, in hindsight, resembling George Reeves' 1950s TV Superman more than Christopher Reeve's then-current movie Superman.

Batman's origin is also slightly tweaked. Originally, his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, had worked at Wayne Manor for Thomas and Martha Wayne, then left before they were killed, with Bruce raised by an uncle and his housekeeper; and returned many years later to work for Bruce Wayne, who had already adopted Dick Grayson. He soon found out the hard way that Bruce was Batman and Dick was the 1st Robin.

In this new version, Alfred never left Wayne Manor, raising Bruce after his parents were killed, and assisting him in becoming, and then being, Batman every step of the way.

Not all the changes were popular: In addition to the death of my generation's Flash, Superman's cousin Supergirl, known as Kara Zor-El on Krypton and Linda Danvers on Earth, was killed in issue #7, producing a shocking and oft-imitated cover. And all the other Kryptonians were eliminated, making Superman truly "the Last Son of Krypton." This was dropped in DC's next reboot, the 1994 series Zero Hour.

In 2019, TV network The CW, having done several superhero shows in their "Arrowverse" series, crossed them all over, adapting Crisis On Infinite Earths. In this case, though, not only did Supergirl, now known as Kara Danvers, and the Barry Allen version of the Flash survive, but Barry proves pivotal in developing the final weapon, and Kara is the one who delivers it. In this version, the one who sacrifices himself for the greater good of the multiverse was Green Arrow, who, in order to do it, becomes that universe's version of the Spectre.

The original series was written by Marv Wolfman, and drawn by George Pérez. In the Arrowverse version, Wolfman makes a cameo appearance in the 5th and final episode. Pérez was dealing with serious health issues, and was unable to appear, so he was honored by the writers placing the final showdown with the Anti-Monitor takes place in Pérez Square.

(UPDATE: Pérez died in 2022. In 2024, a 3-part animated film, Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths, premiered, as part of the DC Animated Universe. It is yet another variation on the story, but it is closer to the original comic than to the Arrowverse version.)

*

January 3, 1985 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was between rounds of their Playoffs. There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Washington Bullets, 100-93 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks, 116-115 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 111-87 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Golden State Warriors, 112-96 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat their arch-rivals, the Seattle SuperSonics, 123-89 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

And there were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Vancouver Canucks, 6-4 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Hartford Whalers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-2 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Montreal Canadiens and the St. Louis Blues played to a tie, 2-2 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-3 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Los Angeles Kings, 8-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.