A Surfeit of Bunnies

[caiusbackup]

So--I was intending to have my comica_obscura fic *done* by now. And it's more or less plotted out already, as plainsong_x can attest, being as I jumped her in the middle of the night round about Thursday nights ago and *told* it too her.

Unfortunately, telling Jori all about it does not make a fic finished, and I've been jumped by one bunny/obsession after another ever since.

First, there was classic Firestorm, set off by, off all things, the Superfriends, which reminded me that Firestorm originally? Involved a bodysharing pair of high school student/professor. And made it look much more...pervy than Ronnie and Prof. Stein ever did in the comics. Especially when you've spent way too much time talking to evadne_ about the Blue Beetles and various Hawk 'n' Dove AUs.

Any rate. I managed to more or less shake that one off by late Saturday night. More or less. At which point (after having given zeelee_penguin a--brief--explanation of Green Lantern continuity from, oh, the 1960s or 70s through Mosaic, and diverse other distractions) I crawled into bed around 2:30 AM and was immediately ambushed by a Hal/John (or perhaps Hal-John) plot bunny at full force. Which (in an attempt at productivity, however counterproductive) I spent another hour or so starting writing the beginning of.

And then yesterday, after spending most of the day traveling and coming out tired, achy, and generally HATING THE WORLD, I went to bed much earlier and promptly started contemplating, of all things, Al Rothstein [Nuklon, Adam-Smasher] and Todd Rice [Obsidian] swearing brotherhood and settling down as ex-heroes/ex-villains together. (Do any of you other than greenygal *care* about these two?! Or have any desire to see such a thing?) It was cute, and tragic, and occasionally hot if they actually got to the sex, and actually *didn't* result in me getting up and trying to write it, partly because it occurred to me I'd have to go reread a lot of JSA to try to fit in what happens there with the Al and Todd I know from Infinity, Inc. and JLA.

...and just now I'm reading 70s Freedom Fighters, if only to see Black Condor walk around as if what he (wasn't) wearing was perfectly normal (this is a cover from the 40s, but same general costume). And am therefore discovering a *lot* of interesting stuff that is long-since out of continuity, like the Freedom Fighters having migrated to New York after their JLA xover special. Oh dear.

Comments

[derryderrydown.livejournal.com]

It... It was actually called Crack Comics?

Really and truly?

I'm not sure whether I'm boggling with love or fear.

[wabbitseason.livejournal.com]

Truth in advertising?

[caiusmajor.livejournal.com]

It was. Better yet, it was published by Quality Comics company (who most notably brought us Plastic Man, though he originated in the more sensibly-named Police Comics), so it was Quality Crack!

I don't think they meant 'crack' quite the way we do, though. However, given that it featured Black Condor (and later Captain Triumph (http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/c/captrium.htm), among other Quality Comics worthies...) it might just as well have been.

This is the closest I have to a GL icon. that is sad.

[ficbyzee.livejournal.com]

and was immediately ambushed by a Hal/John (or perhaps Hal-John) plot bunny at full force.

OOOOOOOOOOH. *encourages liek whoa*

You know what I want to see? I want to see what happens with Hal and John after HAL SENT HIM FLOWERS OMG OMG SQUEE.

...*hushs*

All my GL icons also feature either Ollie or Barry.

[caiusmajor.livejournal.com]

FLOWERS! YES! OMIGODSQUEE! You should write this. ;)

Sorry I wasn't, actually, on AIM--I'd run off to class and forgot to either log off or put up an away message...

[smittywing.livejournal.com]

I care about Al and Todd! Granted, only intermittantly and when someone writes good fic about them, but I think that qualifies. So cough it up. :D

Also, is it wrong of me to get excited that I recognize the Spider and Red Torpedo?

[caiusmajor.livejournal.com]

...there is absolutely *nothing* wrong with getting excited on recogizing the Spider and Red Torpedo. And I'm *totally* qualified to make this value judgment. ;)

Caring about Al and Todd, though, is much much better! Writing about them, though, as opposed to vaguely obsessing when I'm supposed to be sleeping, is more of a *project* than I'm able to really deal with. Unless I just go do so at 2AM *anyway* and to hell with having read Black Reign before I knew who Al (or half the rest of the JSA) was...

Although it occurs to me that I could maybe kill three birds with one stone, Smitty-wise, by having Pieter show up. What with Todd's last appearence being in the JSA sickbay, IIRC. Hmm.

[smittywing.livejournal.com]

It looks like you've seen the issues, but you've hit This Page (http://www.mykey3000.com/cosmicteams/jla/jlafaq05.html#drmidnite), right?

And I could TOTALLY go for a Pieter appearance. He's all wise and counseling or y'know, watching. In the dark. Yum.

[unlovablehands.livejournal.com]

I am oddly fond of Nuklon/Atom-Smasher and Obsidian in spite of having read very little concerning them. I'd totally read it if you wrote it, though.

[caiusmajor.livejournal.com]

...this is what you *get* for stopping reading JLA v2 just 'cause Ted and Booster and Guy have left! ;)

Todd and Al are easy to be fond of. And when Gerard's writing 'em, man. It *has* been mentioned to you, right, that Todd told Al once in that JLA run that the only two people he'd ever loved were Al and his own twin sister? When Gerard was on his total Ambiguous Sexuality kick?

[violin-road.livejournal.com]

BUT IT SOUNDED LIKE SO MUCH FUN. WRITE IT ALREADY. *cheerleads!*

[caiusmajor.livejournal.com]

Yes'm!

[mariko-azrael.livejournal.com]

I am still haunted by remember that picture of Black Condor.

[kerithwyn.livejournal.com]

I'm fond of Todd! Quite so. Go for it. ^_^

[caiusmajor.livejournal.com]

Yay Todd!

...it's looking *increasingly* likely that there's a lot of backissue checking in my future. Oh dear. *clings desperately to need to write comica_obscura*

[jamjar.livejournal.com]

The following two paragraphs are basically me saying why I don't like Atom-Smasher. Sorry about that. It's not that I'm distinterested in him, just...

The thing with Atom-Smasher is... he's weak. Mentally, emotionally, whatever. he's not the only one that almost lost someone- or actually lost someone. His mother wasn't targetted. And he uses that as an excuse to get swept up by Black Adam, because he doesn't want to deal.

People lose, or almost lose,people every day. They don't, or shouldn't, completely forget their moral centre because of it. Even if he wanted to take a more permenant route (and not every hero is against the death penalty, some will, some have said that some people need to be dead), that doesn't mean he should just-- blindly follow Black Adam because it's easier. Because Black Adam says "If you do this, it will be better," rather than the "we do what we can,and sometimes it's mostly enough, but sometimes it isn't, and we lose, but you do it because you can't *not* help" of the JSA.

I think- huh. I think Al lacks judgement, which is only a crime if you're wanting to impose that lack of judgement on others, violently. Compare his storyline with Cissie's, who knew that she had to have that, and that -even if she'd chosen to stay- she still would have had to accept and face the consequences of her actions.

Todd, I have a great deal more sympathy, more understanding for Todd, who I don'treally like or dislike, but I *could* like.

[caiusmajor.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Interesting take, and it should be noted that much of my fondness for Al Rothstein is based on his characterization pre-JSA and especially pre-Black Reign, simply because Black Reign was the *very* first JSA storyarc I read, and at the time I really couldn't tell the players without a scorecard.

I came to know and like Al (and Todd) later on, through reading their appearances in JLA v2, in Infinity, Inc., and in earlier JSA, roughly in that order; one of the things I need to do before writing Al and Todd fic set in the present day is to reread Black Reign with a greater understanding of the characters, and figure out how (and indeed whether--Al wouldn't be the only case in which a character's JSA characterization was a drastic departure from his previous behavior; it's true of *most* of the ex-Infinitors) it fits with the Al Rothstein I know.

None of which addresses your own objections, just to say that the Al you're complaining about is not necessarily the Al I'm writing about. The Al Rothstein I know is mostly a younger, happier one--the Al who got a mohawk to represent the Golden Age Atom's helmet crest and was suprised at the reaction he got from his elders; the Al who was a devoted friend to Todd, and played optimist to his pessimist through much of JLA; who tried and failed to find a nice Jewish girl to marry among his teammates.

What I *want* to do, at least in the fic I was pondering last night, is to take the Al and the Todd from JSA and give them back the friendship and connection the had in JLA or II. Give them each other so they *can* deal. *shrug* It's true that Todd has had a lot more to deal with, which is perhaps why you find him at least potentially likable--he has his shaddowself and his connection to the pain of the entire world, on top of a really shitty childhood.

Al, well--I've never particularly *required* him to be as morally incorruptible (or, in fact, as deep--he's not necessarily given to complex moralizing at the best of times) as you seem to want him to be. *shrug* He's young and his early approach to life had been shaken by the Extant storyline, and I'm sure having to fight an insane Todd multiple times didn't help either. The relationship between Al and Black Atom is one of the things I'd look at if I were to reread JSA to write this fic--there's early friction between the two, coupled with a gradual increase in respect at least on Al's part, IIRC. As for the details of Black Reign and Al's own part of it, I'd really have to reread.

I do.

[rayshell22.livejournal.com]

I'd have no problems reading an Atom-Smasher/Obsidian fic. Hey, they're JSA kids.