iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

What a great series. Thanks for all your insights, and I hope the expanded book version happens.

It’s really hard to think of plausible contenders outside of fairly obvious ones like Brainiac. Mongul wouldn’t be around, as a copy of Thanos who was kind of a copy of Darkseid and Metron in the first place. Maybe Despero? He’s a physical and mental threat, and checks a lot of Darkseid boxes.

(Apologies to anyone who might have already brought all this up, I’m still working through the main thread)

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And of course Didio and Johns had been keen to bring Barry back for some time regardless of what Morrison planned to do, so this was a good opportunity to finally pull that off.

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But the reboot got pushed back a couple years, and supposedly the general sense was “well, all the other Crisis stuff was undone, we’ll keep Barry too.”

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I always thought Barry Allen’s return was an editorial mandate, but allegedly there was a little more to it: Final Crisis was meant to actually close the book on the DCU for a reboot (the eventual New 52), and Morrison wanted to bring the Crises full circle by returning Barry in that final epic.

Based on where I tended to spend my comics blogosphering time back then, I want to say that was something either @iamdavidbrothers.com , @gavin4l.bsky.social or @uzionmain.bsky.social made, or possibly just some clever dork on SomethingAwful’s BSS subforum.

If it’s the one I’m thinking of, it’s punctuated by three panels of Batman firing the gun at Darkseid and the PING of the ape guy solving the Rubik’s Cube in 17 moves before AND TAKE YOUR MONEY, yes?

And did two different runs at the Metal Men, too, go figure.

Yeah I made a hard break at Prime because AoA was to my mind so much more interesting than the then-dull standard Marvel line. It basically ended my first era of collecting comics, in fact, until sometime around Heroes Return. Which wasn’t actually much time away, but it felt like it as a teenager.

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The irony of Pietro having a relatively pleasant and well-adjusted personality (and a positive relationship with his father) in that crapsack reality was kind of novel, as was his role as basically the Cyclops of Magneto’s team; but yeah it didn’t make him more interesting than his counterpart.

I was really annoyed as a kid when I got my first Fatal Attractions issue and found out the card was firmly attached to the cover itself, I wanted those holographic Gambit and Nightcrawler cards for themselves.

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Was Major Bummer even part of the DCU? I don’t recall any overt crossover stuff, all the superheroes were original to that book from what I remember, but I also only read a handful of disconnected issues and the last arc.

Josh Dang It @joshdangit.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Hitman notably being another one, where Morrison later admitted to going crazy on plotting all the other books but only gave Ennis the direction “Garth, take the piss.”

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Not really indie songs but shoutout to Sturgill Simpson’s covers of In Bloom and The Promise, which get pretty close to that vibe for me.

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Josh Dang It @joshdangit.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Volume one was incredibly well done, and also made me so bummed out that I had trouble functioning for a few days after reading it.

Josh Dang It @joshdangit.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

He doesn’t do much more than carry a katana in terms of faux-martial artistry, but being willing to fight Godzilla with it earns some bonus points for Captain Douglas Gordon from Final Wars. Besides, every fighting game needs a big beefy grappler, and Don Frye already looks like Mike Haggar.

Don Frye as Captain Douglas Gordon from Godzilla Final Wars.

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That Guy Jordan @jordamusprime.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Earlier today I heard someone say that they're going to stick Mitch McConnell's brain into John Fetterman's body like Krang and I have no self control

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Josh Dang It @joshdangit.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Jubilee getting the same kind of “oh wait this character is AWESOME” shine-up as Cyclops received in season 1 is pretty rad.

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Matt Nelson @mattnelsonart.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

It's #freerpgday and I've created an incredibly stupid, likely horribly unbalanced 1-page RPG! And it's free! Enjoy Dump Strat, an RPG about REALLY needing to go to the bathroom at an RPG convention. #RPG #onepagerpg #game ko-fi.com/s/420651a4bf

ko-fi.com

Dump Strat RPG - Matt Nelson's Ko-fi Shop

The one-page RPG I created for Free RPG Day. In it, you play a convention attendee who really needs to use the bathroom. It's quite silly.

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Josh Dang It @joshdangit.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

I didn’t know I wanted this until now. Trying to think of other characters for the cast, but the only thing that immediately comes to mind is Rowlf in Dr. Bob mode for Arthur Seward.

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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

well then i guess Pace Picante Sauce can SHUT THE FUCK UP

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The Needling @theneedling.com · 14/06/2026

Socialist Mayor Reigns of Terror Continue with Yet Another Sports Championship Victory: tinyurl.com/3f39hzcb

Image on left of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani watching a Knicks game in a Knicks jersey with friends, Image on right of smiling Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson sporting Seahawks gear including a Super Bowl ring on her finger

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Josh Dang It @joshdangit.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Yeah I’ve been more or less a conscientious objector to the NBA since the death of the Sonics too, but Bluesky’s Knicks love is pretty infectious.

Josh Dang It @joshdangit.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Wow, sad timing, I was just telling Maggie about Jane Yolen’s more substantial fantasy work after we found a little picture book she wrote about dinosaurs while looking for things to read to the kid at the library. :(

Peter Foglesong @peterfoglesong.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Reposted by Josh Dang It

Saddened to hear that Jane Yolen has left us. RIP to a legend. 😔

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Josh Dang It @joshdangit.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Good riddance to Regan! Nice to see Jacobson land on his feet so well after losing the PF mayorship, between this and the interim Cd’A city manager role.

Josh Dang It @joshdangit.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Stacy’s mom Watching the Wrath of Khan The needs of the many Outweigh the few or the one

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Josh Dang It @joshdangit.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

That bastard Herndon just got his seat back by deposing the marginally-sane Republican who took it from him previously in the latest Idaho primary, too. So many voters in this state are irredeemably vile.

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Josh Dang It @joshdangit.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

I was gonna get upset on behalf of Guy from Final Fight and Street Fighter Alpha, but my aging brain misremembered what kind of shoes his red sneakers were (Nikes).

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Josh Dang It @joshdangit.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

I sure hope he’ll be OK. You seem like a great dad, so he’s got that going for him at least.

“Heed my exploded words, son of Ass-Pope.”

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Wish any of Nate and Andy’s attempts at a spinoff on Atomictoy (RIP) had ever got going, the art was really great by the end of Buttlord. Plus they were growing out of edgy comedic homophobia in their later mini projects, before the website disappeared and they fell off the face of the earth.

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It doesn’t haunt my day to day vocabulary as much as Achewood does, but it’s still warping my speech 20 years later.

Every few weeks some snippet like “let us take to the skies, my boo, seeing as how flying is a martial art,” “now that all my friends are safe and dead” “beefy lava shower” or basically anything said by the comic’s Vegeta-by-way-of-Mike-Haggar Mr. Huge will pop into my head.

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