Who Was Who Is Who #4

So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, and with DC's New 52 well under way (how long are they keeping that title do you think?) I'm going to go through all my copies of Who's Who and see who's made it over to the new DCU, who might make it and who hasn't got a Big Bear's chance.

BEAUTIFUL DREAMER - oh, Jack Kirby you old hippy. Beautiful Dreamer, along with the rest of the Forever People, are great examples of how embedding characters' looks, behaviour and speech patters in a particular time frame utterly date them. I can't see any of them coming back any time soon.

BEN BOXER - another Kirby character, this one's tied in with Kamandi and the Great Disaster so unless he turns up on Earth-51 as part of Mutiversity, I don't think we'll be seeing him, either.

BIG BARDA - with the first villain of the relaunched Justice League's title being Darkseid, there's a good possibility that the New Gods may be viable characters once more. That is unless some version of Final Crisis took place between the start of the League and the current Year 5 or so which is when most DC titles are taking place. If Final Crisis didn't happen (and I hope that's true) then the New Gods aren't dead - and yes, that includes Beautiful Dreamer - and so could be brought back, which means Mr Miracle and Big Barda could be back in business. I'm going for a possible on this one.

BIG BEAR - same applies here as with Beautiful Dreamer above: the Forever People really are just too dated a concept to be brought back, I think.

BIG SIR - an old Flash villain that migrated over to the Giffen/DeMatteis era Injustice League and was played for laughs. Can't see him coming back.

BIZARRO - with Superman's franchise being rebooted, as far as I'm aware there are no plans to bring back Bizarro. However, he's such hit with the fans that he's bound to come back in one form or another. Before the end of 2012? I'm going to say no, but he'll be back at some point.

BLACK BISON - an old Firestorm villain that I can't see making an appearance in the New 52, except maybe - and it's a big maybe - as a different person in the pages of All-Star Western.

BLACKBRIAR THORN - vague possibility of him turning up in Justice League Dark, I suppose, or maybe on Earth-2 in the new Justice Society series, but probably not.

BLACK CANARY - we've already seen Black Canary turn up in the pages of the new Birds of Prey so that's definitely one we can mark up. However, the elder Canary hasn't been seen but, as with so many other old characters, has a darn good chance of appearing in James Robinson's forthcoming Justice Society series set on Earth-2. Depending on the launch date of that, I'm going to say we'll be seeing the E-2 Canary by the end of the year.

BLACK CONDOR - the most recent version of Black Condor was sadly cancelled along with the rest of the Freedom Fighters in the run-up to Flashpoint which, I think, was a darn shame. I'm going to say we'll not be seeing him any time soon.

BLACKFIRE - the sister of Starfire in the old continuity, I've no idea whether she still exists this time round as I'm not picking up Red Hood and The Outlaws where Starfire parades around in next to nothing, apparently. From what little I know about that book, I'm going to suggest that outer space adventures aren't high on the agenda so we won't get to see Blackfire before the end of 2012.

BLACK HAND - anyone connected with the Green Lantern titles has a very good chance of turning up following the relaunch and I think Black Hand is no exception. When we last saw him, he was a prisoner of the Indigo Tribe and I think we all know that those guys have a background that needs to be explored at some point. Even if Black Hand doesn't come back as a major villain, I think we'll definitely see him in the pages of one of the Green Lantern books before the end of 2012.

BLACKHAWK and THE BLACKHAWKS - another of the surprise titles launched in the New 52 was Blackhawks so even though the characters featured in it are different from the originals, I'm counting this as a hit.

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Summary: two already in place (E-1 Black Canary and Blackhawks), one possible (Big Barda), two definites (E-2 Black Canary and Black Hand) by the end of 2012.