Who Was Who Is Who #5

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 Bolt's chance.

BLACK LIGHTNING - he got some love during Final Crisis and kicked around with the Justice League for a time but we haven't seen much of him lately. Will he be back before the end of 2012? Possibly, though it's sort of difficult to say where he'll turn up.

BLACK MANTA - when Aquaman surprised everybody by being the breakout character of Brightest Day, an ongoing series was sure to follow. In Brightest Day, his long time enemy Black Manta showed up and caused him some trouble along with being revealed as the father of the new Aqualad before being defeated by Aquaman and Mera. At the time of writing (early December 2011) there's been no hint that the storylines from Brightest Day will be carried over into the New 52 but I'd be really surprised if we don't see a version of Black Manta before the end of the year.

BLACK ORCHID - here's one where I find myself wondering if I've actually read something on the net or have just imagined it. Is Black Orchid appearing in Justice League Dark? The internet would make me believe not, but I'm sure I read something. Oh well, I'll put her down as a possible.
BLACK PIRATE - it's been a while since Jon Valor's last major outing in Starman so unless DC suddenly print a slew of pirate-themed comics (perhaps as a tie-in to the much rumoured Watchmen prequels? Tales of The Black Pirate anybody?) I think it's unlikely we'll be seeing him soon.

BLACK RACER - another casualty, along with the rest of the New Gods, of Final Crisis, I kind of doubt we'll be seeing him this year, even if the rest of the cast make their way back at some point.

BLACKROCK - small time Superman villain, can't see any rush to bring him back.

BLACK SPIDER - similarly this low-level Batman villain.

BLACKSTARR - and the same applies for this Supergirl villain.

BLOCKBUSTER - spent a good long time being a foil for Nightwing in Bludhaven before ending up on the wrong side of life. Possible that someone with the same name might show up but I doubt it this year.

BLOK - I'm not a reader of Legion so have no idea if Blok is alive and well and ready to appear or if he's so much space-dust.

BLUE BEETLE - and here's the first of this week's list that we can definitely say has shown up in the New 52, albeit with someone else in the costume. Ted Kord on the right there is still dead and we have his successor Jaime Reyes in the Beetle costume, just as we did after Infinite Crisis and, frankly, I'm okay with that. Yes, I still miss Ted but Jaime's established himself over the last couple of years and managed to get his own on-going again as part of the relaunch which is no small thing, and it's turning out to be quite fun as well.

BLUE DEVIL - and talking of fun, it would be nice if we can get Blue Devil back up and running at some point as well. He'd just started to make a few appearances in the last Justice Society of America series before Flashpoint came along and cancelled that, so it's not as if it's been years since we seen him. Heck, why not team him up with Blue Beetle?

BOLT - unlikely we'll see Bolt again after his son teleported him into a wall and killed him. Although, as originally one of Blue Devil's villains, if they'd bring back Devil, maybe Bolt will come along as well? Nah.

BOUNCING BOY - as with Blok above, I'm not a Legion reader so have no idea if Bouncing Boy will turn up in the new title.

BOY COMMANDOS - slim chance, I guess, of these turning up in Men of War if the title does World War II stories but I doubt we'll see them soon.

THE BRAIN - hmmm . . . tune in next week when I deal with the Brotherhood of Evil.

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Here's the summary for January:

Week	In Place	Definite	Possible
1	Animal Man	Adam Strange	Amethyst
2	Aquaman Ray Palmer	Arak, Son of Thunder E-2 Atom	Arcane Arion
3	Batgirl Batman Batwoman	Bat Lash	Baron Winters
4	E-1 Black Canary Blackhawks	E-2 Black Canary Black Hand	Big Barda
5	Blue Beetle	Black Manta	Black Lightning Black Orchid