Who Was Who Is Who #9

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 if I can predict who will make it over to the new DCU by the end of this year, who might make it and who hasn't got a Computo's chance.

CHRONOS - poor old Ray Palmer, eh? Never really had what you'd call a good array of villains. Bug-Eyed Bandit and Chronos? Man, no wonder he ended up jacking the whole thing in and going to live in a land where everyone else was six inches tall. Chronos, though? Can't see him turning up any time soon.

CINNAMON - yet another character who could benefit from All Star Western, it seems even more likely that she'll show up since Nighthawk appeared in the sneak peeks a couple of weeks back (actually just a day or so ago from when this was written - lead time, people!) With that appearance, I'm willing to bump her up from a possible to a definite by the end of 2012.

CIRCE - perhaps Wonder Woman's main villain (at least from the point of view of this non-Wondy reading bloke) I really don't know whether we'll get to see Circe any time soon what with the emphasis apparently being on the gods and monsters side of things. I'm going for a maybe at some point, but not before the end of 2012.

Game On?

Even in this new world, Batman and Catwoman
still can't admit their feelings for each other

I'll happily admit I'm not a huge gamer; I have an XBox and own maybe three or four games. Those I do own, I'll play over and over - I'm still playing Red Dead Redemption even after gaining 100% in it months ago!

The thing that keeps pulling me back to it (along with several of the GTA games) is the freedom to pretty much do what I want in the world. I still find myself taking on side missions every now and then, but I'm happy riding around the place, doing my own thing. It's prevarication at it's worst in some ways (as there are many other things I could be doing) but it's a way of relaxing for me.

Green Lantern and Power Girl against some Na'vi.
Actually, I'd pay to see that.

With that in mind, I've been reading the numerous reports about the impending arrival of DCU Online with only slight interest. Yes, it'd be nice to have the opportunity to play as some of my favourite characters, head off and complete missions, using fancy powers and flying round cities but pretty much everything I've seen (including the photos here) seem to show it as little more than a fighting game.

Am I missing something here? Is there more to this game than teaming up with another hero on one side of the screen to beat the snot out of a bunch of villains on the other side? If so, it doesn't appear to be coming through to me.

Killer Frost and Heat Wave prove opposites
don't attract

Those sort of games bore the crap out of me, they really do, and I'm painfully aware that it's partly because of the ridiculous combinations of button pushes needed to perform the double backflip-elbow smash-face plant-gonad pull on your opponent that you're hoping to do to win some extra power up or something. I just never got the hang of those things, even years ago when I first tried them in my 20's, so you can't blame it on age. Give me a straight forward aim and shoot combination and I'm happy.

So, it seems unlikely that I'll be plunging into the digital world of DCU Online even to find the answer to the question: Why does Circe look like Tarot, Witch of the Black Rose?