Who Was Who Is Who #17

So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, 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 2012, who might make it and who hasn't got a Golden Gladiator's chance.

GARN DAANUTH - the bad brother of Arion who last turned up (I think) in JSA Classified as one of Power Girl's visions just before Infinite Crisis. Can't see him turning up any time soon.

Global Guardians #8 - The Last Days

Over the last few weeks, I've trawled through my comics, looking at the Global Guardians and how they fared in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths and pre-Flashpoint DCU.

For most of their appearances, they were closely linked with one branch or another of the Justice League, appearing mostly in their titles and on more than one occasion acting as foils against them.

Following the events of the last post, much of the team had been lost, though the League had handily supplied them with potential new members to help them get over things.

It didn't work.

Global Guardians #7 - Final Fight

For the next few weeks, I'm going to be running through the DCU appearances of the Global Guardians post-Crisis and pre-Flashpoint (or at least all the appearances I have) and try to find out where they are now. Or were, pre-Flashpoint.

Having been used as little more than cameo guest stars in the end of the Red Winter storyline as seen last week, the Guardians next appearance was in Justice League Quarterly #17. In a couple of issues prior to that, a new Jack O'Lantern was seen, one Liam McHugh, the cousin of the original but as his were solo stories, I'm not dwelling on them.

Instead, we rejoin the Guardians at their HQ in the Pacific where Tuatara has been having visions of the future, mostly about his friends being in danger.

Global Guardians #6 - Red Winter

For the next few weeks, I'm going to be running through the DCU appearances of the Global Guardians post-Crisis and pre-Flashpoint (or at least all the appearances I have) and try to find out where they are now. Or were, pre-Flashpoint.

Following the last couple of posts about the Global Guardians, it should be clear by now that they were closely linked with the Justice League in its various forms.

Their next appearance came in the Red Winter storyline that ran throughout Justice League Europe #54 - #50 although the Guardians themselves has a relatively small part to play in it.

Global Guardians #5 - Getting The Band Back Together

For the next few weeks, I'm going to be running through the DCU appearances of the Global Guardians post-Crisis and pre-Flashpoint (or at least all the appearances I have) and try to find out where they are now. Or were, pre-Flashpoint.

With the fall of the Queen Bee of Bialya and the rise of Sumaan Harjavti, the Global Guardians faced a question: should they remain in Bialya in the employ of its new leader or not?

Before answering that question, as any good team should do, they took stock of themselves, beginning in the pages of Justice League Quarterly #5, published soon after the events of Breakdowns as seen last week.

Global Guardians #4 - Breakdowns

For the next few weeks, I'm going to be running through the DCU appearances of the Global Guardians post-Crisis, pre-Flashpoint (or at least all the appearances I have) and wonder why they never had a title of their own and find out where they are now. Or were, pre-Flashpoint.

Last week saw the establishment of the Justice League Europe and their initial battle against the Global Guardians as controlled by the Queen Bee who was putting them forward to the world as the new heroes of Bialya.

This week we skip forward some months (story time) to the start of the last  storyline of the Giffen/DeMatteis era, Breakdowns. This was a sixteen part crossover between Justice League America and ...Europe where a number of big battles changed the make-up of both versions of the League.

And the Global Guardians were right at the start of it.

Global Guardians #3 - Our European Cousins

For the next few weeks, I'm going to be running through the DCU appearances of the Global Guardians post-Crisis, pre-Flashpoint (or at least all the appearances I have) and wonder why they never had a title of their own and find out where they are now. Or were, pre-Flashpoint.

After the events shown in last week's instalment, Jack O'Lantern and Owlwoman are seen safely ensconced as part of the Queen Bee's retinue following her usurping of the Bialyan throne. The Justice League, helpless in the face of her overwhelming support from the Bialyan people, leave with their tail between their legs.

Not long after that, Invasion! takes place where various alien races band together with the Dominators to try and take over the Earth. At the end of that, a decision's made to increase the scope of the League's activities and Justice League Europe is created, based in Paris which, you may remember, also houses the Dome, home of the Global Guardians.

Global Guardians #2 - Moving On

For the next few weeks, I'm going to be running through the DCU appearances of the Global Guardians post-Crisis, pre-Flashpoint (or at least all the appearances I have) and wonder why they never had a title of their own and where they are now.

Following the events of Legends, the Justice League was revitalised (to say the least) and from its beginnings as simply a new version of the JLA, was transformed into a United Nations sponsored world-wide group of superheroes with embassies in most major countries.

Thing is, there was already a group with the same mandate, one which had a more international membership than the fledgling JLA/I. Sure, the League had a more interplanetary membership (with J'onn J'onzz and Mr Miracle) but the Global Guardians were already in place and as we saw last week, represented more of the globe than the League.

Still, politics being what they are, with the UN sanctioning the League, there was no need for the Guardians.

Justice League International #9 featured the first of several back-up appearances of the Guardians as they dealt with the closure of the Dome and while some, such as Belphegor and Dr Mist were quite philosophical about the affair, the Irish hero Jack O'Lantern was definitely not.

Global Guardians #1 - Who's Who?

Back last year, I had some great fun - okay, some of it wasn't that great - looking back over two incarnations of the Justice League, specifically the much derided Justice League Detroit and the mostly forgotten but should be remembered and derided a bit more Jurgens League.

While I was wondering where to go next, commenter Jeremy Patterson wrote:

"How about instead of looking at another League, let's try to focus on some of the 'lesser light' superteams of the DCU, either:


*  A look at one of DC's two attempts at revamping the MLJ heroes: The early 1990s Impact Comics or the 2009-2010 attempt to integrate them into the DCU. (With 'New Crusaders' coming in 2012, it is time to take a look at the subject!).


*  Or at the many attempts to give focus to the Global Guardians, as the Global Guardians seemed to have never existed at all in the DCnU, so it is intriguing to see what went wrong with the G.G.!"

Having never read any of the Impact / Red Circle comics, I decided to go with Jeremy's second suggestion and take a look at the Global Guardians.

Please . . . try to contain your excitement.

A Sensible 'Aircut

Godiva's made something of an impression in the pages of the new Justice League International book, turning into an interesting character with a nice sense of humour.

Strange, then, to see how she was originally, particularly her wonderful or-fentik Bri'ish di-a-log:

That's right - she's using her hair as a pair of wings.

I'd love to say where that's from, but I'm afraid I pilfered it from this apparently long-dead site which I stumbled across while researching my look back at one of the DCU's lesser-known teams . . .

Tune in every Tuesday for the next few weeks as I re-discover twenty year old comics once more, just because a reader suggested I do so.