Batman hanging out with the Public Domain Posse is pretty weird, though. I guess it’s Moore’s way of placing the Batman legend where he thinks it belongs. And he has a point. Batman makes more sense in a Tarzan and Doc Savage world than he does in Superman’s. Why every “good” Batman story involves a conflict with Supes is beyond me.

Still, Team Human would’ve made the entire shock of the storyline worth it, IMHO. It’s Batman and Tarzan for cryin’ out loud!

I’ve got to agree with Jim Doom - and not just because he agreed with me. You can’t inflate one aspect of a literary (or mythical/historical/religious) figure to an extreme and claim that you’ve made that figure iconic. I think the religious/mythical standard that Moore was claiming to shoot for proves the point:

Does “horny” summarize Zeus?

Does “wrathful” (or “bitchy,” as I guarantee it would be portrayed in the comics) summarize Hera?

And if you take your comics seriously, let’s kick it up a notch: does “compassionate” capture all there is to say about Jesus? Does “contemplative” summarize Buddha?

I would argue no.

The other thing that really bothers me about this story is that Captain Marvel really isn’t Captain Marvel at all, and writing-off Billy Batson as some sort of sexual deviant isn’t so much amplifying an aspect of the character as making a straw-man out of him. So right from the beginning, one of the major characters is a complete fabrication, *not* even a caricature of the genuine article.

Secondly, if Billy Batson’s use of his powers somehow stunted his emotional/psychological development and rendered him some sort of sexual deviant, why isn’t this also the case with the other Marvels, Mary and Junior? Moore, at least in his draft, immediately creates a plot hole big enough to fly the Rock of Eternity through.

As if this weren’t bad enough, the Martian Manhunter, who is *actually* the faux Captain Marvel, is so grossly out-of-character as to be unrecognizable. Where’s his inner monologue/conscience/telepathic rapport with Mary, who is 1) in actually a minor, 2) by the rules of the story some sort of sexual deviant, and 3) no matter how you slice it, a participant in an incestuous relationship?

Not to belabor the point, but I just see *anything* that connects these interpretations/reinventions to the DC cannon sufficiently to make me anything but contemptuous of this storyline. The *only* way I can see of getting around this is to write-off the Marvels *and* Martian Manhunter entirely so that Superman (and Superman alone, since Wonder Woman has given up her own identity as part of the premise of the comic) can stand alone.

IMO, the last thing in the world that Superman needs to achieve/prove his iconic status is to be compared to a bunch of faux characters that don’t really exist; the result is, in my mind at least, the complete opposite of what Moore says he was trying to achieve: Superman can *only* look good by comparison to other “heroes” who aren’t.

For my money, the “Marvel/DC After Hours” bits on YouTube do a better job of cementing Superman’s iconic status than Moore’s pitch - at least as I understand it; the “Twilight” interpretation of Superman would serve as the iconic poster boy for Superdickery.com!

I just think that any added value gained by using established characters rather then creating new ones is fairly superficial. What he calls “extraction” is little more than taking away the qualities that make them three-dimensional characters. He’s taking one aspect of the character, amplifying it, and then acting as if that’s a statement in itself.

“What I’d like to do creatively with the series is to create a storyline that [lends] the whole superhero phenomenon a context that [is] intensely mythic and [extract] from the characters involved in it their last ounce of mythic potential, [cementing] the link between superheroes and the Gods of legend [with] something as direct and resonant as the original legends themselves. One legend in particular will be the main thematic drift of the storyline: the Norse legend of Ragnarok, twilight of the Gods.”

Moore wanted to write the story of the end of the DC heroes, and elevate them. Since many are practically immortal or indestructible, this would have to be done by making them functionally irrelevant–that is, inherently UNheroic.

I don’t think this idea could so easily be written off as overly cynical. It seems like Moore just wanted to officially elevate the DC heroes to the same status as the gods and heroes of pagan myths.