Post by redsycorax on Sept 29, 2020 1:53:52 GMT
Shortly after the Second World War on most worlds where the Allies won, French philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir created a new philosophy called existentialism. Depicting a godless universe with no predetermined outcome, it became fashionable within that country and much of the western world until the deaths of the two figures forty years later. Afterward, although the basic philosophy survived, it lapsed into antiquarian status except in university courses and within the literary world. However, on Earth-71, the influence of existentialism became universal and entrenched, leading to major social and international reforms. The Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact tried to ban it, but traditional communism was unable to do so and so it fell before the burgeoning tide. Simone de Beauvoir became France's first female president. Social reforms arrived earlier than they did in many other comparable eras of alternate history and as Christianity faded, they also enjoyed more popular support. And then there was the metahuman community, which was not left unaffected either.
There are a series of files about its exact consequences in that area of public affairs.
FILE 1: LUTHOR'S REFORMATION
For the last twenty years of his life, Alexander Luthor had fought Superman, out of frustration that his own efforts were being overshadowed and marginalised by what he regarded as a parvenu alien. Despite the fact that Luthor was a millionaire due to LexCorp's patents on his formidable technological innovations, Luthor retained considerable bitterness and continued to harbour hatred and revulsion toward the Man of Steel. Until, one day, he woke up alone and stared at the void beside him. He swallowed as he looked in the mirror and picked up a copy of the Daily Planet, and saw clearly for the first time how ravaged his face was. What was going on here? Why did he suddenly care about bad headlines in a hopelessly biased Metropolitan newspaper anyway? It wasn't as if he wasn't able to hire public relations agents to refute Lane's miserable excuse for 'investigative journalism' as he had done repeatedly. He ran a hand over his face. And once again, doubts came to mind. Would he die this way- embittered and alone, despite his wealth and reputation? Was mere hated and resentment of Superman enough anymore? No. No, for some reason, it wasn't enough.
Luthor sat down and began to painstakingly erase the various criminal conspiracies that he had financed against the Man of Steel, as well as making bank transactions that pulled money out of such operations. Where they existed, they were either cancelled or diverted onto new, humanitarian trajectories. That year, Lana Lang re-entered his life and shortly after, the two were married. He also won the Nobel Prize for Medicine after developing a cure for cancer, saving millions of lives. Luthor had realised that he had made a choice to act as he did, but it wasn't too late to reverse course and make a set of different decisions instead. And in doing so, he gained everything that he'd sacrificed while obsessed with his vendetta against the Man of Steel- love, marriage, fame, veneration, and lasting prestige. He had managed to pull back before it was too late for him.
FILE 2: BATFLIGHT ABORTED
On Earth-71, the outcome of what might have otherwise been a tragedy in Gotham City's Crime Alley unfolded differently. Angry at the hoodlum Joe Chill after he had tried to hold up his family, Thomas Wayne shoulder-charged the petty hood and the gun went off at the wrong angle, ricocheting off tenement brick into an adjacent dumpster. The sobering experience edified young Bruce Wayne, who thereafter became more studious and athletic. He had the love of his parents throughout his childhood and adolescence. When a young man, about to inherit Wayne Enterprises on his father's retirement, Bruce met Chill again, much to his surprise. Chill looked and dressed differently. He explained that he had had a heroin habit to satisfy on the night that he held up the Waynes and that Thomas Wayne had seen it. Thomas Wayne had also attended his would-be attacker's trial and paid for Chill's drug detoxification and rehabilitation. And Chill had leapt at the opportunity for rehabilitation. Despite the tattoos and scars on his arms, Chill was now a qualified architect.
One evening, while Bruce was reading Bram Stoker's Dracula in the manor's capacious library, a bat flew out of the night and lingered alongside the window for a minute. Bruce was so rapt in the literary classic that he completely ignored the nocturnal creature. Eventually, it flew out of the penumbra of light and warmth from the library window and felt as if something should have happened that had transpired differently. A few seconds thereafter, its sonar pinpointed a tasty moth, and it flew off to intercept that quarry, forgetting the encounter entirely. Bruce was instrumental in inner city reform so that a marginally employed figure named Napier never had to make a robbery to help support his pregnant wife and never fell into a chemical bath that bleached his skin white, his hair green and his lips ruby red. He would never carry a clown's rictus grin and would never lapse into mental illness or psychopathy. A year later, the bad times were over and Napier was pursuing a lucrative career as a stand-up comedian. The shadows of what might have been fled Gotham, never to return.
FILE 3: THE IVY TOWN CRATER:
On many worlds, physicist Professor Ray Palmer succeeded in harnessing the formidable energies of neutronium filtration and became the metahuman known as the Atom. Unfortunately, the third file consists of several of his scientific papers, a death certificate and FEMA report on what ensued when Earth-71's Ray Palmer made the same attempt. Unlike other iterations of the same individual, this Ray Palmer was beset by anxieties about tenure and whether he would be able to receive funding if he didn't make a breakthrough soon. And therein lay the tragedy. There was a fine line between a contained neutronium filtration reaction and the consequent stable mass reduction and enlargement effect that it generated. It consisted of a few lines of elaborated theory and it might have made all the difference. But motivated by fear, desperation and anxiety, this Ray Palmer made a fatal error. When the reaction reduced inanimate objects, Professor Palmer decided to try it on human subjects. But of course, he could not get consent for such a potentially hazardous experiment, so he decided to try out the process on himself. Seconds later, there was a cataclysmic explosion as the heat and gravimetric effects of an uncontained neutronium formation pulse shattered the quiet of the New England university town. On the next day, when the Justice League ventured into the charred remnants, it centred on Professor Palmer's laboratory. Fragments of his flesh and bone were found at the site, grossly distended. Forty thousand people died in Ivy Town that day, proof perhaps that sometimes left to themselves, people can make the wrong decision.
FILE 4: THE DANCE GOES ON:
One night in 1980, Barry and Iris Allen finished dressing for a masquerade party, following a hectic day. A telepath named Melanie had taken control of the Flash's mind and diverted him to her student's apartment, even forcing him to unmask. Iris had seen him enter, and then leave, followed by Melanie several minutes later. Initially, she had fears about her husband's potential infidelity, but when they finally made contact with each other, Barry told her what had happened- Melanie had dismissed his secret identity as nondescript and everyday, and Iris laughed, breaking the ice. The energy had to go somewhere and it led right into their bedroom. After an hour or so of hectic make-up lovemaking, Barry decided to go as 'himself' in his secret identity, while Iris imitated Batgirl. There was an added tone of excitement that evening because Barry and Iris had decided to try for a baby.
On many other Earths, there was an ominous undertone to the evening. Howard Reece was a fellow police employee, but hooked on the substance phencyclidine, better known colloquially as 'angel dust'. Dressed as the Earth-Two Sandman, Howard was stoned out of his mind on angel dust that evening, and decided to make mischief. Assembling a sonic syringe within his Sandgun replica pistol, the frankly blitzed Howard Reece intended to use it to spike the punch and 'give everyone a wild time.' Unfortunately for him, Howard was so out of it that he dropped his Sandgun and it shattered, leaving the phencyclidine canister within plainly visible to members of Central City's Drug Policing Unit. He was abruptly grabbed and bustled off to a cell back at the police station, his night over.
And so, when Barry Allen went to refill punch glasses for Iris and himself, he found his old friend Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan dancing with her instead. Abruptly, Iris staggered. Barry and Hal helped her to a seat and Barry asked Hal to provide them with a power ring scan. The ring informed them that Iris was experiencing selective amnesia and with her consent, Hal removed it- meaning that Iris now had full memory of Professor Zoom's intrusion and insane demand that she leave Barry for him- and that moreover, he was waiting for her in a secluded room in the party hall. The three of them entered, to find Eobard Thawne waiting for Iris as he had planned. Plotting to kill Iris for her rejection, Professor Zoom extended his blurred hand toward her head, about to cause fatal neurological trauma to her brain. But the Flash angrily sped forward, deducing what Zoom had intended. He started pummeling the renegade speedster, and for a moment, lost control of himself. Two minutes later, Zoom suddenly went limp in his arms. Barry looked up at Iris and Hal. Hal stated that it was self-defence and that he wouldn't tell a soul. Barry and Iris looked at one another.
Then Iris suggested that Barry and she travelled to her native 30th Century, and stayed there. After the defeat of Earth-East in 2970, the Central City monad was a placid, crimefree area and an excellent place to bring up their children. She no longer felt safe in their current time period and in any case, even if Zoom should manage to resurrect himself through 25th Century science, he would struggle to find or harm them five hundred years after his own period of origin, with five centuries of technological advance. Barry consented and they said their goodbyes to Wally, Hal, Carol Ferris and the rest of the Justice League, after Hal had buried Zoom's body in 2480. And thus, Barry and Iris Allen lived out the remainder of their years in the thirtieth and thirty-first centuries. Shortly after they arrived, Iris discovered that she was pregnant with twins. However, tragically, two decades later, Don and Dawn Allen were slaughtered during the Dominion occupation of Earth, under the control of their corrupted henchwoman Tayla Wellington. Barry and Iris took their grandchildren, Jenni Ognats and Bart Allen and hid them on an alternate world, Earth-247. Then the Legion of Super-Heroes reformed and assisted in the overthrow of the Wellington regime. Thereafter, the Allens provided increasing assistance to the Legion after Jenni joined them as XS, while Bart decided to see what life was like in his grandfather's period of origin. In 2480, Zoom's body lost its flesh, then his internal organs atrophied and decayed and then the soil gradually eroded his skeletal remains. After fifteen years, even they had disintegrated. Hal Jordan, Barry and Iris Allen carried the secret of Professor Zoom's manslaughter and Barry's self-defence of his wife to their respective graves. Professor Zoom's disappearance became a "cold case" and his ephemeral whereabouts were never disclosed.
FILE 5: THE WHITE KNIGHT:
Although Thomas and Martha Wayne were never killed on Earth-71 and despite the absence of events that led to the eventual emergence of the Batman and his rogues gallery, Earth-71 did have a "Joker" of its own. But this iteration was very different. Despite Bruce Wayne's philanthropy and inadvertent erasure of the events that had led to the Red Hood's chemical bath accident and the disfigurement of one James Napier who needed medicine for his sick, pregnant wife, another arose in his stead. But this version was a prosocial serial killer, who preyed on Gotham's underworld- and for that, he was regarded as a guardian and saviour for inner city Gothamites. Nicholas Kelly had been brought up by a mob hired gun, but in a moment of drunken taunting, his foster father had disclosed Nick's true origins. But Nick's foster father was only the first. The adolescent donned a pancake white mask and blood red lipstick splattered his mouth. The media dubbed Kelly "the Joker" but inner city Gotham were grateful for their incidental liberation from the arbitrary tyranny and daily brutalities of organised crime- hence his alternate title, the "White Knight." Gotham City Police Department brought in a brilliant female forensic scientist, Dr Harleen Quinn. She sifted the remnants of available evidence and finally tracked the Joker down to his lair. Unfortunately, no-one had run a background check on Dr Quinn herself. There was a climatic shootout in a deserted Gotham tenement and finally, Harleen Quinn shot down the Joker where he stood. For this, she was celebrated as a hero of her native city. However, what nobody could explain was the resurgence of killings of the Gotham underworld a year later, with the same inside knowledge and meticulous attention to detail. It seemed as if Gotham had acquired a new "White Knight" of its own. And this time, the GCPD came up empty. Whether through inattention to detail or deliberate circumvention is a matter of conjecture.
FILE 6: THE STRETCH OF TIME:
Sue Dearborn Dibny was a Central City socialite until one day, she encountered a liquid chemical named Gingold. She found that it made her body elastic and ductile, which led her to adopt the metahuman title "Elongated Woman." Unlike many other superheroes, Sue didn't bother to hide her metahuman identity and although her husband Ralph was loyal and loving to her, a genetic quirk meant that gingold had no effect on his own physiology. It didn't matter to Sue and Ralph though- they were a partnership, they were in love and they solved mysteries and crimes together. Elongated Woman joined the Justice League, but Ralph helped the team too with logistical, philanthropic and legal support, as well as media coaching and interviews. They were beloved by their comrades and the wider world. However, one dark day, a member of the League of Assassins, Talia al-Ghul, tracked down Ralph Dibny, tortured and gutted him in cold blood. Sue Dibny found her husband's body. Thereafter, the Elongated Woman went dark and resigned her Justice League membership, dedicating herself to tracking down Talia al-Ghul. Eventually, she did so. In climatic conflict, Sue finally put an end to Talia al-Ghul's life. As she jetted away from the encampment, a blinding white whorl of light and energy erupted from it. No-one laughed with the Elongated Woman after that, because she proved elusive, even if there were disquieting rumours about the assembly of a group of violent, perhaps nihilist vigilante metahumans. Nothing has been confirmed. Sue covered her tracks too well.
FILE 7: LIFE ON VENUS:
Unlike some other alternate Earths, it is not alternate Mars, Europa, Enceladus or Titan which is inhabited in Earth-71's iteration of the solar system. Earth-71 has no "Martian Manhunter." The prospect of an inhabited Venus is quotidian in some 'science fiction.' Not all alternate Venuses are hellish infernos with sulphuric acid-laden yellow clouds and intense atmospheric pressure- some are seltzer-water ocean worlds with limestone island outcrops, while others are akin to prehistoric Earth during the Carboniferous era three hundred and sixty million years ago. Some alternate Venuses have their own satellites on the scale of Earth's Moon, affecting their planetary development. Here, Themiscyra's Amazons took stock of the burgeoning technological development of patriarch's world during the eighteenth and nineteenth century and evacuated the planet before it was sufficiently advanced to detect and invade their sanctuary.
In 1976, there was a malfunction aboard the Ranger IV inner solar system exploratory vehicle. Colonel Stephen Trevor was the sole charge pilot and he vainly tried to steer the vehicle as it plunged into the Venusian atmosphere. Below, in Amazonia Ishtar, Queen Hippolyta debated with herself whether or not to lock onto Ranger IV with a tractor beam and steer it to safety- which would also mean the sanctity and sanctuary that Amazonian Venus provided to its inhabitants would end. Monitoring the data about the use of nuclear weapons on Earth from its telecommunications, Hippolyta sighed to herself and moved her hand away from the touchplate. Several thousand miles above, Ranger IV's heatshield finally failed and the vehicle disintegrated. Colonel Trevor's body was exposed to the heat and pressure of the Upper Venusian atmosphere. He died in seconds. Hippolyta's daughter Diana never knew about the decision her mother had made, nor would she ever meet her world's Colonel Stephen Trevor.
FILE 8: SPIRAL OF THE DYING HAWK:
Sharon Parker stood over the body of her slain alien husband Felix Anders, otherwise known as Fel Andar, a Thanagarian covert agent assigned to infiltrate the Justice League as the prelude of a planned invasion of Earth. Andar had brainwashed her, forced her to fulfil the role of Hawkwoman and then, when she resisted and overcame her brainwashing, he threatened her after she told Maxwell Lord, the entrepreneur who funded the Justice League. But there was an unexpected dividend to the brainwashing that Sharon had undergone. It meant that she had her husband's combat experience as well. Fal Andar hadn't expected it and paid the price for his neglect of detail. Sharon had grabbed a gun and shot Andar through his heart with it. She looked out through the curtain and witnessed the arrival of the Justice League after she had activated her signaller. Black Canary embraced her old friend as the rest of the League engaged in forensic research around them. For years, Parker gave up her Hawkwoman career, bitter at the deception that Fel Andar had put her through. However, when news came of a further crisis that had engulfed their world, she decided that regardless of her past ordeal, she was a hero. She was Hawkwoman, no matter what Hawkman had been.
FILE 9: CITIZEN COLD:
With the sudden 'disappearance' of the Flash, a series of events was set in place that resulted in the cessation of former supervillain Len (Captain Cold) Snart's former career as the supervillain Captain Cold. It began when Snart learnt about what Professor Zoom had tried to do to Barry and Iris Allen. Given his violent and dysfunctional upbringing, Snart went through a resignation interval when he left the former Flashes Rogues Gallery of Central City, which disbanded after its core nemesis ceased to operate in the twentieth century. Moving to Gotham, Snart sought the assistance of Leslie Thompkins, a social worker in Gotham's former Crime Alley trouble spot and made some positive life choices. When Snart resurfaced as the new "Citizen Cold' in Gotham, much had changed. Earth-71's supervillain community didn't take kindly to this act of 'betrayal,' but Snart tallied up an impressive toll of supervillain apprehensions. The inevitable happened, and Snart was invited to join the Justice League and surprisingly, promptly did so. While there. he met the man who would become the love of his life, Ray Terrill. The two men formed their own superhero team within the greater framework of the JLA and were soon inseperable. Leaving his supervillain life well behind him, Citizen Cold became a valued and respected member of the League. It would need his valour and self-discipline in future years.
FILE 10: PRESIDENT ROBERTSON:
As it turned out, the Justice League's deadliest enemy turned out to come from the least expected corner. President Peter Robertson was elected on an anti-metahuman ticket and thereupon began a series of intensive assaults on that community within the United States. During an attack on Earth, Brainiac tried to use his shrinking ray to reduce the city of Metropolis to miniature size and imprison it within a bottle. When this gambit failed, Brainiac unleashed an unexpected new menace- 'ultra-kryptonite', enhanced virulence green kryptonite which could kill any Kryptonian instantly- and as a consequence, Superman perished. However, mourning the loss of her husband, Lois Lane Kent discovered that there had been a 'window' in the Terran Satellite Self-Defence Array which had allowed the malevolent artificial intelligence to assault Metropolis with impunity. But she was under surveillance herself and her car blew up. Star City was destroyed in a nuclear terrorist incident which claimed the life of Green Arrow several months later. A depleted Justice League, now consisting only of Black Canary, Citizen Cold, Green Lantern, Hawkwoman, Supergirl and the Ray, encountered increasing escalation against themselves. Sinestro attacked the Earth's US moonbase, leading to Green Lantern's final encounter with his renegade counterpart. Unfortunately, despite dying in the assault, Sinestro was successful in his objective and three hundred and eleven people died on Moonbase Aleph. The Green Lantern Corps was exiled from Earth in the wake of the resultant committee of inquiry. Through the assistance of Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne, Supergirl discovered evidence that implicated Robertson in both episodes. Also mourning Superman's death, Lana Lang disclosed his malignant deeds on WGBS as its news anchorwoman. Thereupon, President Robertson tried to declare martial law and turn the United States into a theocratic dictatorship. The Justice League and US Army laid siege to the White House and fought Vice-President G.Gordon Godfrey's "Suicide Squad," consisting of regime loyalists. In the showdown, Black Canary was killed. However, at the end, Robertson revealed himself as the twentieth-level alien intellect known as Drax. Although they held true to their values and did not kill him, Drax' crimes were such that he was sentenced to a millennium in the Phantom Zone. Finally, the Justice League had a chance to mourn the lost. Supergirl married Ak-Var, a reformed Kandorian scientist and Rokyn's former Flamebird II. They named their daughter Kala, in memory of Kara's murdered cousin. Citizen Cold and the Ray recruited replacements for the fallen and a new generation of heroes took the place of the old. Hawkwoman never remarried.
EPILOGUE:
Unfortunately, other actions also had consequences- the treacherous President Robertson had severely undermined US democracy and as a consequence, the United States entered a prolonged period of political instability, economic decline and domestic terrorism. It became necessary for the Justice League to abandon US territorial limits and become a truly global entity.
Earth-71 had gone through a period of unexpected reformation of those thought lost to criminal endeavour, and corruption of some of those it had once acclaimed as heroes. The trouble is, when one finds oneself alone in what they perceive as a meaningless universe, they are forced to make their own meaning and take choices for either good or ill. The ten metahuman files described above demonstrate both in action, for not all crises are cosmic in scale. Some are deeply personal and...existential in nature.
THE END
There are a series of files about its exact consequences in that area of public affairs.
FILE 1: LUTHOR'S REFORMATION
For the last twenty years of his life, Alexander Luthor had fought Superman, out of frustration that his own efforts were being overshadowed and marginalised by what he regarded as a parvenu alien. Despite the fact that Luthor was a millionaire due to LexCorp's patents on his formidable technological innovations, Luthor retained considerable bitterness and continued to harbour hatred and revulsion toward the Man of Steel. Until, one day, he woke up alone and stared at the void beside him. He swallowed as he looked in the mirror and picked up a copy of the Daily Planet, and saw clearly for the first time how ravaged his face was. What was going on here? Why did he suddenly care about bad headlines in a hopelessly biased Metropolitan newspaper anyway? It wasn't as if he wasn't able to hire public relations agents to refute Lane's miserable excuse for 'investigative journalism' as he had done repeatedly. He ran a hand over his face. And once again, doubts came to mind. Would he die this way- embittered and alone, despite his wealth and reputation? Was mere hated and resentment of Superman enough anymore? No. No, for some reason, it wasn't enough.
Luthor sat down and began to painstakingly erase the various criminal conspiracies that he had financed against the Man of Steel, as well as making bank transactions that pulled money out of such operations. Where they existed, they were either cancelled or diverted onto new, humanitarian trajectories. That year, Lana Lang re-entered his life and shortly after, the two were married. He also won the Nobel Prize for Medicine after developing a cure for cancer, saving millions of lives. Luthor had realised that he had made a choice to act as he did, but it wasn't too late to reverse course and make a set of different decisions instead. And in doing so, he gained everything that he'd sacrificed while obsessed with his vendetta against the Man of Steel- love, marriage, fame, veneration, and lasting prestige. He had managed to pull back before it was too late for him.
FILE 2: BATFLIGHT ABORTED
On Earth-71, the outcome of what might have otherwise been a tragedy in Gotham City's Crime Alley unfolded differently. Angry at the hoodlum Joe Chill after he had tried to hold up his family, Thomas Wayne shoulder-charged the petty hood and the gun went off at the wrong angle, ricocheting off tenement brick into an adjacent dumpster. The sobering experience edified young Bruce Wayne, who thereafter became more studious and athletic. He had the love of his parents throughout his childhood and adolescence. When a young man, about to inherit Wayne Enterprises on his father's retirement, Bruce met Chill again, much to his surprise. Chill looked and dressed differently. He explained that he had had a heroin habit to satisfy on the night that he held up the Waynes and that Thomas Wayne had seen it. Thomas Wayne had also attended his would-be attacker's trial and paid for Chill's drug detoxification and rehabilitation. And Chill had leapt at the opportunity for rehabilitation. Despite the tattoos and scars on his arms, Chill was now a qualified architect.
One evening, while Bruce was reading Bram Stoker's Dracula in the manor's capacious library, a bat flew out of the night and lingered alongside the window for a minute. Bruce was so rapt in the literary classic that he completely ignored the nocturnal creature. Eventually, it flew out of the penumbra of light and warmth from the library window and felt as if something should have happened that had transpired differently. A few seconds thereafter, its sonar pinpointed a tasty moth, and it flew off to intercept that quarry, forgetting the encounter entirely. Bruce was instrumental in inner city reform so that a marginally employed figure named Napier never had to make a robbery to help support his pregnant wife and never fell into a chemical bath that bleached his skin white, his hair green and his lips ruby red. He would never carry a clown's rictus grin and would never lapse into mental illness or psychopathy. A year later, the bad times were over and Napier was pursuing a lucrative career as a stand-up comedian. The shadows of what might have been fled Gotham, never to return.
FILE 3: THE IVY TOWN CRATER:
On many worlds, physicist Professor Ray Palmer succeeded in harnessing the formidable energies of neutronium filtration and became the metahuman known as the Atom. Unfortunately, the third file consists of several of his scientific papers, a death certificate and FEMA report on what ensued when Earth-71's Ray Palmer made the same attempt. Unlike other iterations of the same individual, this Ray Palmer was beset by anxieties about tenure and whether he would be able to receive funding if he didn't make a breakthrough soon. And therein lay the tragedy. There was a fine line between a contained neutronium filtration reaction and the consequent stable mass reduction and enlargement effect that it generated. It consisted of a few lines of elaborated theory and it might have made all the difference. But motivated by fear, desperation and anxiety, this Ray Palmer made a fatal error. When the reaction reduced inanimate objects, Professor Palmer decided to try it on human subjects. But of course, he could not get consent for such a potentially hazardous experiment, so he decided to try out the process on himself. Seconds later, there was a cataclysmic explosion as the heat and gravimetric effects of an uncontained neutronium formation pulse shattered the quiet of the New England university town. On the next day, when the Justice League ventured into the charred remnants, it centred on Professor Palmer's laboratory. Fragments of his flesh and bone were found at the site, grossly distended. Forty thousand people died in Ivy Town that day, proof perhaps that sometimes left to themselves, people can make the wrong decision.
FILE 4: THE DANCE GOES ON:
One night in 1980, Barry and Iris Allen finished dressing for a masquerade party, following a hectic day. A telepath named Melanie had taken control of the Flash's mind and diverted him to her student's apartment, even forcing him to unmask. Iris had seen him enter, and then leave, followed by Melanie several minutes later. Initially, she had fears about her husband's potential infidelity, but when they finally made contact with each other, Barry told her what had happened- Melanie had dismissed his secret identity as nondescript and everyday, and Iris laughed, breaking the ice. The energy had to go somewhere and it led right into their bedroom. After an hour or so of hectic make-up lovemaking, Barry decided to go as 'himself' in his secret identity, while Iris imitated Batgirl. There was an added tone of excitement that evening because Barry and Iris had decided to try for a baby.
On many other Earths, there was an ominous undertone to the evening. Howard Reece was a fellow police employee, but hooked on the substance phencyclidine, better known colloquially as 'angel dust'. Dressed as the Earth-Two Sandman, Howard was stoned out of his mind on angel dust that evening, and decided to make mischief. Assembling a sonic syringe within his Sandgun replica pistol, the frankly blitzed Howard Reece intended to use it to spike the punch and 'give everyone a wild time.' Unfortunately for him, Howard was so out of it that he dropped his Sandgun and it shattered, leaving the phencyclidine canister within plainly visible to members of Central City's Drug Policing Unit. He was abruptly grabbed and bustled off to a cell back at the police station, his night over.
And so, when Barry Allen went to refill punch glasses for Iris and himself, he found his old friend Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan dancing with her instead. Abruptly, Iris staggered. Barry and Hal helped her to a seat and Barry asked Hal to provide them with a power ring scan. The ring informed them that Iris was experiencing selective amnesia and with her consent, Hal removed it- meaning that Iris now had full memory of Professor Zoom's intrusion and insane demand that she leave Barry for him- and that moreover, he was waiting for her in a secluded room in the party hall. The three of them entered, to find Eobard Thawne waiting for Iris as he had planned. Plotting to kill Iris for her rejection, Professor Zoom extended his blurred hand toward her head, about to cause fatal neurological trauma to her brain. But the Flash angrily sped forward, deducing what Zoom had intended. He started pummeling the renegade speedster, and for a moment, lost control of himself. Two minutes later, Zoom suddenly went limp in his arms. Barry looked up at Iris and Hal. Hal stated that it was self-defence and that he wouldn't tell a soul. Barry and Iris looked at one another.
Then Iris suggested that Barry and she travelled to her native 30th Century, and stayed there. After the defeat of Earth-East in 2970, the Central City monad was a placid, crimefree area and an excellent place to bring up their children. She no longer felt safe in their current time period and in any case, even if Zoom should manage to resurrect himself through 25th Century science, he would struggle to find or harm them five hundred years after his own period of origin, with five centuries of technological advance. Barry consented and they said their goodbyes to Wally, Hal, Carol Ferris and the rest of the Justice League, after Hal had buried Zoom's body in 2480. And thus, Barry and Iris Allen lived out the remainder of their years in the thirtieth and thirty-first centuries. Shortly after they arrived, Iris discovered that she was pregnant with twins. However, tragically, two decades later, Don and Dawn Allen were slaughtered during the Dominion occupation of Earth, under the control of their corrupted henchwoman Tayla Wellington. Barry and Iris took their grandchildren, Jenni Ognats and Bart Allen and hid them on an alternate world, Earth-247. Then the Legion of Super-Heroes reformed and assisted in the overthrow of the Wellington regime. Thereafter, the Allens provided increasing assistance to the Legion after Jenni joined them as XS, while Bart decided to see what life was like in his grandfather's period of origin. In 2480, Zoom's body lost its flesh, then his internal organs atrophied and decayed and then the soil gradually eroded his skeletal remains. After fifteen years, even they had disintegrated. Hal Jordan, Barry and Iris Allen carried the secret of Professor Zoom's manslaughter and Barry's self-defence of his wife to their respective graves. Professor Zoom's disappearance became a "cold case" and his ephemeral whereabouts were never disclosed.
FILE 5: THE WHITE KNIGHT:
Although Thomas and Martha Wayne were never killed on Earth-71 and despite the absence of events that led to the eventual emergence of the Batman and his rogues gallery, Earth-71 did have a "Joker" of its own. But this iteration was very different. Despite Bruce Wayne's philanthropy and inadvertent erasure of the events that had led to the Red Hood's chemical bath accident and the disfigurement of one James Napier who needed medicine for his sick, pregnant wife, another arose in his stead. But this version was a prosocial serial killer, who preyed on Gotham's underworld- and for that, he was regarded as a guardian and saviour for inner city Gothamites. Nicholas Kelly had been brought up by a mob hired gun, but in a moment of drunken taunting, his foster father had disclosed Nick's true origins. But Nick's foster father was only the first. The adolescent donned a pancake white mask and blood red lipstick splattered his mouth. The media dubbed Kelly "the Joker" but inner city Gotham were grateful for their incidental liberation from the arbitrary tyranny and daily brutalities of organised crime- hence his alternate title, the "White Knight." Gotham City Police Department brought in a brilliant female forensic scientist, Dr Harleen Quinn. She sifted the remnants of available evidence and finally tracked the Joker down to his lair. Unfortunately, no-one had run a background check on Dr Quinn herself. There was a climatic shootout in a deserted Gotham tenement and finally, Harleen Quinn shot down the Joker where he stood. For this, she was celebrated as a hero of her native city. However, what nobody could explain was the resurgence of killings of the Gotham underworld a year later, with the same inside knowledge and meticulous attention to detail. It seemed as if Gotham had acquired a new "White Knight" of its own. And this time, the GCPD came up empty. Whether through inattention to detail or deliberate circumvention is a matter of conjecture.
FILE 6: THE STRETCH OF TIME:
Sue Dearborn Dibny was a Central City socialite until one day, she encountered a liquid chemical named Gingold. She found that it made her body elastic and ductile, which led her to adopt the metahuman title "Elongated Woman." Unlike many other superheroes, Sue didn't bother to hide her metahuman identity and although her husband Ralph was loyal and loving to her, a genetic quirk meant that gingold had no effect on his own physiology. It didn't matter to Sue and Ralph though- they were a partnership, they were in love and they solved mysteries and crimes together. Elongated Woman joined the Justice League, but Ralph helped the team too with logistical, philanthropic and legal support, as well as media coaching and interviews. They were beloved by their comrades and the wider world. However, one dark day, a member of the League of Assassins, Talia al-Ghul, tracked down Ralph Dibny, tortured and gutted him in cold blood. Sue Dibny found her husband's body. Thereafter, the Elongated Woman went dark and resigned her Justice League membership, dedicating herself to tracking down Talia al-Ghul. Eventually, she did so. In climatic conflict, Sue finally put an end to Talia al-Ghul's life. As she jetted away from the encampment, a blinding white whorl of light and energy erupted from it. No-one laughed with the Elongated Woman after that, because she proved elusive, even if there were disquieting rumours about the assembly of a group of violent, perhaps nihilist vigilante metahumans. Nothing has been confirmed. Sue covered her tracks too well.
FILE 7: LIFE ON VENUS:
Unlike some other alternate Earths, it is not alternate Mars, Europa, Enceladus or Titan which is inhabited in Earth-71's iteration of the solar system. Earth-71 has no "Martian Manhunter." The prospect of an inhabited Venus is quotidian in some 'science fiction.' Not all alternate Venuses are hellish infernos with sulphuric acid-laden yellow clouds and intense atmospheric pressure- some are seltzer-water ocean worlds with limestone island outcrops, while others are akin to prehistoric Earth during the Carboniferous era three hundred and sixty million years ago. Some alternate Venuses have their own satellites on the scale of Earth's Moon, affecting their planetary development. Here, Themiscyra's Amazons took stock of the burgeoning technological development of patriarch's world during the eighteenth and nineteenth century and evacuated the planet before it was sufficiently advanced to detect and invade their sanctuary.
In 1976, there was a malfunction aboard the Ranger IV inner solar system exploratory vehicle. Colonel Stephen Trevor was the sole charge pilot and he vainly tried to steer the vehicle as it plunged into the Venusian atmosphere. Below, in Amazonia Ishtar, Queen Hippolyta debated with herself whether or not to lock onto Ranger IV with a tractor beam and steer it to safety- which would also mean the sanctity and sanctuary that Amazonian Venus provided to its inhabitants would end. Monitoring the data about the use of nuclear weapons on Earth from its telecommunications, Hippolyta sighed to herself and moved her hand away from the touchplate. Several thousand miles above, Ranger IV's heatshield finally failed and the vehicle disintegrated. Colonel Trevor's body was exposed to the heat and pressure of the Upper Venusian atmosphere. He died in seconds. Hippolyta's daughter Diana never knew about the decision her mother had made, nor would she ever meet her world's Colonel Stephen Trevor.
FILE 8: SPIRAL OF THE DYING HAWK:
Sharon Parker stood over the body of her slain alien husband Felix Anders, otherwise known as Fel Andar, a Thanagarian covert agent assigned to infiltrate the Justice League as the prelude of a planned invasion of Earth. Andar had brainwashed her, forced her to fulfil the role of Hawkwoman and then, when she resisted and overcame her brainwashing, he threatened her after she told Maxwell Lord, the entrepreneur who funded the Justice League. But there was an unexpected dividend to the brainwashing that Sharon had undergone. It meant that she had her husband's combat experience as well. Fal Andar hadn't expected it and paid the price for his neglect of detail. Sharon had grabbed a gun and shot Andar through his heart with it. She looked out through the curtain and witnessed the arrival of the Justice League after she had activated her signaller. Black Canary embraced her old friend as the rest of the League engaged in forensic research around them. For years, Parker gave up her Hawkwoman career, bitter at the deception that Fel Andar had put her through. However, when news came of a further crisis that had engulfed their world, she decided that regardless of her past ordeal, she was a hero. She was Hawkwoman, no matter what Hawkman had been.
FILE 9: CITIZEN COLD:
With the sudden 'disappearance' of the Flash, a series of events was set in place that resulted in the cessation of former supervillain Len (Captain Cold) Snart's former career as the supervillain Captain Cold. It began when Snart learnt about what Professor Zoom had tried to do to Barry and Iris Allen. Given his violent and dysfunctional upbringing, Snart went through a resignation interval when he left the former Flashes Rogues Gallery of Central City, which disbanded after its core nemesis ceased to operate in the twentieth century. Moving to Gotham, Snart sought the assistance of Leslie Thompkins, a social worker in Gotham's former Crime Alley trouble spot and made some positive life choices. When Snart resurfaced as the new "Citizen Cold' in Gotham, much had changed. Earth-71's supervillain community didn't take kindly to this act of 'betrayal,' but Snart tallied up an impressive toll of supervillain apprehensions. The inevitable happened, and Snart was invited to join the Justice League and surprisingly, promptly did so. While there. he met the man who would become the love of his life, Ray Terrill. The two men formed their own superhero team within the greater framework of the JLA and were soon inseperable. Leaving his supervillain life well behind him, Citizen Cold became a valued and respected member of the League. It would need his valour and self-discipline in future years.
FILE 10: PRESIDENT ROBERTSON:
As it turned out, the Justice League's deadliest enemy turned out to come from the least expected corner. President Peter Robertson was elected on an anti-metahuman ticket and thereupon began a series of intensive assaults on that community within the United States. During an attack on Earth, Brainiac tried to use his shrinking ray to reduce the city of Metropolis to miniature size and imprison it within a bottle. When this gambit failed, Brainiac unleashed an unexpected new menace- 'ultra-kryptonite', enhanced virulence green kryptonite which could kill any Kryptonian instantly- and as a consequence, Superman perished. However, mourning the loss of her husband, Lois Lane Kent discovered that there had been a 'window' in the Terran Satellite Self-Defence Array which had allowed the malevolent artificial intelligence to assault Metropolis with impunity. But she was under surveillance herself and her car blew up. Star City was destroyed in a nuclear terrorist incident which claimed the life of Green Arrow several months later. A depleted Justice League, now consisting only of Black Canary, Citizen Cold, Green Lantern, Hawkwoman, Supergirl and the Ray, encountered increasing escalation against themselves. Sinestro attacked the Earth's US moonbase, leading to Green Lantern's final encounter with his renegade counterpart. Unfortunately, despite dying in the assault, Sinestro was successful in his objective and three hundred and eleven people died on Moonbase Aleph. The Green Lantern Corps was exiled from Earth in the wake of the resultant committee of inquiry. Through the assistance of Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne, Supergirl discovered evidence that implicated Robertson in both episodes. Also mourning Superman's death, Lana Lang disclosed his malignant deeds on WGBS as its news anchorwoman. Thereupon, President Robertson tried to declare martial law and turn the United States into a theocratic dictatorship. The Justice League and US Army laid siege to the White House and fought Vice-President G.Gordon Godfrey's "Suicide Squad," consisting of regime loyalists. In the showdown, Black Canary was killed. However, at the end, Robertson revealed himself as the twentieth-level alien intellect known as Drax. Although they held true to their values and did not kill him, Drax' crimes were such that he was sentenced to a millennium in the Phantom Zone. Finally, the Justice League had a chance to mourn the lost. Supergirl married Ak-Var, a reformed Kandorian scientist and Rokyn's former Flamebird II. They named their daughter Kala, in memory of Kara's murdered cousin. Citizen Cold and the Ray recruited replacements for the fallen and a new generation of heroes took the place of the old. Hawkwoman never remarried.
EPILOGUE:
Unfortunately, other actions also had consequences- the treacherous President Robertson had severely undermined US democracy and as a consequence, the United States entered a prolonged period of political instability, economic decline and domestic terrorism. It became necessary for the Justice League to abandon US territorial limits and become a truly global entity.
Earth-71 had gone through a period of unexpected reformation of those thought lost to criminal endeavour, and corruption of some of those it had once acclaimed as heroes. The trouble is, when one finds oneself alone in what they perceive as a meaningless universe, they are forced to make their own meaning and take choices for either good or ill. The ten metahuman files described above demonstrate both in action, for not all crises are cosmic in scale. Some are deeply personal and...existential in nature.
THE END