Post by redsycorax on Feb 24, 2021 3:42:33 GMT
The "alien spacebat" scenario (not to be confused with the Batman of Zur-En-Arth) is a situation where something unlikely happens to cause the point of divergence from datum history/our particular alternate history. Say, for example, the outcome of World War II is affected by an incursion of hitherto unknown but highly convenient supernatural beings or underground civilisations, with minimal divergence from our own world, because Our Universe/Earth-One is The Norm. Superman still falls for Lois Lane, Batman's parents are still killed, Aquaman is left motherless at an early age, Abin Sur still crashes on Earth, the Hols still come here, and the anomaly gradually subsides, leaving a world 'much like our own.' Except that it wouldn't be. For reasons I've dealt with in other threads, some Jewish and Romani origin metahumans wouldn't exist in the Earth-X universe due to a probable larger scale Nazi Holocaust, with all that implies. I have problems with some of Harry Turtledove's fiction because of this. Granted, he has produced some masterpieces, such as the Hot War trilogy, in which the Korean War leads to the Third World War and devastates much of Europe, the Soviet Union and the United States. Unfortunately, too, there are scenarios in which aliens invade Earth quite conveniently during the Second World War. And I'm afraid some other authors have the same problem- dragons or dinosaurs pop up conveniently during the Napoleonic Wars, for instance. Most of the really good alternate history fiction doesn't rely on these contrived reasons for divergence- they extrapolate from a given situation and then carry the idea forward. So... Nazi Germany undertakes Operation Sea Lion in 1940 and invades Britain, the Cuban missile crisis spirals out of control, Lee Harvey Oswald misses in Dallas in 1963, the fireship gambit doesn't work in 1588 and the Spanish Armada invades England, FDR is assassinated by Guiseppe Zangara in 1933 and the US doesn't rearm in time to defeat the Axis.
Which raises the question, how might this apply to the DC multiverse? Well, consider this. In the current Core DC Multiverse, I think the Earth-10 reiteration of Earth-X and Red Son's Earth-30 have the right idea by having Kal-El land in (respectively) the German Sudetenland and Ukraine, resulting in a Nazi Overman and Soviet Superman. Alan Brennert pulled off much the same trick in Batman: Holy Terror, with a dystopian theocratic America which diverged from the Cromwell line continuing to dominate England and leaving its imprint on the American colonies in terms of governance and culture. I also quite enjoyed Wonder Woman: Amazonia, in which a misogynist British Empire conquers Themiscyra and suppresses the suffragette movement until Diana comes to the recognition of her true origins. Not all such alternative DC centred continuities are this good. I loathed the Karkan version of Superboy, in which Kal-El lands in Africa and is brought up by gorillas and there is minimal divergence from the datum DC universe, for instance. And as for Flashpoint, without Superman and Batman, everything goes wrong and there's an Amazon/Atlantean global war, is there? I'm sorry to any Silver Age Flash fans out there, but Barry Allen should have been left to rest in peace. Added to which, it had some awful consequences, erasing the existence of the JSA and Legion of Super Heroes, causing the Authority to be folded into the New Earth/Prime Earth continuity, and vandalising the Vertigo universe.
I'm definitely one for 'hard' alternate history. If (say) Julius Caesar hadn't been assassinated in 44 BCE, the First Crusade hadn't happened, Richard III had won the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, George Washington had been assassinated during the Revolutionary War, Hitler had died in the trenches in the First World War or had become a successful postwar artist in Vienna or Berlin, Nixon had won the 1960 US presidential election, the Vietnam War had never happened, World War III had broken out in 1956, 1968, 1979 or 1983, the world would be a very different place, whether for good or for ill. That sort of profound social and historical shift would affect individual lives, including those of DC's core characters. Few of them would be exactly the same as they are in the datum Earth-One core universe. The question for good fanfiction authors is to work out how that divergence would affect character development and narrative.
Which raises the question, how might this apply to the DC multiverse? Well, consider this. In the current Core DC Multiverse, I think the Earth-10 reiteration of Earth-X and Red Son's Earth-30 have the right idea by having Kal-El land in (respectively) the German Sudetenland and Ukraine, resulting in a Nazi Overman and Soviet Superman. Alan Brennert pulled off much the same trick in Batman: Holy Terror, with a dystopian theocratic America which diverged from the Cromwell line continuing to dominate England and leaving its imprint on the American colonies in terms of governance and culture. I also quite enjoyed Wonder Woman: Amazonia, in which a misogynist British Empire conquers Themiscyra and suppresses the suffragette movement until Diana comes to the recognition of her true origins. Not all such alternative DC centred continuities are this good. I loathed the Karkan version of Superboy, in which Kal-El lands in Africa and is brought up by gorillas and there is minimal divergence from the datum DC universe, for instance. And as for Flashpoint, without Superman and Batman, everything goes wrong and there's an Amazon/Atlantean global war, is there? I'm sorry to any Silver Age Flash fans out there, but Barry Allen should have been left to rest in peace. Added to which, it had some awful consequences, erasing the existence of the JSA and Legion of Super Heroes, causing the Authority to be folded into the New Earth/Prime Earth continuity, and vandalising the Vertigo universe.
I'm definitely one for 'hard' alternate history. If (say) Julius Caesar hadn't been assassinated in 44 BCE, the First Crusade hadn't happened, Richard III had won the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, George Washington had been assassinated during the Revolutionary War, Hitler had died in the trenches in the First World War or had become a successful postwar artist in Vienna or Berlin, Nixon had won the 1960 US presidential election, the Vietnam War had never happened, World War III had broken out in 1956, 1968, 1979 or 1983, the world would be a very different place, whether for good or for ill. That sort of profound social and historical shift would affect individual lives, including those of DC's core characters. Few of them would be exactly the same as they are in the datum Earth-One core universe. The question for good fanfiction authors is to work out how that divergence would affect character development and narrative.