Just Imagine...
| Just Imagine... | |
|---|---|
|
Cover to Just Imagine Stan Lee's Batman. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| Schedule | monthly |
| Format | miniseries |
| Publication date | Nov 2001 |
| Number of issues | 13 |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Stan Lee |
| Artist(s) |
John Buscema Joe Kubert Jim Lee |
Just Imagine... is a comic book published by American company DC Comics. It was the first work for DC Comics by Stan Lee, co-creator of numerous popular Marvel Comics characters,[1] in which he reimagined several DC superheroes including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and The Flash. As an in-joke, Lee changes several of the civilian names of most famous DC superheroes to alliterative ones in reference to Lee's tendency to use them for his Marvel Comics characters.
As of Grant Morrison's The Multiversity, these characters live in Earth-6.
Batman
Batman, real name Wayne Williams, debuted in Just Imagine Stan Lee with Joe Kubert Creating Batman (September 2001). Creators Stan Lee and Joe Kubert based this version on the character created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.
Like the original, this Batman has no superpowers. Unlike Bruce Wayne, Wayne Williams is African-American, instead of Caucasian. He is in excellent physical condition, and has a vast personal fortune allowing him access to custom equipment including: night vision lenses, Kevlar costume and sensors to magnify sound and cape-like bat wings to glide.
Wayne Williams' father was a policeman who was killed in an ambush. Wayne is framed for a crime, so he vows revenge on "Handz", the gang leader who set him up. In prison, Williams befriends a scientist named Frederick Grant who teaches him how to "develop his mind", as well as sewing and bodybuilding.
While incarcerated, Williams learns his mother has died and blames Handz. After rescuing the warden during a prison riot, he was given a full pardon. On the outside, Williams is on the run from Handz, so, to keep a low profile, he shaves his head. Williams needs money, so he becomes a wrestler under the name "Batman", never unmasking in public. In a few short weeks, "Batman" has become a superstar in wrestling and has become extremely wealthy. He searches for Grant and entrusts him with his secret identity. Wayne Williams has the money, skill, and strength to fight Handz, but Frederick Grant has the technical know-how, so the two become partners. To keep a low profile, Wayne gives Frederick a mansion and acts as his bodyguard. Batman eventually finds and fights with Handz, who accidentally falls to his death in the conflict. No longer seeking vengeance, Batman begins a mission of justice to fight crime and protect the innocent from villains like Handz.
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman, real name Maria Mendoza, debuted in Just Imagine Stan Lee with Jim Lee Creating Wonder Woman (October 2001). Creators Stan Lee with Jim Lee based this version on the original DC character created by William Moulton Marston.
Maria is an activist, protesting against the corporate excavation of an ancient Incan holy site near her village. The CEO has a plan: gain power from the site and take over the world. When Maria's father is kidnapped by the CEO and taken to the excavation, Maria follows, only to arrive too late to prevent her father's death. The CEO gains demonic powers from artifacts at the site, and then travels to Los Angeles. Maria finds the staff of Manco Capac, granting her the powers of the Incan Sun God, and uses them to pursue and defeat him. She then decides to remain in Los Angeles, taking on the name of Wonder Woman.
Superman
Lee's version of Superman, real name Salden, debuted in Just Imagine Stan Lee with John Buscema Creating Superman (November 2001). Creators Stan Lee and John Buscema based this version on the character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
His powers include super-strength and super-speed. Salden was the weakest member of the Kryptonian Police Force. He used a flying harness and managed to capture a dangerous criminal in a teleportation lab. However, the criminal put Salden and himself on a one-way trip to an insignificant little blue-green planet: Earth. The two men arrive separately, both discovering they have enhanced physical abilities. The criminal sets himself up as the king of a jungle tribe.
Earth is too primitive, but it has the potential to develop the technology Salden needs to return to his homeworld. The problem is that there are too many obstacles to the peaceful future necessary for technological advancement: war, crime, poverty, etc. Salden decides to become a superhero in order to rid the world of these impediments.
Green Lantern
Green Lantern, real name Len Lewis, debuted in Just Imagine Stan Lee and Dave Gibbons Creating Green Lantern (December, 2001). Creators Stan Lee and Dave Gibbons based this version on the original character created by Martin Nodell and Bill Finger.
A professor is looking for something called "The Tree", mentioned in Norse legends as Yggdrasil, and in Christianity as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. He finally traces the plant to an area in Africa. But, when he finds the Tree, agents working for the Reverend Darrk, who are also searching for the tree, shoot him and leave him for dead. But the tree shows the professor its history, which includes a race of prehumans, then grants him its power, to serve as a lantern in these dark times.
The Flash
The Flash, real name Mary Maxwell, debuted in Just Imagine Stan Lee and Kevin Maguire Creating Flash (November, 2001). Creators Stan Lee and Kevin Maguire based this version on the original character created by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert.
A typical college girl whose father is a scientist, Mary's life was very dull and she longs to be a superhero, like in the comic books she reads. She also has a life-threatening disease that slowly drains her energy. One day, enemies from her father's past named STEALTH (Special Team of Espionage Agents Licensed to Target and Hit) find and kill him. Before he dies, though, he injects Mary with the DNA from a humming bird, to save her from her wasting disease.
Robin
Stan Lee's Robin, co-created with John Byrne, is an embittered teen who works for the major villain of Lee's Just Imagine universe, the Reverend Darrk (who has appeared in all the Just Imagine books). Darrk sends Robin out on various assignments, all the while promising Robin something in return. The book opens with Robin attempting his current assignment: to kill Lee's version of Batman.
Captain Marvel
Lee re-imagines the original Captain Marvel/Shazam premise by having the hero be a mild mannered Interpol agent, Robert Rogers. Teamed with the beautiful, and much tougher, fellow agent, Carla Noral, the two of them are in India searching for the megalomaniac master criminal, Gunga Kahn. This version is co-created with Gary Frank, and is based on the Bill Parker-C. C. Beck character.
Unbeknownst to Rogers, he is given the power (through a spell conjured by Merlin) to transform himself with an intonation of the magical word "Shazam" by a fakir dying on the streets. In his transformation, he becomes a hairy red fanged monster wearing a necklace of bones.
In a backup story plotted by Michael Uslan, scripted by Lee and Uslan, and drawn by Kano, an orphaned American boy in India at the same time as the adventures of Shazam heroically saves a village from starvation with the help of a local boy named Zubin Navotny. The Boy's name is Billy Marvel, and he and Zubin are made honorary captains in the US Peace Corps by an Ambassador named Batson, making the boy "Captain Marvel."
Aquaman
Co-created with Scott McDaniel, based on the original Mort Weisinger-Paul Norris character. Marine biologist Ramon Raymond is experimenting with dolphin DNA to see if humans can live underwater and decides to use himself as a test subject. But when he swims through a glowing patch of seawater, he finds he can now transform into a being of living water.
Catwoman
Supermodel Joanie Jordan and her cat Ebony are struck by strange green lightning, creating a link between them and giving Jordan catlike abilities, including super agility, heightened senses, and a set of razor-sharp claws. Co-created with Chris Bachalo, based on the original Bob Kane-Bill Finger character.
Sandman
On a manned mission to investigate Saturn's moon Titan, astronaut Col. Larry Wilton is out on a spacewalk when his tether is cut by his traitorous colleague Maj. Bryan Bleier. Left for dead, Wilton instead drifts into a mysterious green cloud and finds himself in a bizarre realm that he had always dreamed of as a child. It is here that a beautiful girl named Melana grants him the powers of the Sandman. Co-created with Walt Simonson, based on the character created by Gardner Fox and Allen "Bert" Christman.
JLA
Lee's version of Justice League of America debuted in Just Imagine Stan Lee and Jerry Ordway Creating JLA (February 2002). Members include Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash and Green Lantern.
A man called Reverend Darkk is trying to summon a being called Crisis to Earth so he can conquer it. To this end, he creates some henchmen in the form of the Doom Patrol, consisting of Blockbuster, Parasite, and Deathstroke. But Darkk's son, a young boy called Adam Strange, notifies five heroes of Darkk's intent, and they come together. Darkk, beaten, kills his son and then flees, bluffed into doing so by Green Lantern, who is too weak to fight because his strength has been drained by the Parasite. But Strange has powers too, and promises the heroes that he will return in some form. He then dies, and the heroes officially incorporate as the Justice League.
Secret Files and Origins
In "The Coming Crisis", the National Exposer interviews the members of the Justice League. They explain their origins and warn of Darrk's threat. Wonder Woman gets a hint of the League's future.
Also contains profiles of each hero, Reverend Dominic Darrk, and The Church Of Eternal Empowerment.
Crisis
Debuted in Just Imagine Stan Lee with John Cassaday creating Crisis.
When one of the Inca Hawk Runes is stolen, Wonder Woman summons all of Earth's new heroes. Sandman arrives with Darrk's body, and warns them of the coming of Darrk's master: a being called Crisis. Crisis arrives on Earth, and only the Justice League can stop him... Or could, if there weren't a traitor in their ranks. In this issue, we can see other versions of DC's characters: Oracle, Phantom Stranger, Hawkman, and Atom.
Collections
- Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating the DC Universe Book 1
- Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating the DC Universe Book 2
- Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating the DC Universe Book 3
- Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating the DC Universe Omnibus
References
- ↑ Cowsill, Alan; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "2000s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 300. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9.
It was quite a coup. Stan "The Man" Lee...swapped sides to write for DC. Teaming up with comicdom's top artists, Lee put his own unique take on DC's iconic heroes.