Post by Timothy on Jul 10, 2008 7:00:12 GMT -5
For those unfamiliar with the term, "retcon" is short for "retroactive continuity" where the origin of a character is altered so as to affect the present incarnation of said-character.
If I could retcon any character, I would start with the Injustice League's Prometheus. Created by the writers as a counterpart to Batman, Prometheus' greatest weakness, IMO, was his uninspired origin. Whereas Bruce Wayne's parents were law-abiding citizens killed by a criminal, Prometheus' parents were criminals killed by police officers.
So, my task was as such: how do you retain the essence of the character, a technological wizard of sorts corrupted by evil, but do something different?
My thinking was that his character should center around his name: "Prometheus," the god who gave technology to man and was subsequently exiled to earth. Instead of having his parents die almost exactly the same as Bruce Wayne's, my thought was that they should have been amoral capitalists. Following their naturally caused deaths, the man who would be Prometheus gathers what remains of his family's fortunes in order to build a cutting-edge weapons design and manufacturing company. His idea would be to take the wrath of "the Gods" and bring "fire to the people," in the form of specialized weapons for the highest bidder. The stipulation would be that his company would only build for the highest bidder of a country already in turmoil; whereas Bruce Wayne would work towards peace, Prometheus would thrive off of the pains of others (thanks to his inherited amorality). Essentially, I would write him with the mind of a fascist; the strongest in a warring country would have the most resources, namely capital ($), and as such, they deserve the "weapons of the Gods" to weed out weaker rivals.
In terms of his costumed persona, I would essentially keep him the same way that Morrison and Co., depicted him during his run on JLA.
If I could retcon any character, I would start with the Injustice League's Prometheus. Created by the writers as a counterpart to Batman, Prometheus' greatest weakness, IMO, was his uninspired origin. Whereas Bruce Wayne's parents were law-abiding citizens killed by a criminal, Prometheus' parents were criminals killed by police officers.
So, my task was as such: how do you retain the essence of the character, a technological wizard of sorts corrupted by evil, but do something different?
My thinking was that his character should center around his name: "Prometheus," the god who gave technology to man and was subsequently exiled to earth. Instead of having his parents die almost exactly the same as Bruce Wayne's, my thought was that they should have been amoral capitalists. Following their naturally caused deaths, the man who would be Prometheus gathers what remains of his family's fortunes in order to build a cutting-edge weapons design and manufacturing company. His idea would be to take the wrath of "the Gods" and bring "fire to the people," in the form of specialized weapons for the highest bidder. The stipulation would be that his company would only build for the highest bidder of a country already in turmoil; whereas Bruce Wayne would work towards peace, Prometheus would thrive off of the pains of others (thanks to his inherited amorality). Essentially, I would write him with the mind of a fascist; the strongest in a warring country would have the most resources, namely capital ($), and as such, they deserve the "weapons of the Gods" to weed out weaker rivals.
In terms of his costumed persona, I would essentially keep him the same way that Morrison and Co., depicted him during his run on JLA.
If I can add an addendum onto that interesting idea, I would have Roman Sionis "create" Clayface prior to becoming Black Mask... To my way of thinking, the unwitting loss of millions in the attempt to create a new line of cosmetics could force Sionis to "cut his loses" by burning his holdings to the ground while simultaneously creating his new identity of Black Mask.
Yeah, I can totally see what you mean. Personally, I liked the Clayface origin better (it's the one episode that vividly comes to mind from my childhood), but the Mr. Freeze one is the one that ultimately won the Emmy Award.