So, DC has released a fair amount of promo art and teaser images to get people pumped for the New 52. A lot of it looks awesome, too. Something has caught my eye though.
In the art for Justice League #1 (DC's flagship New 52 title) the league seems to be fighting these mysterious creatures.
The first time we saw one was in the Justice League #1 5-page preview.
At first he looked like a kind of rag-clad bulky sewer type. Maybe even the new Killer Croc were it not for his glow-y goggles.
And the brute is obviously strong as he's giving Batman a run for his money. Batman's fed-up enough to shoot him through the leg (implying that they've been fighting for a while already).
But when Batman tackles him he explodes with energy and it's revealed that he's wearing some techno things under his rags. And he starts hammering Batman.
Fortunately Green Lantern shows up. With devastating results for the bad guy.
After reading it once and drooling over the awesome Batman and Green Lantern visuals I turned my attention to their foe. One thought leapt to mind - "he looks kinda Apokoliptan".
Look at the goggles and the teeth. The skin color.
The guy looks like a lot like a Parademon.
Parademons are the footsoldiers of Apokolips, DC's cosmic superhero Hades. A world of fire and darkness in the deep reaches of space that is a perpetual source of truly great and terrible antagonists for the heroes of the DCU. They have sharp teeth, they wear cool goggles and they are big and strong. The green and yellow color scheme matches too.
Even in his tatters he looks like a citizen of Armagetto (the worst slum on the hell-planet Apokolips). The classic tale of the Justice League's origin is that an alien invader threatens the planet and the world's greatest heroes get together to stop it. In the original it was the menace of Starro the Conqueror. New 52 Justice League #1 advertises the plot as "In a universe where super heroes are strange and new, Batman has discovered a dark evil that requires him to unite the World’s Greatest Heroes!". So, what if this dark alien evil is Apokolips? As flippin' awesome and classic as Starro is he is no match for the threat of Apokolips. Evil alien gods from the darkest reaches of space come to secretly invade earth- Now THAT is a reason to gather a League of heroes. Seriously, Green Lantern, Superman, or Martian Manhunter could tackle Starro solo if push came to shove. But this was just speculative and very vague speculation because one Parademon does not constitute a Fourth World (if you will).
But then the cover of Justice League #3 got solicited. It shows the League (particularly Wonder Woman) tackling a horde of these monsters.
First off, Wonder Woman looks amazing. I don't really care but I'm glad she's wearing the shorts and not the pants, but that's not the point. The point is the League is fighting a BUNCH of the guys GL and Batman tackled in issue #1. I think this is strong evidence in favor of the Parademon theory.
Plus, we get another close-up of these dudes and I think they look even more like the classic Parademon design. And fighting as a horde is one of the Parademons motifs. There is a planet-wide army of them on Apokolips, and when you fight one it usually means you're going to be fighting a whole bunch of them pretty soon.
Anyway, this is just my interpretation of the few visuals we've got. Still, I truly hope that I am right about the Parademons. They represent my favorite corner of the DCU. After all, you know who my favorite villain of all time is, right?
"Let the universe howl in despair for I have returned!" - Darkseid
Bring it.
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