Earth 10: Runners Up

There will ultimately be one more character when Nick builds someone, but I have no idea who that will be. As for the old Facebook thing, there were several other good ideas that people kicked into Facebook that, for various reasons, I ended up not using, at least not right away.

“Kamandi, now the Last Man on Earth, arrives on Earth 10 via a retroengineered temporal Boom Tube scavanged from the wreckage of an ancient battle with Darkseid. In his post-apocalyptic wanderings he has uncovered evidence that his world's destruction was caused by an escalated conflict between the Justice League and an as-yet-unnamed foe (later revealed to be the previously mentioned Darkseid), but Kamandi places the responsibility squarely on the "heroes'" shoulders. He has brought Dr. Canus, the alien Pyra, the Tiger Army, and alien/post-apocalyptic tech with him in an effort to de-power and otherwise halt Earth 10's heroes from destroying the world.” – Chant

“Martian Manhunter: a superpowered post-human from a future terraformed Mars, dragged back through time by a laboratory accident to the present, where he continues his task of fighting evil. His knowledge of history (i.e. the present day) is spotty, due to the distance between his own era and our present -- and due to amnesia caused by the time-jump which brought him here. Consequently he sometimes recognizes names of people as significant, but can't always tell why.” – James

“Captain Comet would have all the gadget trappings of a sci-fi hero -- ray gun, jetpack and the mental abilities of a man from the future. He'd be an elder statesmen type hero from one of the prior generations. Basically what if Buck Rogers was Captain America.

“OMAC would be a meme-virus soldier complex. Think Midnighter as Captain Universe.” – Daniel

“Sometime in 2011, Brazilian foresters stumble across a mysterious woman deep within the Amazon Jungle. She reveals that she is from the legendary city of El Dorado, a hidden city which is thousands of years ahead of the rest of the world in terms of technology. Unbeknownst to the citizens of Earth, she has been sent by the city to see if the outside world is ready to meet with the citizens of the technocratic society peacefully and to deem whether they are "responsible" enough to handle any of the incredible technology that El Dorado holds within its depths. She is equipped with technology that gives her abilities that most un-augmented people can only dream of: flight, extreme reflexes, strength... as well as an unique brain implant that allows her to see if people are telling her the truth or not through analysis of their bodily reactions and brain waves. The explorers call her "A Mulher Maravilhosa", and the rest of the world comes to know her as "The Wonder Woman."” – Emily

(I would so totally use that one except it on the surface jettisons the Hellenistic Matriarchy that is as essential to Wonder Woman as Krypton and Kansas are to Superman. It might get tweaked a little….)

"Batman: During the "cocaine cowboys" gang wars of the 1980s, Thomas and Martha Wayne were hit by stray gunfire. Their son Bruce was raised by court-appointed guardians who parked him in a series of boarding schools. Wayne eventually went to law school and joined the FBI. His efforts to fight Gotham City's pervasive organized crime and government corruption ultimately failed, and Wayne himself was kicked out of the Bureau as a result of political pressure and a frame-up. So Wayne turns vigilante to root out the city's entrenched gangs. This version takes Bats back to his roots: a masked crimefighter who is himself an outlaw. We lose the inexhaustible Wayne Corp. wealth and the endless gadgets. Instead, Wayne flirts with crime himself, both by cultivating Mob ties in his public identity, and by making temporary alliances in gang wars as the mysterious Bat-Man. In effect he's playing an endless and ongoing version of Red Harvest. The stories can focus on the compromises Wayne makes with evil in order to fight evil.” – James

“"Billy Batson, Agent of SHAZAM!": Placed in foster care when his parents disappeared, young Billy Batson became convinced that he alone could find them and ran away. Living on the streets, he spent two years following various clues, eventually leading him to the discovery of a hidden access tunnel in a subway depot. The tunnel led to an underground complex, equipped with a variety of arcane technology and decorated with strange pictograms depicting what appeared to be scenes from the mythologies of various ancient religions. There he encountered the complex's sole inhabitant, a white-haired gentleman calling himself Mentor.

They had time to do little more that exchange introductions when the complex was attacked by a squad of heavily armed men, led by a thug calling himself Ibac. Ibac used superhuman strength to damage several vital support beams of the complex, causing the complex to begin to collapse upon itself as Ibac and his men fled. Although Mentor appeared strangely unworried by the attack, when it seemed as though he was about to be crushed by falling debris, Billy heroically pushed him out of the way, taking the brunt of impact himself. As Billy lay mortally wounded, Mentor slipped a golden ring from his finger onto Billy's hand and whispered a word into the boy's ear, instructing him to repeat it. With his dying breath, Billy said, "Shazam!"

Billy suddenly found himself... somewhere else. He was a passenger in his own body, except that it wasn't really his own body. It was someone else's body, that of an heroically proportioned adult in a bright red and gold costume. Billy watched through the man's eyes, unable to effect any action, as he smashed his way out of the fallen complex and used superhuman speed to track down Ibac and his men, still fleeing the scene. He watched as the red-clad man engaged Ibac in HTH combat, a battle of titans in which the red-clad man was ultimately victorious, banishing the "dark energy" from Ibac, transforming him into a little man named Printwhistle. The red-clad man flew back and rescued Mentor. The two exchanged a strangely emotional farewell, then the red-clad man said "Shazam" again. Billy Batson reappeared in his own body, fully healed.

Mentor explained that he was a member of the ancient Order of SHAZAM, a mystical society dedicated to protecting the innocent throughout the universe, "ours, and many others." The Order's name is an acronym derived from the names of its founders, the six Guardians of Eternity, who operate out of "Destiny's Garden, on the Fifth Moon of the Fourth World." The Order operates on every inhabited planet in the universe, "except a few totally consumed in shadow." The universe is divided into cosmic sectors and within each sector is a single powerful champion. Since even a Captain cannot patrol thousands of worlds each world has a single member of the Order with a magical ring which summons the Captain to their world. While the Captain is present, the ring-bearer's body is transported to the garden of the Guardian's, in a protective healing stasis, while his mind and spirit cohabiate, albeit passively, in the body of the Captain.

Mentor explained that he was Earth's ring-bearer, and the red clad man was Marvel, Captain of the cosmic sector in which Earth resides. He was in the process of using the ring to summon the Captain when Billy pushed him aside, and placed the ring on Billy's finger to save his life through the healing factor of the mystic stasis. It was a gambit that might have failed, as the ring can only be wielded by one who is "pure of heart and spirit, uncorrupted by shadow, without fear, a beacon of hope." Mentor had lured Billy there as a possible successor and to reveal that Billy's parents were also members of the Order. They disappeared while investigating a possible link between Dr. Sivana, a brilliant geneticist and bio-weapons engineer suspected of engaging in illegal human experimentation, and Teth-Adam, "President For Life" of Qurac and known supporter of an international terror group called, strangely, The Seven Deadly Enemies Of Man” - Christian