Blog
Big Science Action. aka the Team that Never Existed
8/14/2022
Thanks to certain feedback, we've started to develop an interest in exploring what other superheroes look like outside of the American heroes that make up the bulk of DC's continuity. No one has ever really explored this idea as much as Grant Morrison, particularly in their invention of the Chinese heroes the Great Ten, but they actually did it once more, creating a culture of Japanese heroes while building the world for their Final Crisis crossover.
Ultimately, we're deciding not to use them, but we'll get into why later. First, I wanted to introduce the characters we WOULD have used, and to do so we're actually going to quote directly from a comic called the Final Crisis Sketchbook, where among other things, we see design work and read the inital concepts for these characters.
Ultimately, we're deciding not to use them, but we'll get into why later. First, I wanted to introduce the characters we WOULD have used, and to do so we're actually going to quote directly from a comic called the Final Crisis Sketchbook, where among other things, we see design work and read the inital concepts for these characters.
Big Science Action
"These guys were Japan's JLA back in the day, with a ring or halo-shaped base hovering around Mount Fuji - and let's be vague about when that day was - and these heroes reflect many different Japanese "super-hero" types with an appropriately "retro" design. The aim with design is to make us feel that we've known these characters all out lives, somehow.
Ultimon
"Ultraman type Giant monster killer / young Japanese man indoctrinated into the Ultimon - a secret societ of ultimate monster killers - the last survivors of the Monster Wars which devistated old Japan. The Ultimon are the super-samurai with technology and weapons we can barely imagine.
Together in the ruins of Tokyo, young Dai Yokohama and his master fought the three COLONIZERS (all the monsters we see him fight look like "real" versions of POKEMON creatures, as if nature had actually created pokemon horrors to run around and cause real devistation): SCARRBA the PROTECTOR leads the charge - a multi-headed Hydra thing spitting a different death ray from each head. Eyes of one head fire lasers. Mouth of another shoots fire. Horns on a third launch electrical bolts, etc. KRY-TORR the BURROWER digs up the streets, and the rubbleof fallen buildings flies from his hellish, centipedal multi-legs. LORLOXX the LAYER squats and releases fuming glass eggs from rows of pipes in its sides, all filled with squirming monstrosities. |
Then his master died. The last of the Ultimon fell before teaching his young apprentice his final secrets. But at that moment all his masters power flowed into the boy. Yokohama killed Scarrba. Then others rose against him and, in an incredible baptism of fire, he defeated them too. Then, through the apocalyptic smoke and ruin, came an army of monsters - seizing their moment, seeking revenge for their defeat in the Monster Wars.
As the new Ultimon prepared to die in performance of his duty, in defense of Tokyo, the sun rose... and out of the sun cam Japan's defenders to his aid. Never before had they teamed together, but that day demanded a miracle.
Cosmo Racer, Hammersuit Zero-X, Goraiko, Sunfire and Rising Sun. Together they hurled the Monster Army back into Outer Darkness, together they built a new Tokyo and set their incredible watch station in place, like a halo above the haze where Mount Fuji rises.
BIG SCIENCE ACTION was born, and the classic lineup soon emerged...
As the new Ultimon prepared to die in performance of his duty, in defense of Tokyo, the sun rose... and out of the sun cam Japan's defenders to his aid. Never before had they teamed together, but that day demanded a miracle.
Cosmo Racer, Hammersuit Zero-X, Goraiko, Sunfire and Rising Sun. Together they hurled the Monster Army back into Outer Darkness, together they built a new Tokyo and set their incredible watch station in place, like a halo above the haze where Mount Fuji rises.
BIG SCIENCE ACTION was born, and the classic lineup soon emerged...
Cosmo Racer
"The living robot kid from space is a cross between Silver Surfer and Pinocchio - partially amnesiac, he is trying to get home to his beloved maker somewhere far in space but has wound up on Earth unable to find the crystals he needs to power up his roller boots for interstellar travel. he can still race along on his blades at speeds up to that of sound.
What only we only know is that his "Maker" is a monsterous space tyrant who has sent his little herald out to identify and pacify target planets. Cosmo Racer's a gritty little 'grrrr' guy who never never lets you down and ALWAYS finds a way... Cosmo Racer appears to be made of some alien plastic-metal or flexible ceramic material - Hard, smooth, and cold, but bendable. The friction of moving through molecules of air at high speeds only leaves him warm to the touch. |
Super Young Team
"This group of flamboyant new teenaged heroes derives from Japan's willingness to co-opt and mash together Western music and fashion to create bizarre pop hybrids. Here they've used the same cultural mix-and-match approach to generate a team of colorful youngsters in day-glo outfits
Most Excellent Superbat
"Self-styled leader of the team - a vivid and garish combination of Superman and Batman motifs. He's the superhero as dandy, as fashion cult, as psychedelic Cotoure icon. Everything about superhero costuming refined into pure style as worn for the catwalk. Polished, sleek and shiny, super-colorful. Cheekbones like Johnny Depp.
He has his own TV show and legions of fans who swoon over his every inane utterance." |
These weren't ALL the characters created for this world of Japanese superheroes, but these were the ones that, if we were going to bring Big Science Action into our timeline, we would have used. Even Most Excellent Superbat; he basically exemplifies all the concepts at play with the Super Young Team, and can basically represent those ideas all on his own by being the newest member of Big Science Action. The concepts at play here are INCREDIBLY fun. A DC version of Ultraman having fought in the "Monster Wars" that destroyed old Tokyo? Boss Bosozuko being a combination of Firestorm, Human Torch, Ghost Rider, and Akira? If the goal was to make it feel like we already know these characters.... mission acomplished. If anything, I feel like the only thing we're missing is some allegory for one of Japan's most vital superhero exports, a certain Sailor Princess.
So... why aren't we using this?
The reason this whole thing was invented was for Final Crisis, which basically centered around the Fourth World Characters being reborn on Earth. The Super Young Team was meant to represent the same role in this story that the Forever People usually serve in Kirby's Fourth World; a group of rebellious young heroes representing a new wave of ideas. For them to exist, Morrison essentially needed to build a world of Japanese heroes that were supposedly well established for the Super Young Team to be rebellious against.
What that means is that this awesome team of heroes really only exists conceptually. With the exception of Most Excellent Superbat, who was the main character among the Super Young Team, none of them have any appearances at all outside of occasionally being in the background of Final Crisis. As awesome as this all is... they really only exist in this sketchbook. In some cases, there isn't even enough art for us to adapt to make pages for them.
Which honestly seems like a real shame, right? Maybe someday, we might actually have the resources to COMISSION art for these characters, and maybe then we could come up with a cool way to use them.
So... why aren't we using this?
The reason this whole thing was invented was for Final Crisis, which basically centered around the Fourth World Characters being reborn on Earth. The Super Young Team was meant to represent the same role in this story that the Forever People usually serve in Kirby's Fourth World; a group of rebellious young heroes representing a new wave of ideas. For them to exist, Morrison essentially needed to build a world of Japanese heroes that were supposedly well established for the Super Young Team to be rebellious against.
What that means is that this awesome team of heroes really only exists conceptually. With the exception of Most Excellent Superbat, who was the main character among the Super Young Team, none of them have any appearances at all outside of occasionally being in the background of Final Crisis. As awesome as this all is... they really only exist in this sketchbook. In some cases, there isn't even enough art for us to adapt to make pages for them.
Which honestly seems like a real shame, right? Maybe someday, we might actually have the resources to COMISSION art for these characters, and maybe then we could come up with a cool way to use them.