#dont lose post

[ufonaut]

POSTING THESE SEPARATELY TOO BECAUSE IM INCONSOLABLE OVER KYLE’S FOUND FAMILY MONTAGE (GL 1990 #170)

[ufonaut]

The Book of Fate section on the DC Comics website from July 1997.

Transcript of the bio pages under the cut:

The Book of Fate:

Pity poor Jared Stevens.

No matter how hard he tries, things never seem to go his way. His life as a thief has kept him on the fringe of society, walking the razor's edge between total control and total chaos. He's managed to shrug off responsibility at every turn... until now!

The torch has passed; the gauntlet thrown down. The awesome power of Fate now rests with a bewildered Jared and he's faced with the ultimate question: Now what?

Unlikely keeper of the cosmic balance, Fate finds himself confronting a steady stream of bizarre creatures, dimensional anomalies and wrathful gods. With his newly-inherited immunity to magic, Jared takes on this army of darkness with a no-nonsense bare-knuckled approach and a healthy dose of sarcasm. Reality itself bends easily to his will and the fate of the world rests in his hands - like it or not!

---

Fate:

Civilian identity: Jared Stevens

Former occupation: Occult Artifact Thief

Current occupation: Repairman of Reality

Relations: Holly Marsh (ex-wife)

Powers: Enhanced strength and speed, the ability to see past lies and illusions and into an individual’s possible fate, dimension traversing. Immunity to all magic.

Weapons: A knife and three throwing blades forged by Nabu from the former Helm of Fate.

Hobbies: Surviving.

Origin:

While on a hunt for the legendary icons of Dr. Fate - the Helm of Nabu, the Cloak of Destiny, and the Amulet of Anubis-Jared Stevens met the current agent of Order on the Earthly plane, Kent Nelson. Nelson told Stevens he had been chosen as the next agent of Order, and would be sent to the netherworld where the Lords of Order now resided.

After a brief and baffling exchange with Nabu - the sorcerer middle man between Nelson and the Lords of Order - Stevens was returned to Earth with the transmuted icons of Fate: a knife, three ankh-shaped throwing stars, and a golden waistcoat. The icons had been altered to better suit their new owner -Jared Stevens - and Kent and Inza Nelson were released from their duties as Fate.

Realizing just what he had gotten himself into, Stevens rejected his commission as the new Agent of Order on Earth, mostly because no one had ever bothered to ask him if he even wanted the job. Chaos then attempted to possess him, as he had rejected Order, and a struggle for Jared's soul began, with Order and Chaos attempting to physically control Steven's fragile physical form. Jared then rejected them both, and the power of his sheer will (and a profoundly stubborn nature) caused a clash of the to opposing forces within his body and soul. The energies met, canceled each other out, and the spent power erupted from Steven's body, destroying everything around him and horribly scarring Jared. 

With the altered Cloak of Destiny, Stevens wrapped his shattered left arm and waited for the rest of his wounds to overcome him. But much to his surprise (and eventually, annoyance), the Cloak's power healed and changed him as long as he wore it. The die was cast, and Jared was now Fate, a being of neither Order nor Chaos but a perfect balance of the two, the only such being in existence.

[ufonaut]

“He has no family, and his only close friend is off on another planet. His company goes kaput, naturally he isn’t far behind.”

Paul Levitz writing about Alan Scott in his and Gerry Conway’s All-Star Comics (1976) run, from the Amazing World of DC Comics (1977) #16 zine. He’s referring to the arc in #64-#65, where GBC goes bankrupt and Alan suffers a severe breakdown.

[ufonaut]

ALAN & JIMMY IN INJUSTICE: YEAR ZERO #5

[ufonaut]

We are not super heroes! The heroic tradition does not, cannot apply to us! Whatever you told yourselves, however you tried to rationalize the act, the underlying truth is that you came here hoping to influence hell by example!

Zatara in Reign in Hell (2008) #5

I’ve always found teams like JLD to be the biggest failing of DC’s magic side. It consistently fails to distinguish magic users from your average superhero and I’ve never quite managed to put into words why exactly that was beyond a preference for portrayals along the lines of the horror-tinted version of magic seen in a lot of ‘87 titles (The Spectre, Phantom Stranger, Doctor Fate) or the nineties weirdoverse (The Book of Fate, Scare Tactics) or stuff like John Ostrander’s ‘92 The Spectre that fits right in the middle but at long last I’ve found something that DOES express my thoughts exactly! Keith Giffen, who both Fate titles above belong to, puts it perfectly through Zatara’s monologue in Reign in Hell. This right here? The ideal take on DC’s magic side!

[ufonaut]

No, please, you must tell me. I... I am not accustomed to not knowing...

Stranger’s nightmare and Bruce Gordon teaching him how to shower in The Phantom Stranger (1987) #3.

[ufonaut]

Hey, I just read all of your Little by Little series on ao3 and it's amazing. I dont know much about Alan Scott but your writing hurts in a good way.

Parts of Alan seemed tired and parts of him seem fearful. I started crying at one point even though the series is tagged as light angst. Seeing him breakdown reminds me of my own struggle with internalized issues and I think you tackled them wonderfully.

I'm going to check out some comics featuring him, if you have any recs thatd be nice. Thank you for writing those fics <3

ohhh my god this is the sweetest ask in the universe, i can't tell you how much this means to me! everything i've written about alan scott is very near & dear to my heart for the obvious reasons and i don't tend to expect much of a reaction because he's a relatively obscure character in the grand scheme of things so this is just about the best thing that's ever happened to me, thank you so so soooo much & please know that taking the time to send this is much appreciated!!!

i've mentioned some recs here (which also includes links to a different, more in-depth post) and i think that just about covers all my favourite alan appearances but i would definitely recommend getting started with his story in the green lantern 80th anniversary special and this year dc's pride special, they're both fantastic takes on his journey so far. he's also currently in the ongoing infinite frontier miniseries! the characterisation there isn't quite as ideal as some of his earlier appearances mentioned above but, as much as i'm the no 1 fan of every 1940s series, there's nothing wrong with jumping right in and working your way backwards. injustice: year zero, though elseworlds/taking place in an alt universe, is worth a read too as i remember genuinely crying a lot at every issue where we see alan & jimmy being all happily married

alan's my all time favourite character and i have to admit half of the series, despite how relatively recent it is, was written at a time when it seemed impossible that he'd get confirmed as canonically gay and the actual existence of that is still a miracle to me! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING IT & LOVING IT!!!!!!!!

(and for the uninitiated among us: here's little by little -- my fic series about alan coming out)

[ufonaut]

JSA (1999) #32 coming through with the kinda team dynamics I miss more than anything in modern comics!