With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

The Source/Presence is a multiverse level being responsible for everything in the DC multiverse.

 

When I saw that picture of nabu my first thought was marvel zombies, and these interactions aren't making me feel that any less.

 

Of course both The Source and The One Above All are still only aspects of The Brothers.....at least if you're still living in the 90's and remember Marvel Vs DC.

 

For those who didn't read Books of Magic, that guy was even more of an asshole.

Worshipped by a cult, he would have one of his cultists put on the helmet when he felt like getting some murder on.

Gave up caring about order or chaos only to embrace nihilistic hedonisms, which is odd since the Nabu from Books of Magic would be about 14.5 billion years old in the present day, because he was made by the presence just shortly after the creation of the universe.

So giving up on a cause he found worthy for the entire history of the universe only to fall towards cynicism seems odd, narratively.

That would be like the Ophidian retiring to be a Buddhist nun because greed was just so yesterday.

 

What, exactly, created the DC multiverse (ignoring N52 and onwards anyway) is a bit up in the air, but we do have a list of most likely contenders.

1. The Source/Presence, who basically acts as a stand in for the biblical god and is the one most people argue for. There are several things that go against the idea of them being DC's "Supreme Being", but there are also several statements that say that they totally are.

2. The Overmonitor/Overvoid, which basically acts as a weird meta... thing that if it did have a hand in creating the multiverse it was totally accidental. Or you can take that one comic where The Presence (indirectly) claimed to have been made by it as canon. Which makes no sense because The Overmonitor didn't even know things other than itself could exist until it randomly stumbled across the multiverse one day and was freaked the fuck out by it, but whatever. It would basically act as a bit of an Azathoth type of creator god if it made the multiverse.

3. The Brothers, like Someguy Somewhere mentioned, who were from (one of) the Marvel vs DC series and pretty much just wanted to kick each other's teeth in or whatever. Not very likely to be them, but who knows?

4.Retconn, who are a corporation that goes around hijacking realities so they can sell the footage they capture of them for profit. Almost certainly not them since all they did was take over the multiverse for a short little while, but they do seemingly exist above even The Overmonitor, so that would potentially make them God³, which I find neat.

5.Superman (and maybe the rest of The League to some degree). Maybe. There's a bunch of meta stuff that goes into this, but basically Superman has enough ontological/narrative weight (just think of that in the sense of reality really, really liking Superman existing) to just restart the whole DC multiverse, even if he and everything in it are totally wiped from existence retroactively, which has happened before, arguably making Superman the "real" Supreme Being of DC. Interestingly, The Overmonitor thinks Superman is the most powerful thing that exists in DC, which may or may not also include stuff like The Source and New Gods, and is seemingly at least a bit scared of him.

There's probably more that I've missed, but honestly this is both too long and enough of a mess already, so have fun with my nonsense.

 

Okay... do different universes have different New Gods? Like an Earth 16 Darkseid and an Earth 10 Darkseid? And if so, do these parallel New Gods worship the same Source, or their own specific branch of the Source?

 

In the comics and all other official DC media New Gods exist outside of standard spacetime, so they're multiverse beings that exist in a much higher dimension than basically everything else, baring certain exceptions that are usually even higher up. In Zoat's canon they're specific to the universe they come from, so Darksied in Universe-16 is not the Darksied in Universe-12.

The New Gods are divided into two factions (no clue if any New Gods exist that aren't at least nominally a part of said factions), that being New Genesis, ruled by High Father, who are the "good guys" of the New Gods, though they're honestly just the lesser of two evils for the most part, and worship The Source.

The other faction is Apokolips, ruled by Darksied, who generally speaking the closest they get to worship is towards Darksief himself, mostly being more into science than theology, and they're just flat out the worst, with Apokolips being basically a second, sci-fi themed Hell. I suppose an argument can be made that they sort of worship The Anti-Life Equation, and in some stories The Anti-Life is a split off part of The Source, but they don't really do organized religion outside of doing whatever Darksied says (and that doesn't really count I'd argue) to the best of my knowledge.

 

But I thought that New God powers were all Source derived, regardless of the particular New God's origin, alignment, or religious practice.

 

Most of them are, though outliers like The Omega Effect exist, it's just that Darkseid, and Apokolips by extension, doesn't care.

 

Well, that's most of what I wanted to know. Thank you.

 

Not quite. The current main comics continuity has all deities be part of a multiversal Sphere of the Gods. That is not true in all DC media, nor was it true in New Earth or Pre-Crisis cosmology, and so I'd be damned surprised if the YJ cartoon pulls that multiversal New Gods thing.

A comics sequel of the JL cartoon had WW meet a Darkseid who was in love with his reality's WW but when he tried to master the Anti-Life Equation it killed everything in the universe but Darkseid because that ALE was a real evil prick. But again the JL cartoon takes place in another multiverse that predates that concept from the comics. As an example.

Darkseid seemed to be a singular multiversal entity in the Smallville comics, but since the Smallville comics had a different multiverse that multiversal Darkseid is probably a different multiversal Darksied than that of Prime Earth continuity.

 

Ah, there are multiple canon multiverses in DC now?

How... Wonderful.

 

Hi! Welcome to the Multiverse! Where everything is cannon and everything is fiction and the only deciding factor is your perspective.

 

No thank you sir, I'm feeling too unwell from all the comic books to start talking about the lore of The Elder Scrolls series.

 

This Nabu said that he wasn't a demon.

He was probably just driven crazy after Hell won in his universe.

Hmm, maybe some magic user or theurgist discovered about the Ophidian and what she represents and later on the guy that wrote the story of Eden included her in it.

'limbs to'

Hmm, maybe Mike was reluctant to let go because he thought he could still see his son, or Nabu showed him what he does to the ones that take him off and Mike doesn't want that to happen to him.

Well he may have lost a useful construct, but he got an even better one.

 

Might flow better as 'involves' but it's hardly incorrect give the rest of the sentence.

'jerks'

 

I suppose that would be too easy. Also, I like that line from Paul about doing everything in his power to get what he wants.

And suddenly, his sense of superiority has been proven to be false.

He just realizes that he bit off more than he could chew. Wonder how he would have fought if he knew what he was up against from the beginning?

Trying to do one last evil act out of spite. How typically demonic.

Okay. I was saddened by the loss of the hellwraith, but having a Lord of Order at Paul's beck and call is definitely a good trade off. I hope Paul keeps him for as long as possible and doesn't off him like in the Renegade timeline, since who knows what kind of magical knowledge is in his memories.

 

Maybe change this so it's a bit further in time, like say '12:45' or something like that, since in the previous chapter it was '12:41' and they had a conversation which would have lasted several minutes.

 

Couldn't happen to a worse version of Nabu, which is saying something considering the last guy.

 

Mike is gonna need so much therapy.

 

I would be surprised if OL's trousers held out against the giant hate boner he must be sporting right now.

 

Don't you know? Any amount of talking only takes six seconds.

 

Paul embracing his inner renegade and only a couple of years late.

 

Probably too much power to get rid of in one shot, but it should leave Nabu with the phylactery-equivalent of a headache... Though I have the feeling finishing this fight won't be so easy as dropping a dozen hits on him...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Some demons can be quite orderly, you know. Devils even more so. Though that's largely a D&D distinction.

Shit, a second hostage. Let's hope the kid isn't trapped in a fail-deadly circle or something. ...No, wait, that's despair... Looks like Nabu's already claimed at least one victim, then...

Dammit, this must be slamming right into OL's berserk button concerning Nabu...

Alas, I doubt he's likely to melt anytime soon...

Well, shit. Makes sense, though. Of course he'd have encountered shit like magic-breaking effects before.

Probably got some kind of haste spell working on himself, then. Time to pull out one of the big guns, then.

Talking is a free action, after all. Let's see how he copes with Theurgistic energies...

At least Nabu is working to keep his puppet whole. After all, lose the host, lose his ability to affect anything... Until he charms one of them into donning him...

Time to get eaten, skull-face...

Oh, he's clever. Benefit of, presuming he's a distant future incarnation, millions of years of combat experience.

But he's not so clever...

...That he can't be distracted by an obvious target.

This should be impressively easy. He's probably chock full of pathetic, base desires for assimilation to feed upon.

Ooh, giving his Best Snek some well-aged desires, eh? And people say he's not romantic?

Eh, wrong gender, wrong planet and probably wrong universe.

Pfft. Compared to a nice big banquet like you, why would the Ophidian even look at the after-dinner mint that is a human?

As if. OL gets shit done.

Yes. I bet it's been a long time since you were this weakened, hasn't it?

And dick-move last-ditch 'fuck you' incoming in 3... 2...

1...

Wrong emotion, man... Focus, gather your will or your rage...

Don't let this tin-plated turd get away with it...

Don't underestimate a compulsion like the one Nabu's trying, OL. He'll probably make Mike break his own arms to get free...

Crap. He's losing.

No, no he does not. Even if his son is dead... Being able to give his killer the middle finger as they die is worth it.

And now Paragon has a Lord of Order Construct-Lantern. I wonder if he'll be as stable as the Renegade's?

Well, then. Looks like OL just got himself quite the prize. Though it's no Teekl. Still, I have to wonder what Kara-1 will think after seeing that? I mean... I'm assuming she can even grasp just what happened, but I can't help but I imagine she'd have objections to what is basically slavery of the soul. Not that it couldn't happen to a shittier person, but still. On the other hand, would she even consider him to be a person, given her rather uneven-seeming morality. Guess we'll see.

 

Thank you, corrected.

 

I think there was one DC comic in which a guy summons a bunch of demons in order to uphold the law, but they get out of control.

Even if he's as old as Nabu 16, around 7000 years old, he'd still be ancient.

He may think Nabu can bring him back, which he could be capable of doing, and is desperate, or he thinks taking off the Helmet would kill him, which it may.

Probably not.

Nabu 16 had his issues pre assimilation, but this one is a psychological mess.

 

Even if this Nabu isn't strictly speaking a demon, his actions here and narrative proximity to Supergirl-666 should make it really to slot him as in one in her head.

Also, she is acting all Silver age, and those seem to be really fantastic racist. Non-humans don't get rights.
And since OL enslaved a helmet instead of a flesh and blood person, she probably would be fine with it the same way silver age superman can let loose on an robots he comes across.

 

Strictly speaking, he only said he hadn't claimed to be a demon.

 

I'm sorry, he tried what exactly on Kon?

That's a bit more kinky than what we've seen about those two so far.