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[zombiemichaeljackson]

Excellent point, except one of the major ad campaigns hadn't teased finding out the identity of Libra was a big plot point of FC that was never resolved in the main series. That was yet another case where one of the tie in books explained something we were told was going to happen in the main series.

Yes, stupid, but not difficult to follow.

[rdrsfn82]

Yes, stupid, but not difficult to follow.

It's difficult to follow if you were hoping for resolution.

Same with Mandraak. If you didn't read Superman Beyond, you'd have no clue who the fuck that was.

[HNutz]

When something needs that much explaining, you have to realise there's something more in all those 'it's confusing' complaints than everyone being stupid.

Yup.

[Kid Kamikaze]

Yep. After all the hype, Libra didn't really matter to the story at all. He could have been removed and they could have let Glorious Godfrey be the one gathering villains and nothing in the grand scheme of things would have changed. At all. Libra was totally pointless.

Libra's the only reason why Darkseid was able to come back.

That's far from pointless.

[rdrsfn82]

Libra's the only reason why Darkseid was able to come back.

That's far from pointless.

The role he played could have been done by anyone. The character and the mystery of his identity was pointless, even if he served a semi-important role.

[Kid Kamikaze]

The role he played could have been done by anyone. The character and the mystery of his identity was pointless, even if he served a semi-important role.

The mystery was never important.

And from my understanding, nobody else (except MAYBE Glorious Godfrey, since he did something kinda similar in Legends, but his incompetence was shown within FC) could have done what Libra did. This includes the use of a cliche army of villains as a front for the real plan, killing MM with a lot of help, being a complete unknown so that the Spectre wouldn't be able to utterly destroy him, and of course, bringing back Darkseid.

Libra had two roles to play in FC: the prophet, and the one to get the wheels turning. When that was done, he was taken out accordingly (though he's definitely not dead). He was just a role player, if you expected anything different from a prophet, that's on you.

[GLX]

The role he played could have been done by anyone.

Crazy Quilt could've taken Libra's spot.

[rdrsfn82]

The mystery was never important.

And from my understanding, nobody else (except MAYBE Glorious Godfrey, since he did something kinda similar in Legends, but his incompetence was shown within FC) could have done what Libra did. This includes the use of a cliche army of villains as a front for the real plan, killing MM with a lot of help, being a complete unknown so that the Spectre wouldn't be able to utterly destroy him, and of course, bringing back Darkseid.

Libra had two roles to play in FC: the prophet, and the one to get the wheels turning. When that was done, he was taken out accordingly (though he's definitely not dead). He was just a role player, if you expected anything different from a prophet, that's on you.

They promoted him as a big player, but he was just a role player. Plus he could have been Godfrey or an established villain or whatever. his ability to mask himself from the Spectre was power granted to him by Darkseid, at least that's how I read it, so that's not really a big deal. He really didn't do anything to make him stand out.

However the editors and Morrison hyped him up as a major player before the series. That was a mistake, and not on me. Remember the ads about "Who is Libra"? Remember the interviews where they talked about how important he would be after his first appearance and after FC #1? That's them saying he was more than a role player.

[Kid Kamikaze]

They promoted him as a big player, but he was just a role player. Plus he could have been Godfrey or an established villain or whatever. his ability to mask himself from the Spectre was power granted to him by Darkseid, at least that's how I read it, so that's not really a big deal. He really didn't do anything to make him stand out.

It could have been Godfrey. Maybe.

However, it could not have been an established villain.

No, Darkseid did not give Libra his powers. He got that from becoming one with the universe (the end of his existence until FC). Darkseid, before dying, brought him back, and gave him some New God tech (Mobius chair, Transmotifier), that's it. The true scope of Libra's power is still unknown, though he did get beat by Inertia.

The best Godfrey might have done (since they did meet) was train him a little on the whole prophet thing.

The Spectre thing was all him.

And the most important thing is that, he helped bring Darkseid and gang back in full form (because they were as good as screwed beforehand, with the whole deteriorating bodies thing). That's not something some random supervillain would do. (and don't bring up JLU. Lex didn't mean to do that)

However the editors and Morrison hyped him up as a major player before the series. That was a mistake, and not on me. Remember the ads about "Who is Libra"? Remember the interviews where they talked about how important he would be after his first appearance and after FC #1? That's them saying he was more than a role player.

He was a role player.

And yet, he did have a major role (which I already brought up), but in the beginning of the series. By the time the ALE was in full-swing, his role was done. (unless you count the Lex storyline, but I don't)


And the main reason why Libra was hyped up was pretty much to sell Secret Files (which I didn't buy anyway, but read). Other than that, false hype (but both Marvel and DC do that a lot).

[rdrsfn82]

I still don't think he did anything interesting. And most of what you said is stuff that was explained in interviews and not in the actual series. And the false hype is something both companies do, but it's annoying when they both do it.

However we've had this conversation roughly 300000 times since the book came out.

So I know neither of us changed our minds. I'm glad you liked the book, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.