He'll LIGHT up your day!

Ray groans.

"She did not just say that."

You were named after a 1940s hero. Are you familiar with the original Ray?

Ray considers. "I am actually. He seemed alright."

He had a fine artist. That's a joke. He was drawn by Ray Fine, who also drew Black Condor.

Ray smiles.

Strange, isn't it, that the Ray came from a world where Hitler won WWII.

Ray looks surprised.

"Damn, that must have been weird."

What was really weird was the company that made the Ray, Quality Comics, definitely had Germany lose since it closed up in the 1950s. But DC decided they wanted the JLA and JSA to meet superheroes from a world where Germany had won, they had bought the rights to those characters, and ignored the fact that Plastic Man and the Blackhawks, already long established at DC, were from the same reality.

The Blackhawks, a group of WWII aviatars in black leather, are known for briefly becoming some of the worst superheroes ever. Each suddenly gained one super sense and had a costume that reflected it. The guy with super hearing, for instance, had ears all over his costume. Blackhawk fans were furious. DC's response was to say there was no market for them and cancel the book. Years later they decided to turn the Shadow into a robot then cancel the series just before he got his body back. Marvel was no better. Stuck with an ending for a story of Lovecraftian demons, the Hulk solved the problem by clapping his hands so hard he shattered the entire dimension he was in and plunged into the Lovecraftian dimension just in time to save the day.

So what do you do these days, Ray?

Ray Fine was considered the king of comics during the few years he worked in them. Then he moved to advertising and Jack Kirby took the title. Kirby still retains the title even though he died in the 1990s because his work was so influential. No new king of comics has ever been named.

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