First, the judging:

"Home" by Michael Rees - Martian Manhunter & Prysm

When I heard the idea behind this, I wasn't thrilled. HOW could anyone team up J'onn and one of the lesser Teen Titans? Surprisingly, this is a big hit! An insight into both characters' feelings, all in a short but action-packed story with the Atom as a factor logically tying the two together. GREAT!

One thing really hurt this story. The grammar and spelling, particularly the incomplete and compound sentences, needed to be checked before sending this in; it harms what is an otherwise fine tale.

Still, the dad looking at the sky, which is disintegrating into crackling energy, and remarking, "I am sure the government will fix it. Nothing to worry about." … heh heh. That just cracks me up!

"The Last Herald of Galactus" by Dannell Lites - Galactus & Superman

Wow. I should have said, "No novels". This is a really long story. Fortunately, it's a really good story, so I finally finished it and was able to get this contest judged!

So, let's see…this is an inter-company crossover Elseworlds. How to judge this one? Well, let's start with the basics and go over positives and negatives.

On the positive side, it is a nice Elseworlds origin for Superman. As a crossover Elseworlds, it has some unique ways of joining the Marvel and DC Universes, and I like them.

On the negative side, there are a lot of spelling and grammatical mistakes. And the footnotes don't match up (although she doesn't lose a point, because I don't ASK for footnotes).

Looking more at the story, I must say that the story could have been tighter. Pacing is important when you're writing about a planet-eating monster coming to destroy the Earth.

Dannell could have helped us non-Marvel fans to comprehend Galactus if we had some sort of idea about his size. I'd envisioned him as gargantuan, with humans no more than gnats in comparison. I mean, he EATS PLANETS, right? Then she notes that he's standing on a building, and that he's small enough to fit inside Jor-El's room. HOW big is Galactus?

Dannell does a great job with Jor-El and his scientific attitude towards Galactus. He's not unemotional, like Mr. Spock…he simply doesn't curse a shark for eating fish. Those scenes were particularly touching, as I could understand Jor-El's decisions.

But not Lara's. "My place is with my husband, but please take my baby and do with him what you like. I'm sure an omnipotent creature, totally alien to our way of life, will make an excellent caregiver." Huh? What mother would think like that? Unfortunately, Dannell has Lara act this way just to get her out of the picture.

This Elseworlds, like too many Elseworlds (not that I'm blaming Dannell for those), is unfortunately too anchored in the regular DCU to truly have fun with the concept. Whatever the origins of Superman, the goal seems to be to somehow contrive to get him wearing the same old costume while disguised as Clark Kent, newspaper reporter and children of the Kents. I wish this story had gone in a different direction at the end, although this is just a personal preference.

I realize Dannell is doing an homage to Mark Waid by directly quoting from "Kingdom Come" in describing Batman's motivations, but I wish she'd instead written her own appraisal. It just comes off as a swipe.

Despite all of that, this story is a lot of fun.

"Beyond the Pale" by David Lotempio - the Spectre & Ghost In The Shell (a manga comic/movie)

And I thought Dannell's story was big!

This full-length story by David Lotempio is very well-written, spell-checked and proof-read. BRAVO!

I'm sure a lot of our readers are going to get lost unless they are very familiar with "Ghost in the Shell". A slew of Japanese names for characters who aren't introduced to the readers, all set in the "Ghost in the Shell" universe which is bizarre and has its own terminology…all of it makes for a very confusing read. I actually saw the "Ghost…" movie once a few years back, but the few memories of it did little to help me here. Really, my main complaint about this story is that it didn't come with a nice, hand-holding introduction for the newbies (including myself).

Nevertheless, given the themes of "Ghost in the Shell" and The Spectre, this is an inspired team-up.

"Enter The Lost World" by David R. Black - Warlord & Batman

As someone who's never read Warlord in his life, I must commend David for easily introducing me to the cast. My only recommendation would be to explain WHAT Skartaris is and how Batman gets there from the North Pole, as this is a key point to the story.

It struck me as odd that Warlord now pre-dates Batman, so that a man from Earth would have no idea who Batman is. I don't have my Zero Hour timeline handy, so I'll trust that David did his research.

The only recurring flaw is the portrayal of Batman, which may fit the 1970s Batman but is not a close match to the current Batman character. The Bat-Plane, the blue cape, the poor improvisational skills, the bad judgment calls…none of it really seems like the Batman we read about today, although this story would probably be fine in 1982 or so. Really, this is a Warlord story with a co-star who isn't in peak form in order to make the Warlord look good…which may work with some heroes, but not Batman.

Otherwise, the plot is intriguing (if basic) and works well as a short story.

"Sibling Rivalry" by Gil Carter - (Nightwing & Azrael)

Geez, I don't like Azrael. It amazes me that he has a book that's still being published. When he appears in the regular Bat-books, I resent his inclusion as one of Batman's "family". I really, really don't like Azrael!

And, whattaya know. Gil Carter turns in what is probably one of the best submissions of the contest. I LOVED this story. Gil builds upon two recent "Nightwing" storylines, and he does it flawlessly. I would urge Gil to send this in; should there be a Nightwing 80 page giant, this story would work!

He even made me like Azrael a bit. Wow.

"Girltalk" by Erik Merk - Troia & Oracle

First of all, this is nothing against Erik's writing in particular…but I have a big problem with stories which consist of "Character 1 and Character 2 have a conversation". I love characterization scenes within a larger story, but…there needs to BE a story. At the VERY least, there must be some activity occuring during the conversation. Chuck Dixon (who is often judged as primarily an action writer) wrote a Nightwing story which, beginning to end, consisted of nothing but Robin and Nightwing talking…BUT they're doing it balancing blindfolded on top of a moving train while fighting looters! You don't need to do anything that drastic, but even the best character exploration story needs to have some action!

That said, I'm going to judge Merk's story on the merits of the writing and character portrayal, with the acknowledgment that it's obviously lost a few points already.

With "Girltalk", Erik Merk explores the relationships of two characters who have a common tie but haven't really talked in depth before. Erik submitted the story with a different font face for each character, but I substituted colors to make it easier to read.

"The Bodyguard" by Syl Francis - Lois Lane and Dick Grayson

I found this one enjoyable, but it had flaws. I can't believe that Lois could talk to Dick Grayson and Nightwing in rapid succession without guessing who Nightwing was. ESPECIALLY when she thinks both of them are hunks, which means she's checking out the body and the eyes and the hair, etc. The haircuts are exactly the same, too! Of course, we are talking about the woman who can't see that Clark and Superman are the same person…but Clark went to great lengths to conceal his I.D. and act like two different people.

No, that's not a fatal flaw. I did find it improbable that Lois, wanting to investigate corruption, would approach the corrupt police force openly. That just doesn't gibe with the smart, mistrustful investigative reporter we know and love.

Syl takes a chance in writing a story like this before Dick Grayson even became a cop in the actual Nightwing series. Given such guts, I will not mark Syl down too many points for not knowing that Dick is hiding the fact that he's *THAT* Dick Grayson; really, there's only been one or two references to this in the actual series so far. Nonetheless, this fact does make Syl's story rather odd, as Dick Grayson not only blurts it out in front of his fellow police but he tells it to a REPORTER…who may very well run a "poor little rich boy" profile of the hunky Mr. Grayson in her paper and thus ruin Grayson's low profile!

The nuclear device is just a macguffin, of course…and I think it's out of place here. It doesn't fit in with Blockbuster's modus operandi, nor are we given a reason why he'd want one or what his plans are.

Let's face it…the plot is just a reason to get Lois and Dick together for a while. BUT, in contrast to the previous entry, "Girltalk", I must commend Syl for including a plot and some action around which to include the characters interaction. This story would look good on a comic book page, despite its flaws.

"Three Sumos and a Baby" and "The Beginning" by David Shock

BEWARE: This discusses major spoilers about the movie
"Project A-Ko"! If you ever want to enjoy that movie, look away because this gives away the ending! I MEAN IT!

Okay, here's the deal: all through the movie, there's this girl named A-Ko who has superpowers with no explanation whatsoever. After a while, we begin to suspect that she's an alien princess…but this is just a red herring. It's her friend who is the princess. At the end, with only a minute to go before the credits, we see A-Ko leaving her house. She rushes by her dad, a dark haired bespectacled man who's reading the "Daily Plenet" [sic], and her mom, a woman who looks like the pre-Crisis Diana Prince and is busy mending a blue uniform with a large "S" chevron on it.

For DC Fans, this is a GREAT joke. But that's all it is: a joke. It doesn't make too much sense if you start taking it seriously. Why would they let their daughter run around exhibiting superpowers? Why move to Japan, where their general caucasian-ness would stick out like sore thumbs? For that matter, why not name their daughter "Martha" or "Polly" or something? Why A-Ko? And why wouldn't Superman and Wonder Woman go into action when aliens start destroying their city?

As I say, you can't think too hard about this stuff…which is why it's a little hard to enjoy David's "take" on this. Going into detail about A-Ko's parents being Superman and Wonder Woman…treating the whole thing so seriously…it doesn't really work.

On the other hand, seeing A-Ko as an infant and a kindergartner does work. As a story, this is all pretty funny. And I must commend David Shock, whose quality of submissions (in terms of spelling and grammar) has dramatically improved of late!