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Oh yeah, I remember in Final Crisis they had a version of Prime from the Ultraverse comics. He was called Principal.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=26095

A preview for the Mastermen issue this week.

Including pirate New Teen Titans and Hitler shaking hands with the president.

Oh my God! I knew this was bothering me for a reason.

One of the comics seen in the Mastermen preview is for "American Crusader." He's the Captain America stand in from Earth-8.

The comic Hitler has is clearly the "Golden Age" American Crusader, but guys, it's a combination of Captain America and the ACTUAL American Crusader. The one who belongs to the Public Domain and was used in Tom Strong.

http://pdsh.wikia.com/wiki/American_Crusader

Yay! I noted the use of the name back when he was introduced, so I'm glad they did something with it!

What's really disturbing about the Flash of this Earth being called Blitzen is that there WAS a character called Blitzen.

From Milestone.

And she was an Asian-American queer speedster in a relationship with a woman whose grandfather was a Nazi scientist.

Pretty by-the-numbers issue, for me. It was still a good story and interesting to see the Sivanna subplot still chugging along, but it wasn't as awesome as the previous few months worth of stuff.

Morrison struggles a little bit by having Overman feel the guilt of the regime, but trying not to make him as heinous as the rest of the Nazis (He was conveniently off-planet during the Holocaust). Still, Overman's eventual betrayal of the Reich leads to even worse consequences. I would also have preferred more Freedom Fighters. It was a neat story, it just didn't blow my socks off.

You know what I really liked though?

In that scene where Overman is dreaming and holding his cousin's dead body?

The corpses that were on the ground were the Earth-10 JLA from Countdown. The ones that were just the regular Justice League with swastikas on their costumes. I just, I thought that was kind of hilarious.

Yeah, I was kind of unimpressed by this issue as well. I think the choice to focus on Overman rather than the Freedom Fighters was a mistake.

I'll be honest, I did think the story was a little underwhelming. They could've added some more meat to it, maybe a flashback with Overgirl alive, more focus on the other Reichsmen, and of course the Freedom Fighters.

I enjoyed the little touches though. The character designs, especially the Freedom Fighters. They bothered to take into consideration that these guys most likely wouldn't have new and clean costumes what with the world they're forced to live in. It seems my observation from the Guidebook was right. The New Reichsmen always had this dullness towards them while the Freedom Fighters were much more brighter. I was surprised to see a Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Red Tornado. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if his name was actually Red Zyklon. I've noticed in every book that had a Justice League, there's a Red Tornado character. Earth-23 had one, Earth-16 had Red Amazo, and now we have this guy.

Considering Blitzen is on the cover of Multiversity #2, I wonder if she'll be drafted in the House of Heroes. Or how she'll react to meeting President Superman.

As mentioned above, I liked the nod towards Countdown and wonder if that was Morrison signifying the continuity change. Also, I can't believe I missed this way back in Final Crisis, but he has a nod towards the FIRST Overman from Animal Man. In Animal Man, they said all the other heroes from Overman's world where clones grown from his stem cells. And it's later said that Overgirl WAS a clone grown from stem cells, with the possibility that they can make more.

Oh crap! Guys, I was re-reading the issue, and that page I keep mentioning with the JL Axis?

MONARCH is in that page.

You can see him in the lower left hand corner, next to the panel of Overman waking up. He's under a piece of wreckage.

I just thought there was some tremendous missed opportunities. The Freedom Fighters' plan obviously involved massive amounts of civilian casualties. How did they feel about that? Was it justified? If most "Germericans" were three generations removed from Nazi atrocities that founded their society, are they still culpable? If so, the First Nations people would like a word with you. I know Morrison is setting these up as if they were springboards, but the reality is they likely won't be followed up on. So rather than just hinting at these kinds of things, I would have wanted a bit more exploration.

This was the worst of the bunch for me. Multiversity is one of the few books I'll pick up without skimming through, even though this issue's art isn't to my tastes.

That left the story to do a bit more than usual which as far as the rest of the series have been, should have been fine but ... this issue wasn't even really about much to me.

boo. hiss.

I wasn't expecting to like Mastermen as much as the others but I was pleasantly surprised. The story itself is timely geo-political commentary. What if the United States were not the Western Empire we know, but instead is a vanquished people rising up by means of "terrorism"? How do the patriotic ideals of the New Reichsmen echo the words and the emotions of our Western nations when they are attacked by terrorists?

A well-done story. I liked the art too.

Someone did an analysis of Mastermen that covers Der Ring des Nibelungen allusions found in the structure.

http://judedeluca.tumblr.com/post/112272297887/the-ring-of-the-mastermen-der-ring-des-nibelungen

So I've decided to cut out Vertigo and Wildstorm as separate Earths, if only because... well, when Flashpoint combined everything, I was mad because there was never an actual Vertigo Earth, and I don't like the idea that the only way someone like Kate Godwin can exist is only if she's on a separate world from the "true" DC Universe. Making an actual Vertigo Earth would just validate the decision to treat it all as if it never happened on the main DC Earth to begin with.

Hey, what if instead of coming up with another pastiche Earth for some other company, there's a single Earth that's like a dumping ground for alternate company stand ins for the DC characters? Valiant, Red Circle, Impact, Eclipse, Harvey, Atlas, Zenescope, Dark Horse, Dynamite, Innovation, and the world is broken up into different war zones?

They could all be leftovers from the previous crisis events, and the Monitors didn't know what to do because there were too many of them, so they tried restructuring an Earth to insert all of them together?

The one clear idea I can think of for this at the moment are versions of Wonder Woman and Troia based on Trina Robbins' "California Girls" from Eclipse. Di and Don, the Themyscira Girls.

Earth-Prime sure is strange.

Considering we all LIVE on Earth-Prime you're actually surprised?

I found this issue oddly disappointing as well. Maybe too much build-up? I don't know. I just expected something balls-to-the-wall awesome from it, and it didn't really deliver for me.

I was surprised that Ultra's enemy in this book was his past iteration, Ultraa. That I wasn't expecting.

You are only saying that because you became infected reading the book and are part of the Oblivion Machine. Thanks EDE, you've doomed us all.

I knew it was him! I know I was definitely pulling my weight when I was Ultra Comics.

Oh my God. I just realized that the adult characters Ultra Comics fought against are variants of characters with "Ultra" in their name.

Ultra-Man, Ultraa, Ultra the Multi-Alien...

Yep, though I was surprised Morrison left out Ultraman (though he's used him a little too frequently in the past) and Ultra Boy (Though maybe a villainous turn for Jo just wasn't a good idea here).

My guess is they would've made the joke too obvious.