Nightwing and Puck

 

Nightwing previously faced off against The Ringmaster with The Roustabouts in STF #2410, and with Nightcrawler way back in STF #68...

Mister Miracle and 4 Famous Co-Stars

 

I used to like the Marvel Team-Up annuals that would have a truly random assemblage of heroes gather together for an adventure.  This is my take on that concept.  I can see The Ringmaster in the middle of his latest plot, unaware that the audience includes a handful that are ready to fight back.

Wildcat and The Blonde Phantom (Vs. The Ringmaster!)

 

The Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime may never have hit A-Level super-villain status, but I always enjoyed when they would show up in the comics.  I don't know if we'll ever see them appear in the MCU.   Maybe an appearance on one of their streaming series might work. Maynard Tiboldt would certainly be a fun role for an actor to dive into

Wildcat first met the Blonde Phantom in STF #3826...

Tigra and Cat-Man (Part 6 of 7)

 

In the penultimate chapter of our week-long tale, we see that the master that Tigra was referring to is none other that the villainous Ringmaster!  No wonder these sworn enemies are working together again.  Let's hope they can get out from under his thrall in time for tomorrow's final chapter!

Howard the Duck and The Flash

 

Speculation but possible SPOILERS for the FLASH movie follow:

From set footage and cryptic comments by actors, the villain for the upcoming Flash movie is becoming clear and it's kind of a surprising one.  I had assumed The Reverse Flash would be involved somehow, but it looks like they are going in a slightly different direction by having Barry Allen dealing with a duplicate of himself.  We have seen the stand-in sharing scenes, dressed to look identical to Ezra Miller (except with yellow lining on his sneaker rather than the Red that Miller is wearing, hmmm...).  I'm not sure how I feel about this - I am not a big fan of Miller in the title role, so two of him doesn't really help things in my eyes.  Still, this is all speculation, we probably won't get any concrete answers until the DC Fandome presentation in a few months.

The Roustabouts in: "Rule of the Ringmaster"

This is the third appearance of The Roustabouts on this blog.  They were last seen recruiting Deadman in STF #2010, and first appeared in STF #1810. The last time around, more than one commenter thought they should tangle with The Ringmaster, and I had to agree that it was a natural subject for a follow up - so here you go!

Nightwing and Nightcrawler previously tangled with The Ringmaster in STF #28...

Nightwing and Nightcrawler

I am split when it comes to Nightwing.  On one hand, it has been interesting to watch his evolution from teen sidekick to solo adult hero, which gives him an interesting perspective on things.  Then again, the aging and eventual abandonment of the Robin identity in New Teen Titans set forth a domino effect in the DCU.  By aging Dick Grayson, you had to age all the Teen Titans, which aged all of the mentors even more.  Before long we had multiple Robins, Kid Flashes, and Wonder Girls running around and things got a bit confusing and clunky.   I thought that some of the original sidekicks would be de-aged in the rebooted DCU when I heard that the characters were supposed to only have been around for five years, but now it makes even less sense to me now.  Batman has had 4 robins in five years?

Is Nightcrawler still dead?  I've seen solicitations recently which seem to include him but for all I know that  may be some alternate reality Kurt Wagner.  Sheesh, comics were never this hard to follow when I was a kid!