Corners of the Core DC Universe

Bass

Nexus of the World
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So, a thought popped into my head.

Since the Ultimate universe is kinda like the core concepts of the Marvel universe, I was wondering what the core concepts of the DCU were, and it surprised me that while the Marvel universe is blocked into 5 groups, DC is only 4. That can't be right.

My thinking was that each "title" would have to focus on characters who are the stars of around two titles every week.

Spider-Man (Spidey has four regular titles a month, that's one a week, in which he is the solo star. Beyond that, he has his own Ultimate title, he is a major character in New Avengers, plus there are, it would seem, around two minis focusing on him or characters he's spawned every month.)

Fantastic Four (This is the Fantastic Four, as well as all the crazy-*** aliens they've encountered such as Silver Surfer, the Inhumans, and then even their villains get comics such as the Skrulls, Galactus - who gets his own trilogy, Doctor Doom, the Annihilation event, etc. It would seem every week there is at least one title focusing on the aliens and weird sci-fi worlds of the Marvel Universe and the F4 are poster-boys for that.)

Avengers (Captain America, Thor and the Asgardians, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Giant-Man, Wasp, etc. You've got these guys, the Thunderbolts and every other Avengers super team spin-off ever, Great Lakes Avengers, SHIELD, the Squadron Supreme, and then the huge number of time-spawning alternate universe villains they've encountered like Kang.)

X-Men (All the mutants; X-Factor, X-Force, X-Statix, Excalibur, the alternate futures, the Age of Apocalypse, Wolverine, etc. The X-Men of Marvel pretty much make up 50% of their weekly releases.)

Marvel Knights (Daredevil, Hulk, Luke Cage, Black Panther, Punisher, Dr Strange and the Defenders - these are the guys who regularly get minis or appear in their solo titles and no where else. There's always a couple a week.)

So Marvel gets five.

But DC gets four.

Batman (Batman gets four titles a month, plus All-Star Batman, then there's Robin, Nightwing, Huntress, Catwoman, Birds of Prey, Gotham Central - Gotham City is huge in the DCU.)

Superman (Superman also gets four titles a month, along with All-Star Superman, any number of minis, and then there's Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and the rest.)

DC All-Stars (This is the DCU equivalent of the Marvel Knights. Green Arrow, the Seven Soldiers of Victory, the Question, the Doom Patrol, Animal Man, the Green Lanterns, Aquaman, and so forth.)

Justice League (The JLA, the JSA, the Teen Titans, Martian Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, all those big crossovers like New Genesis and so forth.)

See what I mean?

This isn't a big point or anything, I'm not saying one is better than the other, it just occurred to me that if you see the Ultimate universe as a boiled down version of the Marvel universe, they could tell any story involving any character they want with 5 titles, while the DCU could do it with 4.

Unless I'm missing one (other than Wildstorm) so I turn it over to those who are bigger DC fans than I am - am I missing a corner of the DCU?

To be a corner this has to be a group of linked characters (in some way) who regularly appear in more than one title a week. The New Gods are cool, but they're stories are obviously a part of the star-spanning adventures of the Justice League (or even Superman).

Is there a 5th DCU corner?
 
Bass said:
Is there a 5th DCU corner?

Vertigo? Or is that basically the same as "DC All Stars"?
 
E said:
Vertigo? Or is that basically the same as "DC All Stars"?
Vertigo's touchy. Some characters, like John COnstantine, The Endless, Swamp Thing and the like started in the DCU proper, but were eventualy shifted over into thier own independent line. Now they can still appear in minstream DC books (See JSA right before OYL for Sandman, Swamp Thing was mentioned in Batman recently) but none of the DC characters can go to thier books. Except The Floronic Man. He goes wherever he pleases. :evil:
 
Nah, Vertigo and Wildstorm are imprints. As Baxter says, some Vertigo guys are in the DCU, but too much of it is independent, non-DCU related stories to make it a 'corner'. It's just the DCU, not DC comics, if that makes sense.
 
She is essentially, Superwoman. She shows up in the JLA, her solo title, and is always around Superman. She's definately not a "core" part of the DCU, despite what DC would like us to believe. If she was, we'd have Wonder Woman, Amazing Wonder Woman, Uncanny Wonder Woman, and Action Comics featuring Wonder Woman, as well as All-Star Wonder Woman. Which we don't. She gets as much screen time as Flash.
 
Bass said:
She is essentially, Superwoman. She shows up in the JLA, her solo title, and is always around Superman. She's definately not a "core" part of the DCU, despite what DC would like us to believe. If she was, we'd have Wonder Woman, Amazing Wonder Woman, Uncanny Wonder Woman, and Action Comics featuring Wonder Woman, as well as All-Star Wonder Woman. Which we don't. She gets as much screen time as Flash.
A little less, I'd say. Short of the latest JLA Classified arc she hasn't done anything outside of her solo title worht reading. Atleast The Flash shows up to hang out sometimes.
 
Yeah, maybe... but it strikes me all the cosmic stuff is generally the purview Justice League.

I could be wrong however. I mean, what titles would be considered, "The Cosmic Stuff"? What would such a title contain?
 
Marvel has one corner of a solo character, DC has two.
 
What about magic users? This would draw in a lot of Vertigo characters that are nominally on the periphery of the major heroes' exploits, but not all. Mister E, Sandman, John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Zatanna... In short, the group of characters who have wicked cult adventures.
 
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Bass said:
Yeah, but wouldn't these guys be all part of the DC All-Stars?
I would say so. He's organizing them in terms of number of comics and spin off. most of the cosmic and magic usually would only have one isse with them at a time
 
Well in the Marvel universe, the 4 Ultimate Titles basically focus on 4 different type of adventures.

Spidey- Street level, common crooks
Ultimates - Major threats to the world
Fantastic Four - Sci Fi
X-Men - Mutants

I wouldnt have a clue with DC, but im thinking Justice League deals with all those above threats (minus Mutants).
Every major hero DC has has been in the Justice League as far as i know. So as a group they deal with Sci Fi and Major Threats, and as individuals they deal with street level common crooks.
Therefore DC only has 1 or 2 corners....
 
Nurhachi said:
Well in the Marvel universe, the 4 Ultimate Titles basically focus on 4 different type of adventures.

Spidey- Street level, common crooks
Ultimates - Major threats to the world
Fantastic Four - Sci Fi
X-Men - Mutants

I wouldnt have a clue with DC, but im thinking Justice League deals with all those above threats (minus Mutants).
Every major hero DC has has been in the Justice League as far as i know. So as a group they deal with Sci Fi and Major Threats, and as individuals they deal with street level common crooks.
Therefore DC only has 1 or 2 corners....
*gasp*

I think this may be the first time Nur has ever mentioned DC without bashing it. The Apocolypse is near!
 
You've connected all of the All-Star comics, while there are definitely two corners there...

Firstoff, Wonder Woman should be considered an Justice League character (her book is nothing like a Superman title)... but lets go all out here and really categorize every book that will be printed in the DC Universe this July.

BATMAN (aka, Gotham Books)
- Batman
- Detective Comics
- All Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder
- Catwoman
- Robin
- Nightwing
- Batman: Journey Into Knight
- Batman: Secrets
- Man-Bat
- Superman/Batman
- Birds of Prey

SUPERMAN
- All Star Superman
- Superman
- Action Comics
- Supergirl
- Superman/Batman
- Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes

JUSTICE LEAGUE
- Justice League of America
- Teen Titans
- 52
- The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive
- JLA: Classified
- JSA
- JSA: Classified
- Wonder Woman
- Ion
- Green Lantern
- Green Lantern Corps

ALL-STAR
- The All New Atom (Science)
- Green Arrow (Political/Action)
- Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre (Horror-Fantasy)
- Crisis Aftermath: Battle for Bludhaven (Political/Action)
- Aquaman: The Sword of Atlantis (Fantasy)
- 52 (everything)
- Blood of the Demon (Horror)
- Blue Beetle (Fantasy)
- Checkmate (Political/Espionage)
- Firestorm: the Nuclear man (Science)
- Hawkgirl (Fantasy)
- OMAC (Science/Cosmic)
- Manhunter (Political/Action)
- Outsiders (Political/Action)
- Secret Six (Political/Action)
- Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters (Political/Action)
- Shadowpact (Fantasy)
- The Warlord (Fantasy)

So that is pretty easy to split up, actually, because there are two distinctly different types of books set in the DCU today...

POLITICS & SCIENCE BASED COMICS (aka Based on Real World Situations)
- Crisis Aftermath: Battle For Bludhaven
- Checkmate
- Green Arrow
- Firestorm
- Manhunter
- Outsiders
- Secret Six
- The All New Atom
- OMAC
- Uncle Sam and His Freedom Fighters

FANTASY AND SPACE FANTASY (aka Not at all Based on Real World Situations)
- Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre
- Aquaman: The Sword of Atlantis
- Blood of the Demon
- Blue Beetle
- Hawkgirl
- Shadowpact
- The Warlord

The real world realm of characters would also include The Question, The old Blue Beetle, Elongated Man, The Creeper (getting a new series in August), Gotham Central (because that book is more than just another bat-book), and the Birds of Prey (which REALLY isn't a Bat-Book anymore).

The Fantasy corner would be filled with space characters like The New Gods, Probably all of the Green Latern books (The books don't even deal with the GL who was on the JLA anyways), Alan Strange, Some Wonder Woman (it depends on the writer) and then on the more fantasy side the big one that's coming out soonafter this list was taken from is the Trials of SHAZAM! series.

So how's that?
 
That's comprehensive, indeed. Cheers, DSF.

So it would appear that there are enough titles of material to warrant two distinct corners to the "All-Star" section of DC.

That being the case, what would you title those sections if there were an Ultimate DC line? (for lack of a better term)

"DC All-Stars" would be which, the political or the cosmic, and the other would be called what?
 
Probably All-Stars for the Political stuff...

And then probably something cool and magic sounding for the fantasy stuff.

I'll think about it
 

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