DC Comics

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DC Comics, proper name Detective Comics, is the oldest of the two most popular comics companies of all time. If you haven't heard of them, you've been living under a real rock. They are iconic for their work in the Supers genre.

Universe

The DC Comics universe mostly defines itself by a "Supergods" motif; its characters tend to be extraordinarily powerful and it views their adventures in a largely "neo-mythical" light. Whilst it does have its share of street-level heroes, most of its heroes are battling interplanetary or cosmic threats, especially when they team up. In general, DC's universe is closer to the Silver Age in general feel, with an emphasis on aliens, monsters, hyperscience and colorful heroes battling the aforementioned.

Except for the Vertigo imprint, which is more of a grimdark branch of the universe and, perhaps coincidentally, focuses more on its magical and horror elements.

Brief IRL History

• 1930s: Dawn: In 1938 Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster publish Action Comics no. 1 introducing the world to Superman. It's a smash hit and soon other guys try their luck with the basic formula, such as Batman in '39.
• 1940s: The Golden Age: Superhero comics get a big boost due to the wartime propaganda. Nazis are punched, Japanese people get dehumanized and people and the message is spread to buy war bonds and save scrap iron. After the war they remain popular. Big names like Wonder Woman, Aquaman and the Flash show up. Occasionally they team up. Comics remain super popular post war, as do the characters.
• 1950s: Setback due to a moral panic.
• 1960s:
• 1970s:
• 1980s:
• 1990s:

Notable Supers

Superman

Considered the original superhero (although he actually built on tropes that had appeared in early pulp novels), Superman is famous; the last survivor of the alien planet Krypton, whose parents managed to launch him to Earth in an escape shuttle before Krypton's core destabilized and the planet exploded. Raised by good-hearted farmers in the Kansas village of Smallville, he dedicates himself to fighting for truth, justice, and liberty for all.

He is perhaps most infamous as the most absurdly overpowered character in comics, with an arsenal of abilities that includes flight, superhuman strength, nigh invulnerability, ocular heat rays, superhuman hearing, superhuman speed, x-ray vision and a freezing breath weapon. Ironically, he actually started out as relatively small powered; in the original comics, Superman's powers stemmed from his species having evolved on a planet with significantly higher gravity than Earth - as a result, on Earth, Superman's strength was far greater than any human, and the durable biology needed to resist the pressure made most human-level threats insignificant. He couldn't even fly originally, but instead his superhuman strength let him run at incredible speeds and leap huge distances. The very first cartoons gave him the ability to fly for dramatic effect, and that as where it started. In particular, he lost the "heavyworlder" origin and instead his powers became something his alien biology could only do if he charged up on solar energies from a yellow sun, whilst a popular radio drama introduced his most iconic vulnerability in the form of Kryptonite, the radioactive remnants of his homeworld.

We have a seperate article about him, mainly because his fame is partly separate from the DCU.

Ironically, compared to Batman, he has the smallest "family" of superpowered knock-offs, mostly consisting of his cousin, Supergirl, and his super-powered dog, Krypto. There's also Power Girl, an alternate dimension's version of Supergirl mostly known for her huge rack who crossed over into the mainstream dimension and stayed there after her own was destroyed, and in the Silver Age Supergirl had two super-powered pets; Streaky the super-cat and Comet the super-horse... who was actually a centaur accidentally transformed into a horse and then given immortality and other super powers to make up for it by the witch who did it. He actually had a Bronze Age revamp which was even sillier. Most of these were excised from continuity after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, since it was decided Superman should be the Last Son of Krypton and not the penultimate one. Only Supergirl and Power Girl surviving, but both stuck with increasingly odd new origins (shit like "merged with some quasi-angel" and "daughter of a sorcerer whose son from the future then impregnated her with himself") before everyone just gave up and restored their original ones, though the restrictions lasted long enough that some alternate universes gave Supergirl non-Kryptonian origin (such as DCAU's making her a girl from the planet Argo, which was unable to support life due to collateral damage from Krypton's destruction, that survived due to suspended animation)s. During the Death of Superman arc, four copies popped up:Steel (vigilante who fought with powered armor and a giant hammer after being inspired by Superman and openly not Superman. Has a really, really bad movie starring Shaquille O'Neal.), Superboy (imperfect teenage or younger clone of Supes), the Cyborg Superman (who quickly went nuts), and the Eradicator (a lost Kryptonian superweapon that's largely forgotten about now).

For decades, DC's official policy was that Kryptonians aren't cross-fertile with humans and avoided introducing introducing a Superbaby despite Clark Kent being married to Lois Lane for several years. This would be changed when one of their regular continuity shattering events undid the retarded New 52 and brought back the old continuity. After this, the main Earth's Clark and Lois had a son, Jon, while they were off screen and he's now ~10+ish. Despite needing a retcon to exist, Jon was well loved due to good writing, especially his father-son relationship with his dad and friendship with Damian Wayne as the "Super Sons", and that he struggles to control his powers instead of being a Mary Sue. Naturally Brian Micheal Bendis set out to destroy all that when DC went full retard and hired him despite all his then recent material showing he had clearly gone crazy and was no longer capable of writing a decent comic.

Batman

Batman is most notable as the longest surviving and best known example of the original "costumed vigilante" type of superhero. In many ways, he is a direct continuation of the shadowy avengers and vigilantes that proliferated in pulp fiction; even his backstory as a wealthy man who, traumatized by the murder of his parents by a mugger when was a child, dedicated himself to training body and mind before outfitting himself with useful gadgets to declare war on crime, is straight out of old pulps.

Whilst mostly associated with dark, brooding and depressing almost noir-esque tales from the Bronze and Dark Ages, there is one element of Silver Age Batman which has survived and prospered: his rogue's gallery. Back in the Silver Age, Batman in particular was prone to facing off villains built from what TVTropes calls "Idiosyncrazy" - weird gimmicks and themes around which an entire criminal identity and motif were formed. Whilst the most overtly silly rogues from this time were quietly shuffled off into retirement, the fact is that a number of villains actually made this trope work. Hence the Bat's colorful cast of crazed criminal creeps, from the murderously mirthful mad clown the Joker to the plant-controlling ecoterrorist femme fatale Poison Ivy to the puzzle-spouting Riddler and beyond. Indeed, so many of them survive Bane is notable for being one of the few recognizable Batman rogues not from that era.

We have a separate article about him, mainly because he's actually fairly influential on /tg/ stuff.

Despite usually being portrayed as a socially awkward and bitter loner, Batman ironically has the largest "family" of trainees and spin-off heroes in DC comics, if not in comics as a whole:

• Alfred Pennyworth: Bruce Wayne's butler, ala Zorro's Bernardo but capable of hearing and speech. At first just a butler who raised Bruce after Thomas and Martha's death that was in on the secret identity, his past has gradually been expanded to the point he might as well be a retired James Bond. Occasionally plays Batman when Bruce needs to in two places at once, and often the voice of reason due not being motivated by childhood trauma.
  • One interesting factor to notice: If Robin is not in the story, Alfred is usually a much more prominent character; this is because they effectively split the much needed "Watson" role: Somebody for the Detective (in this case Batman) to explain things to, so the audience (a) knows what's happening, and (b) is not being monologued at by said detective.
• Robin: The original Kid Sidekick, a brightly colored and cheerful youth who was introduced to add some contrast to the dark and brooding Batman. There have been at least five official Robins in mainstream continuity. While child sidekicks that aren't a character's biological child have largely gone away, Batman gets to keep his due how ancient and iconic Robin is.
  • Dick Grayson: The original and for most people the most iconic Robin. Orphaned son of a circus acrobat family called the Flying Graysons, adopted by Batman and then became the first Robin. Eventually split to become an adult superhero named Nightwing. Founder of the Teen Titans. The greatest acrobat in the "Batfamily"
  • Jason Todd: The second Robin, a former teen delinquent with a vicious streak (after initially being a carbon clone of Dick Grayson). Fans resented him for not being Dick Grayson, so he was infamously killed off by the Joker. Then he was brought back from the dead as a vengeful vigilante called the Red Hood, who is kind of like DC's Punisher, except he doesn't have anybody on the staff who's rooting for him or famous writers trying to push him as a Humanity Fuck Yeah style badass like Punisher does.
  • Tim Drake: The third Robin, who originally was not an orphan and instead saw his Robin-ing as a part-time thing to snap Batman out of his funk after Jason Todd was killed. Then his parents were killed and he became Batman's ward and permanent Robin. Founder of the Young Justice team. Was rebooted slightly in the New 52, where the biggest change was that he always called himself by the seperate identity of Red Robin (Yes, like the burger franchise) whilst sidekicking for Batman before going independent to Drake. The strongest contender to inherit the role of "World's Greatest Detective", able to deduce Batman's secret identity from his introduction.
  • Stephanie Brown: Notable as the only female teen sidekick of Batman to go by Robin instead of Batgirl. Highly controversial becase she was treated with incredible unfairness by Batman, including literally only being recruited in an attempt to make Time Drake jealous and return to being Robin, and then seemingly killed off.
  • Damian Wayne: The most recent Robin, and actually Batman's biological son conceived with long time antagonist/love interest Talia al'Ghul, causing him to be raised by the murderous League of Assassins. Has a much more brutal attitude as a result, and is basically Jason 2.0. You either love or hate the little shit. (Even many who love him consider him an asshole, just one who is very much a product of his peculiar upbringing.)
• Batwoman: A female counterpart to Batman introduced in the Silver Age after some schmuck famously accused Batman and Robin of promoting homsexuality and pedophilia (though the way "ambiguously gay duo" has been memed up in more recent years suggests it was closer than some of his other crackpot claims). Katherine "Kathy" Kane was introduced as a woman so in love with Bruce Wayne that, having figured out he was Batman, she created her own female counterpart persona to his to try and woo him. Got killed off in the Bronze Age. Was brought back in 2006, reinvented as a lesbian ex-soldier who was dishonorably discharged for her sexuality (which works horribly with the sliding timescale ) and who took up vigilanteism.
• Batgirl: Almost as long-running as the Robins have been the Batgirls, which are teenage female sidekicks of the Bat-family.
  • Betty Kane: The original Batgirl (or "Bat-Girl", as she was called), she was the neice of Kathy Kane, aka Batwoman, and was introduced as DicK Grayson's would-be love interest. Dropped in the Bronze Age alongside her aunt, and hasn't really come back since.
  • Barbara Gordon: The second Batgirl, the first to use the name without the hyphen, and the one everybody actually remembers. Daughter (sometimes niece) of Batman's ally, Police Commissioner James Gordon; created her own parody of Batman's costume as a costume for a masquerade ball, ended up using it and her acrobatic & judo training to take down a bunch of crooks who had attacked it. Thrilled by it all, she took up vigilantism herself. Had the longest run of any Batgirl, but was crippled by being shot in the back by the Joker in the 80s. Then was brought back as the heroic hacker and information broker "Oracle". Then was healed and restored to the Batgirl roll in 2011... which was controversial, but frankly makes sense given the stupidly powerful hyper-science in the DC universe. Seriously, when Iron Man was paralyzed by being shot by a psycho girlfriend, it lasted three issues before he had experimental spinal surgery to rebuild him and restore his legs.
  • Helena Bertinelli: A mobster's daughter turned Punisher-style vigilante known as the Huntress (not to be confused with , she briefly took up the Batgirl mantle during the "No Man's Land" event, before Batman forced her to go back to being Huntress because he couldn't stomach her willingness to use lethal force.
  • Cassandra Cain: Generally considered the second "real" Batgirl after Barbara Gordon. A mute assassin's daughter whose father brought her up to read body language with unparalleled skill, only for this to cause her first kill to so traumatize her that she foreswore killing ever again. Batman took her under his wing out of sympathy, making her the most Robin-like of the Batgirls.
  • Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe: A teenage girl with superpowers, notably teleportation, who took up Batgirl's mantle of her own initiative. Barbara Gordon tried to talk her out of it, but the best she could do was persuaded her to pursue her own identity as Misfit.
  • Stephanie Brown: That's right, the fourth Robin was ultimately brought back in modern reboots as a rookie Batgirl training under Cassandra Cain, who had grown into her own identity as Orphan. Ultimately gave up the Batgirl name and renamed herself Spoiler (which was her original nom de poing).
• Azrael: An escapee from a psychotic cult of religious fundamentalist assassins. Briefly took up Batman's mantle after Bane broke Batman's spine, but went completely off the walls due to long-buried trauma, forcing Bruce Wayne to beat him senseless and take back the role.
• Catwoman: A catburgler who regularly both goes against Batman (when stealing) and works with him (usually when either he needs saving, or some criminal has pissed her off); along with Talia al'Ghul (Damian's mother, and daughter of major baddie Ra's al'Ghul) and Vicky Vale (a reporter), one of Batman's most common Love Interests. Usually counted among Batman's allies, particularly when city-threatening situations come up.

Wonder Woman

Widely recognized as one of the very first superheroines, if not the first, Wonder Woman is a magical woman - a clay baby brought to life by the blessing of the Greek goddesses and then further imbued with their blessings as she aged - reared on the hidden paradise of Themyscira‎, home of the Amazons. After their isolation was broken by a male pilot crash landing on the island, she goes to "man's world" as an ambassador to spread a message of peace, love, tolerance and goodwill, but is more than willing to bash in the heads of villains to spread the good word.

Ironically, despite being considered one of "the big three" with Batman and Superman, Wonder Woman has long struggled to actually keep her titles afloat. This might have something to do with the fact that she is generally defined as "The Feminist Superheroine", and as such she has suffered a long string of silly, embarrassing or just plain stupid elements, alterations and revisions. This has less to do with her creator being a polygynous sexual deviant obsessed with bondage and femdom that also created the polygraph (the reason she was later given a lasso of truth), although that probably didn't help in hindsight, but the fact that too many authors try to use her to push their version of feminism, that her continued publication was originally not due to mass popularity (like Superman and Batman) but contractual complications on DC's part, and her personality is far too vague for such a major character causing it to vary wildly by writer.

The Flash

Jay Garrick is caught in a lab accident that turns him into the fastest man alive. One of the first "legacy heroes", with the Silver Age return of the name/powers using the new character Barry Allen instead of continuing the Jay Garrick of the Golden Age. The crossover the two versions would spawn the multiverse mess that's iconic to comics to this day. Usually a giant fucking nerd. Has gotten two TV series and is a regular Justice League member.

Green Lantern

Alan Scott was an engineer who survives a sabotage induced train wreck thanks to a ring that, unknown to him, was magic. He uses the ring to go after the guy responsible and becomes a superhero.

The revival in the 1959 reboot would change the man holding the title and, unlike Flash, the basic concept. Now Hal Jordan, a test pilot, receives the power ring from a dying alien and becomes a Lensman style space cop. Since then, the title character has changed a few times, and the series has become a playground for writers and artists looking to do trippy science fiction/science fantasy stuff with lots of weird aliens.

Both incarnations have had really lame weaknesses in comparison to their incredible power. Alan Scott was unable to effect things made of wood, while Hal Jordan and most of his successors can't impact anything that was yellow--although this was later changed to be possible to overcome, but only by accepting fear (Green, in Oan technology, being the color of Will, and Yellow being the color of Fear). Less weaksauce is the charge limitation: The ring needs recharging on a regular basis via a special Lantern (formerly, every local day, nowdays, it's like a cell phone battery--use more powerful programs, use that charge up faster).

Green Arrow

Batman rip-off but with a bow and arrow. Attempts to separate him from that, a shared series with Green Lantern (which existed for no other reason than the two characters with less than great sales having names starting with green) where the two butted heads over political issues and Robin Hood influence has gradually given him communist leanings. Got more popular after he a TV show that made him a slightly more willing-to-kill Batman, though it's often really easy to tell the writers wanted a Batman show but only had the Green Arrow license.

In many ways his sidekick Speedy is more notable than he is. The above mentioned shared series established him a drug addict (the writers wanted to avoid a character that existed only for the moral and show drugs weren't only a risk to "bad kids", plus nobody cared about him before that anyways so they could radically change his character with comparatively little pushback). Since then, he's undergone many wildly varied incarnations, many of the "dark and edgy" variety.

Aquaman

A Namor ripoff that has become better known than the original due to Marvel's refusal to include Namor in non-comics media... mostly because, unlike Aquaman, Namor is consistently characterized as an arrogant asshole. The lame Superfriends cartoon made an entire generation consider him a joke character since the restriction on violence, bad writing, and sharing many powers with the rest of the group led to his main uses being swimming and talking to fish, ignoring the superhuman strength and endurance that lets him operate at the crushing depths of the ocean. He has gradually lost stigmata due to writers going out of their way to show how awesome he really is in response. Has a movie.

Captain Marvel

Billy Batson was an orphaned twelve year old living with a miserly, abusive, uncle that kept him around to leach off his inheritance. One day he wandered onto a train that took him to a wizard that gave him the magic power to transform into the adult-bodied Captain Marvel by shouting "SHAZAM!", gaining the Wisdom of Solomon, Endurance of Atlas, power of Zeus, the Courage of Achilles and the speed of Mercury in the process. If Captain Marvel is merely Billy in a buff magical alternate form or a separate person entirely has varied over the years, though modern incarnations go with the first. Billy is perhaps the earliest child superhero that wasn't under adult leadership.

Billy would later have a lost sister, Mary, appear. Unlike her brother, saying SHAZAM! instead transforms Mary into Mary Marvel, whose only difference compared to Mary is her outfit (to the point Mary can bluff having transformed by simply wearing a costume). When transformed, she gains the Grace of Selena, Strength of Hippolyta, Skill of Ariadne, Speed of Zephyrus, Beauty of Aurora, and Wisdom of Minerva. Since Hippolyta was already taken in the DC universe as Wonder Woman's mom and the problems of giving a young girl supernatural beauty, the different empowering entities was dropped post-crisis. The girl transforming into a superpowered magic form makes her a very early example of a Mahou Shoujo. In the past having both Billy and Mary empowered at the same time split their powers.

Originally not a DC property at all and instead the property of Fawcett Comics. The similarity in abilities to Superman led to legal brawls, but eventually Fawcett saw Superheroes falling in popularity and decided to get out of the game by selling their properties to DC. After this he started crossing over with the DC universe and was incorporated into it proper after the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Captain Marvel's interaction with Superman is of note because while their powers and, in many ways, personality (childlike innocence vs. honest boyscout) are very similar, the slight differences make a really big impact (one of the biggest being Captain Marvel's powers are magic, traditionally one of Superman's weaknesses).

Has a movie. On the plus side it sticks really close to the comics instead of changing things for stupid reasons. On the negative side, it sticks really close to the "New 52" version of the comics. (Then again, the age-shifting and multiple sidekicks aspect of Captain Marvel was always the most interesting bits of the character, so getting to the latter in the first movie makes a lot of sense.)

Has the dubious dishonor of sparking a long-running feud with Marvel Comics over a similarly named series of characters that DC ultimately lost, forcing a rebranding of the guy as "Shazam".

John Constantine

The Wizard-as-Con-Man poster boy. John rarely actually does magic, and instead tricks his enemies into doing what he wants. Was for a long time kept in a sort of limbo, because he was a "mature audiences" (back when that meant "violence and cursing", rather than just sex) character. Has since become part of the main DCU, although usually in the background. Famously (1) bisexual (2) winds up accidentally killing all his friends (although there's usually some bad juju that Constantine is trying to disarm happening at the same time involved), and (3) committed his first murder before he had left the womb (his twin--and if certain in-universe theories are to be believed, also marking the first time John saved the world with a murder).

The Justice League

The biggest and most notable superhero team in the DC universe, made up of all its best and brightest. The precise backstory varies between iterations, but generally boils down to Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and whichever other "big name" DC heroes the writers feel like promoting (there's usually a Flash and/or a Green Lantern onboard) hooking up to face some massive threat that proves too much for any single one of them to handle alone and then deciding "hey, teamwork rocks, and it's actually nice to hang out with other people who get this crazy costumed do-gooder shit; let's do this again!" and founding a team.

The Justice Society of America is an equivalent organization made up of Golden Age (aka, World War 2) superheroes and/or their proteges. Sometimes may exist in an entirely separate branch of the multiverse.

Teen Titans

A Justice League knock-off made up of younger superheroes and former sidekicks. The original version was made up of the five most famous sidekicks of the Silver Age; Robin (Dick Grayson), Kid Flash (Wally West, who later became The Flash), Wonder Girl (Wonder Woman's sidekick whom nobody remembers these days aside from being a continuity clusterfuck), Speedy (Green Arrow's Robin rip-off) and Aqualad (Aquaman's sidekick). This version didn't do very well. Then the New Teen Titans came out in the Bronze Age, and this is the team that everybody remembers; Robin returned to lead, and brought Wonder Girl and Kid Flash back, before fleshing it out with Beast Boy (green animal shapeshifter and former sidekick to the Doom Patrol), Cyborg (Afro-American teen turned into a cyborg by his father after an experiment hideously mutilated him), Raven (angsty half-demon Goth psychic), and Starfire (gorgeous alien flying brick).

The New Teen Titans, aside from being much darker and edgier than the original team (with a high death rate to match), also inspired the two Teen Titans cartoons of the 2000s (save that both dropped Kid Flash and Wonder Girl as main characters).

Static

Nerd Virgil Hawkins is pressured to go to an upcoming gang meet and shoot one of his tormentors. He rejects the temptation but the meet soon turns into a war and police deploy an experimental marker they believe will mark gang members to be tracked down later. This winds up giving a lot of people superpowers, Virgil included, or killing them instead. As a comic nerd granted electricity powers in a city that now has a bunch of superpowered criminals, he naturally becomes a superhero. Much like fellow teen hero Spider-Man, he enjoys mocking his enemies to throw them off guard.

One of the many, many black males with electric powers. Originally part of the Milestone imprint and its separate canon, Static proved to be by far to be the most interesting and popular character from the line. While it's not that big an accomplishment (note the distant second, Icon, managing to be an interesting person dragged down by horrifically bland powers), he managed get an animated series (originally in its own canon but later clumsily merged into the DCAU despite previously mentioning DC heroes as fictional characters) which propelled him to mainstream popularity.

Cartoons, Shows and Movies

Much like their rivals at Marvel Comics, DC has always been willing to try porting its characters from comic book to film, live action serial, or cartoon. In fact, they are much more willing than Marvel in many ways, with an enormous library of live action serials and cartoons starting as early as the 1950s (Adventures of Superman in 1952) and 1960s (their first cartoons, and the legendarily campy Adam West-led Batman serial, began in 1966).

Most of these works have been kind of forgotten, although in their heyday serials like the 1960s Batman or the early 2000s Smallville (a drama series based on Clark Kent's teenage years) were really big. The most well-known of DC's vast library of early cartoons is, sadly, "Superfriends", a legendarily stupid cartoon based on the Justice League, but toned way down.

DC Animated Universe

When it came to cartoons, DC hit the ground running; from 1966 to 1992, there were very few years in which there wasn't at least one DC cartoon on the airwaves! But they didn't make much of a hit, especially due to the tendency to focus on being "kid friendly" by being very dumbed down and aimed at really young kids.

Then came 1992's "Batman: The Animated Series", and that all changed. It was the first in a new cartoon universe, which expanded in 1996 with "Superman: The Animated Series", and was followed up with Batman Beyond and Justice League (as well as "The Zeta Project", a forgotten spin-off to Batman Beyond). Aided by a number of explicit tie-in animated films, which were widely regarded as better than their live action counterparts of the time, this was the DC Animated Universe.

What made it different? In a nutshell, more mature storytelling: the DCAU treated its audience as having the ability to handle things that were darker and heavier than the campy Silver Age fun of the 1960s, and wrote accordingly. Batman TAS featured lots of pathos, with dramatic, often tragic storylines and even adding a layer of sympathy to its villains. Before Batman TAS, Mr. Freeze was just a goofy villain of the week; a mad scientist who used a freeze ray to rob banks. Batman TAS reinvented him as a mutated cryogenic scientist who could never interact with the human world again due to needing super-low temperatures to survive and whose only motivation was to cure his wife's fatal illness so she could be removed from her cryogenic slumber. Even the lighter and softer Superman TAS often had dark themes to it, and once Justice League came out as the official sequel to both Batman TAS and Superman TAS, with Batman Beyond as a sequel to both Batman TAS and Justice League, whoa did things get grim and gritty!

The reason these five cartoons (seven, if you count "The New Batman Adventures" - the later seasons of Batman TAS with a new artstyle, and "Justice League Unlimited", the later seasons of Justice League, as being different cartoons) came to be known as the DCAU was simple: connectivity. Whereas Marvel's cartoons of the 90s would occasionally have characters from different franchises show up for interactions with the hero of their series (Spiderman TAS had appearances by the X-Men, Iron Man and Ben Grim from the Fantastic Four, for example), the DCAU went out of its way to establish that their worlds would be connected. Plots and characters from one series would be directly referenced in a later series, with Justice League and Batman Beyond in particular frequently invoking storythreads left dangling by their precursor series.

After the DCAU ended in 2004, DC went on to create new cartoons, dropping the shared universe concept entirely. However, these cartoons of the mid 2000s did take some lessons from the DCAU, even the lighter and softer ones like "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" (which was essentially a cartoon equivalent to the Silver Age Batman of the 1960s serial), Teen Titans or "The Batman".

Arrowverse

DC did quite a few TV serials from the 1950s onwards, although with the exception of the ten-year-long Smallville series, these shows tended to be fairly short-lived "flash in the pan" affairs, lasting from 1-6 years on average. Then came 2012's "Arrow".

The idea was simple: take a B-lister character, Green Arrow, and then exploit that character's lack of an established fanbase compared to the likes of Batman or Superman to do something more experimental. The result was to lean back on Arrow's "Left-Wing Archer Batman" characterization and throw in a dash of the Punisher; "Arrow" revolved around Oliver Queen taking up the costumed identity of the Green Arrow to become a vigilante avenger, tracking down and killing criminals connected to a conspiracy that had killed his father and almost killed him. He slowly built up a vigilante team, softened his methods, and basically exploded in popularity, going from a media nobody to a media darling.

That opened the floodgates for other series set in the same universe. In 2014, "The Flash" would debut, being established as living in the same world as Oliver Queen and his Arrow team - the two superheroes would even team up in some crossover episodes. Then things began to expand. 2015's "Supergirl" focused on the titular female Kryptonian, bringing the Martian Manhunter in as her ally, and then established her as native to one of the alternate dimensions in this new DC multiverse when she crossed paths with the Flash. 2016 would bring in "The Legion of Tomorrow", a team of time-traveling second-string characters from Oliver Queen's dimension. 2018's "Black Lightning" and 2019's "Batwoman" would finish the direct members of the Arrowverse.

At the same time as the Arrowverse was taking shape, however, DC was also airing a number of other TV serials that were, at least originally, not connected to the Arrowverse. These included Gotham (a take on the Batman story focusing on Gotham during Bruce Wayne's childhood and with future-Police Commissioner Gordon as the protagonist), Krypton (a two-season story about Superman's parents), and others. Several of these shows - Titans, Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, and Stargirl - would later be established as being "Arrowverse Adjacent", taking place in the Arrowverse multiverse but not in the dimensions of either Arrow or Supergirl. Several of the more well-received historical DC tv shows would also be retconned into being part of the Arrow multiverse as well, including the legendary Smallville.

Whilst on the surface the Arrowverse was inspired by Marvel's idea to do tie-in serials to the MCU based on B-tier and lower characters, in fact, DC actually beat them to the punch; the earliest MCU tie-in serial, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D", didn't debut until 2013, and the others releasing between 2015 to 2017.

DC Extended Universe

DC has been doing movies for a long time. Their first film was 1951's "Superman and the Mole Men", a glorified pilot for the 1952 TV show. But for most of their history, their films tended to follow a formula of being Superman or Batman films that built up a universe of sequels and then ultimately crashed as they got progressively crappier, only to be rebooted. There are a number of non-Supes/Bats films in their "old school" library, but they tend to be forgotten as they often aren't very good.

Then came 2013, and with the Marvel Cinematic Universe in full swing, DC tried to catch up by launching their own equivalent film-based universe. The general consensus, however, is that... they failed. Oh, they established a universe alright, but nobody really cares, because the films tend to be largely seen as... bad, due to a combination of just inherently bad plots, bad acting, and the obvious attempt to forcibly create a counterpart to the MCU, rather than letting things emerge more organically. There are exceptions - generally considered as Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Shazam - but for many DC fans, the DCEU is considered something of an embarrassment.

It should be added that the name "DC Extended Universe" originated as a joke: The studio refused to label the universe they were creating, so one Entertainment Weekly writer joking named it that, and the name rapidly spread from there. By the time Justice League had come out, WB had settled on "the Justice League Universe", but the DCEU name had stuck, to the point that that's what HBOMax (Warner Brother's streaming platform) calls the franchise.

/tg/ Relevance

There have been a number of roleplaying games tied into the DC universe released for players.

One of them was a reskin of 3rd Edition Mutants and Masterminds with no mechanical changes, just the examples changed to use DC characters.

A better-regarded example was DC Heroes, one of a handful of games to use the Mayfair Exponential Gaming System. Essentially, each point of stat is an exponential increase over the one before it, which helps explain, say, how Batman could last for more than a microsecond in a physical contest with Superman. Thanks to the nature of 90's game design, there are way too many granular powers (each random element has got an associated blast as well as energy blast), and if you don't know what you're doing the combat is an incoherent mass of charts. That said, if you do know what you're doing (or if there's someone around to provide training wheels on the experience), it's a great time and does a better job of keeping to the feeling of a comic book than many games of its ilk.