The DC Universe is a fictional shared universe where most stories in American comic book titles published by DC Comics take place. In context, the term "DC Universe" usually refers to the main DC continuity. It contains various superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, and Aquaman; as well as teams such as the Justice League, the Suicide Squad, and the Teen Titans. It also contains well-known supervillains, including the Joker, Lex Luthor, Brainiac, the Reverse-Flash, and Darkseid.
Beyond the main continuity, the DC Multiverse encompasses all alternate realities within DC Comics. The primary universe has been known by various names over time, with recent designations including "Prime Earth" or "Earth 0" (distinct from "Earth Prime"). The DC Universe and its alternate realities have been adapted across multiple media, including film serials, radio dramas, and modern films, with ongoing efforts to address the complex continuity through streamlined storylines and events.
History
Golden Age
The fact that DC Comics characters coexisted in the same world was first established in All Star Comics #3 (1940) where several superheroes (who starred in separate stories in the series up to that point) met each other in a group dubbed the Justice Society of America. Earth-Two was the primary world of this publication era, as established in "Flash of Two Worlds" and "Crisis on Earth-Two!".
In the Silver Age, the Justice Society was reimagined as the Justice League, which was founded with Major League Baseball's National League and American League as inspiration for the name. The comic book that introduced the Justice League was titled The Brave and the Bold. However, the majority of National/DC's publications continued to be written with little regard of maintaining continuity with each other for the first few decades.
Silver Age
In the 1950s and 1960s, DC has introduced different versions of its characters, sometimes presenting them as if the earlier version had never existed, including: Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), and Hawkman (Katar Hol). These new versions of the characters had similar powers but different names and personal histories. Similarly, they had characters such as Batman whose early adventures set in the 1940s could not easily be reconciled with stories featuring a still-youthful man in the 1960s. To explain this, they introduced the idea of the Multiverse in Flash #123 (1961) where the Silver Age Flash met his Golden Age counterpart. In addition to allowing the conflicting stories to "co-exist", it allowed the differing versions of characters to meet, and even team up to combat cross-universe threats. The writers gave designations such as "Earth-One", "Earth-Two", and so forth, to certain universes, designations which at times were also used by the characters themselves. Earth-One was the primary world of this publication era, as established in "Flash of Two Worlds" and "Crisis on Earth-One!".
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Over the years, as the number of titles published increased and the volume of past stories accumulated, it became increasingly difficult to maintain internal consistency. In the face of diminishing sales, maintaining the status quo of their most popular characters became attractive.Weldon, Glen (2016). The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture. Simon & Schuster. . Retrieved 10 September 2017. Although retcons were used as a way to explain apparent inconsistencies in stories written, editors at DC came to consider the varied continuity of multiple Earths too difficult to keep track of, and feared that it was an obstacle to accessibility for new readers. To address this, they published the cross-universe miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985, which merged universes and characters, reducing the Multiverse to a single unnamed universe, a collapsed earth, with a single history.Crisis (1986) #11
In 1999, The Kingdom reintroduced a variant of the old Multiverse concept called Hypertime, which allows for alternate versions of characters and worlds to exist. Later stories, such as Convergence (2015), establishes that the multiverse still exists.Vaneta Rogers (27 May 2015)"MAJOR SPOILERS: DC's CONVERGENCE Concludes, Undoes [Redacted]" Newsarama
The New 52
The 2011 reboot of the DC Universe coincided with DC's publishing event The New 52, during which the publisher cancelled its ongoing titles and relaunched 52 new books, including a number of new books, set within a revised continuity. This follows the conclusion of the Flashpoint crossover storyline, which provided a jumping-off point for the existing continuity. A number of in-universe changes are intended to make characters more modern and accessible, though the scope of the changes varies from character to character. Some like Batman have their histories left largely intact, though compressed, while others were given wildly different histories and looks. DC stopped putting 'The New 52' logo on its publications in the summer of 2015, coinciding with the Convergence anniversary crossover event, which celebrated the history of the DC Multiverse and its various incarnations.
DC Rebirth
In February 2016, DC announced its DC Rebirth initiative, a line-wide relaunch of its titles, to begin in June 2016. Beginning with an 80-page one-shot which was released on May 25, 2016, DC Rebirth also sees Action Comics and Detective Comics return to their previous numbering (#957 and #934 respectively), all books releasing at , multiple books shifting to a twice-monthly release schedule, a number of existing titles relaunching with new #1s, and the release of several new titles. DC used the Green Lantern: Rebirth and The Flash: Rebirth miniseries as examples of the basis for the initiative, which has been described as a rebirth of the DC Universe. The DC Rebirth initiative reintroduces concepts from pre-Flashpoint continuity that were lost with The New 52 and builds "on everything that's been published since Action Comics #1 up thru The New 52."
DC Universe In October 2017, DC revealed that they would be discontinuing the Rebirth branding and logo from their titles in December 2017, releasing everything under a single umbrella title as the DC Universe. Coinciding with the release of The New Age of DC Heroes imprint, Dan DiDio explained, "We want to make it clear that this is all the DC Universe... Rebirth pretty much the DCU now; while we're taking Rebirth off the books, we'll be following the direction that Rebirth established." Titles also received new trade dress, with those "that tie in clearly to our larger DC Universe" having a "DCU logo on them" in addition to corner boxes with icons of the characters to help identify the family of titles; titles outside the DCU, such as Injustice: Gods Among Us and DC Comics Bombshells would simply have the DC logo on them. DiDio added that the Young Animal imprint would continue as a separate line of titles.
Infinite Frontier
In 2021, DC announced a line-wide relaunch of ongoing monthly superhero comic book titles. A number of miniseries and one-shots were also announced. It is the follow-up to the DC Rebirth relaunch.
Dawn of DC
In late 2022, DC announced a new line-wide initiative titled Dawn of DC. The Dawn of DC is a year-long story telling initiative with various new, ongoing and limited series. The Dawn of DC titles received a new trade dress. The initiative meant to change the tone for the DC universe into something brighter and lighter, as well as creating more inter-connectivity between multiple series.
DC All In
In 2024, DC announced a line-wide relaunch of ongoing monthly superhero comic book titles. A number of miniseries and one-shots were also announced. It is the follow-up to the Dawn of DC relaunch.
Description
Though DC Comics stories are often set in the United States of America, they are as often as not set in fictional cities or countries, such as Gotham City or Metropolis. These cities are effectively archetypes of cities, with Gotham City embodying more of the negative aspects of life in a large city, and Metropolis reflecting more of the positive aspects. Sentient alien species and even functioning interstellar societies are generally known to exist, and the arrival of alien spacecraft is not uncommon. Technologies which are only theoretical in the real world, such as artificial intelligence or are outright impossible according to modern science, such as faster-than-light travel, are functional and reproducible, though they are often portrayed as highly experimental and difficult to achieve. Demonstrable magic exists and can be learned. The general history of the fictional world is similar to the real one (for instance, there was a Roman Empire, and World War II and 9/11 both occurred), but many fantastic additions exist, such as the known existence of Atlantis. In recent years, stories have increasingly described events which bring the DC Universe farther away from reality, such as World War III occurring, Lex Luthor being elected as President of the United States in 2000, and cities and countries being destroyed.
New Earth "New Earth" is the main universe of the DC multiverse.Jeff Sellars Light Shining in a Dark Place: Discovering Theology through Film 2012 "New Earth is the home planet to the main storybook characters of the DC Universe.Tim Leong Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe - 2013 "So, the DC Comics world you're most familiar with—the one where Superman grows up in Smallville and Bruce Wayne decides to avenge his parents by becoming Batman—(a.k.a. New Earth) is actually a part of a larger “multiverse” . Originally created from the First Crisis, it was apparently erased from existence by the events of Flashpoint and replaced by "Prime Earth". By the end of the storyline Superman Reborn, the timelines of New Earth and Prime Earth realigned into a single reality.Superman #18-19, Action Comics #975-976
Superheroes
Many of the superhumans on Earth owe their powers to the metagene, a genetic feature which enables the development of superpowers. Others owe their powers to magic, genetic manipulation or mutation, or bionics (see below). A large power gap resides between most superheroes and civilians. Still others owe their powers to alien physiology. There are also superheroes and supervillains who possess no superhuman powers at all, but rival their effectiveness with specialized equipment or "to the absolute limit of human potential" training in special skills, such as martial arts.
The humans first began using costumed identities to fight or commit crime during the 1930s. The first superheroes included characters like the Crimson Avenger and Sandman. In November 1940, the first superhero team, the Justice Society of America, was formed. During World War II, the United States' heroes banded together as the All-Star Squadron to protect the United States from the Axis powers. A magical spell cast by Adolf Hitler left many heroes were unable to enter Axis-held territories, leaving the offensive portion of the war to be fought mainly by normal humans such as Sgt. Rock, while the superheroes participated in defensive activities in Allied territories. After the war, under pressure from the paranoid Committee on Un-American Activities, the JSA disbanded. While many types of heroes were active afterwards, mainly non-costumed, it was not until Superman's public debut that a new generation of costumed heroes became active. Soon after, the Justice League of America was formed, and they have remained Earth's preeminent superhero team; most DC heroes (such as the Teen Titans) have either belonged to the League at some point, or have connections to it.