History Franchise / TheDCU

!!The defining characteristics of TheDCU:

* ''SupermanBatmanApocalypse''

* ''JusticeLeagueCrisisOnTwoEarths''

* ''SupermanBatmanPublicEnemies''

* ''JusticeLeagueTheNewFrontier''

DC and WarnerBrothers recently began a new series of animated movies, released straight to DVD, called DCUniverseOriginalAnimatedMovies. Mostly they focus on individual characters, including some, like WonderWoman, who have never had their own animated series. All movies with the exception of the Superman/Batman titles (which are loosely related to each other) are standalone stories.

* [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack City]]: While New Earth as a whole is a much better place to live than [[MarvelUniverse Earth-616]], there are a lot of cities where it sucks to live. [[{{Batman}} Gotham City]] is the most iconic, with its sister city Bludhaven actually being worse. [[GreenArrow Star City]] has gone to hell following CryForJustice, as it had the misfortune of occurring so close to the BlackestNight. But the single worse place to live in the DCU is [[TheQuestion Hub City]].

*** This could be "Detective Comic's Comics", but that isn't obvious from just "DC Comics".
**** If we're going to be this pedantic, "Detective Comics' comics" (note the apostrophe location).

The '''DC Universe''' is the SharedUniverse belonging to DCComics, established in 1934 and now the oldest major [[ComicBooks comic book]] publishing company. This is mostly used as a vehicle for their extensive SuperHero mythos, although the [[FantasyKitchenSink nature]] of the universe allows for almost unlimited storytelling potential in many different genres.

The DC Universe is primarily responsible for establishing the concept of the super-hero in popular culture, with Franchise/{{Batman}}, Franchise/{{Superman}} and WonderWoman as some of their oldest and most popular characters. Their introduction of the JusticeSocietyOfAmerica during WorldWarII was also the first real super-hero team book, using the [[CrossOver cross-over]] to establish the first shared universe in comics history. Their massive early popularity was stunted by the invention of the ComicsCode which nearly killed the industry, and many of the [[{{Bowdlerise}} bowdlerised]] stories from this era are responsible for several negative stereotypes about the medium. There was a revival in the late fifties and early sixties with the creation of newer more imaginative updates of characters like Comicbook/GreenLantern and TheFlash, leading to DC's biggest characters forming the [[JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]]. To explain the difference in continuity, they established a {{Multiverse}} with the different versions of the heroes occupying different world. The popularity of this team book also inspired MarvelComics to publish their own team book ComicBook/FantasticFour, leading into an era of more maturely written super-hero stories dealing with the development of characters and more serious problems.

Their distinguished competition is the MarvelUniverse, published by MarvelComics. The two lines appear similar at first glance, but there are some very subtle differences between the two. While there are many exceptions, the main difference is that the super-hero community tends to have a stricter sense of [[BlackAndWhiteMorality black-and-white morality]] at DC. This is written as a mature philosophical stand-point, dealing with the heroic archetype and their place as trusted members of society; in the DCU the general public tend to have greater respect for their heroes and treat them with higher esteem. In turn, the heroes of the DCU must undergo the trials of having to keep their respect and morality, even when it goes under fire.

* TheRiddler

* {{Aztek}}

* AngelAndTheApe

** The characters of Quality Comics, such as PlasticMan, Kid Eternity and the Comicbook/FreedomFighters.
** The characters of Charlton Comics, such as Comicbook/CaptainAtom, BlueBeetle and TheQuestion.

One of their most controversial moves was the epic storyline ''CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' during the eighties, an effort to untangle their years of ContinuitySnarl by destroying the Multiverse and establishing one linear continuity for all of the characters to co-exist in. This included revising much of the universe's history and updating the origins of many characters. The Multiverse has been brought back during InfiniteCrisis, although the mainstream continuity has only been changed in minor ways reflecting the story-telling needs of the writers. There was a second, much more widespread reboot of the DC Universe in September 2011 with all titles being restarted back to number 1, with these titles referred to as the "{{New 52}}".

The DC Universe is primarily responsible for establishing the concept of the super-hero in popular culture, with Franchise/{{Batman}}, Franchise/{{Superman}} and WonderWoman as some of their oldest and most popular characters. Their introduction of the JusticeSocietyOfAmerica during WorldWarII was also the first real super-hero team book, using the [[CrossOver cross-over]] to establish the first shared universe in comics history. Their massive early popularity was stunted by the invention of the ComicsCode which nearly killed the industry, and many of the [[{{Bowdlerise}} bowdlerised]] stories from this era are responsible for several negative stereotypes about the medium. There was a revival in the late fifties and early sixties with the creation of newer more imaginative updates of characters like Comicbook/GreenLantern and TheFlash, leading to DC's biggest characters forming the [[JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]]. To explain the difference in continuity, they established a {{Multiverse}} with the different versions of the heroes occupying different world. The popularity of this team book also inspired MarvelComics to publish their own team book FantasticFour, leading into an era of more maturely written super-hero stories dealing with the development of characters and more serious problems.

-->—'''Linkara''', ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall''

Their distinguished competition is the MarvelUniverse, published by MarvelComics. The two lines appear similar at first glance, but there are some very subtle differences between the two. While there are many exceptions, the main difference is that the super-hero community tends to have a stricter sense of [[BlackAndWhiteMorality black-and-white morality]] at DC. This is written as a mature philosophical stand-point, dealing with the heroic archetype and their place as trusted members of society; in the DCU the general public tend to have greater respect for their heroes and treat them with higher esteem.

* {{Elseworld}}: The TropeNamer. During the '90s and early '00s, DC's {{Elseworld}}s imprint showcased a great many "what if" tales that carried on the tradition of SilverAge "imaginary stories"; the best-known was ''KingdomCome''. Since TheMultiverse was brought back, many of these have become full-fledged {{Alternate Universe}}s.

** ''KingdomCome'' and ''TangentComics'' are perhaps the most famous of numerous works detailing specific {{Alternate Universe}}s.

* TheJoker

* KingdomCome

* ''SwampThing'' (1990 live action series, 1991 cartoon, plus movies made [[Film/SwampThing in 1982]] and [[Film/TheReturnOfSwampThing 1989]])

* ''BirdsOfPrey'' (short-lived series focusing on "Batman Family" members)

*** However, it's since been retconned as being located in Kansas, like Smallville, but near the border with Missouri (where Central City, home of the Silver Age Flash, is located), as per Flash vol.2 #188 (published in 2002), in which Wally West builds a bridge between both cities.

The '''DC Universe''' is the [[SharedUniverse shared universe]] belonging to DCComics, established in 1934 and now the oldest major [[ComicBooks comic book]] publishing company. This is mostly used as a vehicle for their extensive SuperHero mythos, although the [[FantasyKitchenSink nature]] of the universe allows for almost unlimited storytelling potential in many different genres.

The DC Universe is primarily responsible for establishing the concept of the super-hero in popular culture, with Franchise/{{Batman}}, Franchise/{{Superman}} and WonderWoman as some of their oldest and most popular characters. Their introduction of the [[JusticeSocietyOfAmerica Justice Society of America]] during WorldWarII was also the first real super-hero team book, using the [[CrossOver cross-over]] to establish the first shared universe in comics history. Their massive early popularity was stunted by the invention of the ComicsCode which nearly killed the industry, and many of the [[{{Bowdlerise}} bowdlerised]] stories from this era are responsible for several negative stereotypes about the medium. There was a revival in the late fifties and early sixties with the creation of newer more imaginative updates of characters like Comicbook/GreenLantern and TheFlash, leading to DC's biggest characters forming the [[JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]]. To explain the difference in continuity, they established a {{Multiverse}} with the different versions of the heroes occupying different world. The popularity of this team book also inspired MarvelComics to publish their own team book FantasticFour, leading into an era of more maturely written super-hero stories dealing with the development of characters and more serious problems.

** The characters of MilestoneComics, such as [[Comicbook/{{Static}} Static]], [[Comicbook/{{Hardware}} Hardware]] and ComicBook/{{Icon}} & Rocket.

*** This is being averted in modern days, where it's been established that Gotham is in New Jersey and Metropolis is in Delaware.

*** So is Coast City (Green Lantern Hal Jordan's town.)

*** Speaking of California, they inverted the usual DC practice of fictional adventure towns based on real places, by taking a real place (San Diego) and ''sinking it into the ocean,'' transforming its inhabitants into merpeople in the process. Thus it became the fictional underwater city of "Sub Diego," which Comicbook/{{Aquaman}} protected, natch.

* {{Descriptiveville}}: Major offender, a lot of cities have rather bland names.

** Occasionally mention will be made of the [[VertigoComics Vertigo Universe]], but Vertigo's recurring characters (TheSandman, Comicbook/SwampThing, Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}, etc.) really take place in their own little corners of TheDCU that [[ExiledFromContinuity no longer interact with the rest of the universe]] due to ExecutiveMeddling. Up until 2011, anyway, when they made a comeback.

* {{ComicBook/Legion of Super-Heroes}}

* TheSandman

* ''TheSandman''

* ''{{ComicBook/Isis}}'' (Originally by virtue of crossovers with ''{{Shazam}}'', though DC [[CanonImmigrant did eventually publish a short-lived Isis comic book]]. More recently, they've added a DCU version of the character as Black Adam's consort and, eventually, wife, though [[spoiler:they killed her off not long after. She's now alive again though]].)

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Legion Of Super Heroes}}''

* ''SwampThing'' (1990 live action series, 1991 cartoon, plus movies made in 1982 and 1989)