History Headscratchers / DCComics

* DC stands for "Detective Comics". It's now called "DC Comics". [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Detective Comics Comics]]. [[FridgeLogic Hmm.]]
** Now it's more like "Detective Comics Entertainment", which is still kind of awkward.
** No different than an ATM machine.
* In a Legion Of Superheroes comic book tie-in, the charachers travel to the planet of the Amazons(formerly Io). There is a temple there dedicated to the Goddess of Love that the boys flock to eagerly. There are several things wrong with the story.
** Why would there be a temple of love if there are no men on the whole planet? They're all lesbians?
*** Yes. Canonically the DC amazons are lesbians, this has been addressed once or twice before.
*** Lesbians can love, in whatever sense of the word you care to mention.
*** As far as I knew, canon dictates that only the majority of Amazons are lesbian. At least some are uncompromisingly straight, and have simply been doing without for millenia. Flocking to the temple of love and expecting they'll be "well received" is still a bit of a juvenile assumption, but these are teenage boys we're talking about.
** There were many females reclining on couches, looking bored- what were they doing there? Why aren't they ''worshipping'' said goddess in her sacred temple?
** Why were there other temples dedicated to MALE gods?
*** Because some of the gods of their Pantheon are male? While the outlook of the male gods regarding the Amazons have varied over the course of the years, at various times Hermes, Poseidon, and Hephaestus in particular have been portrayed as taking an active interest in their well being. In any case, the Amazons might just realize the unfortunate consequences that might ensue if they failed to venerate deities who portfolios include things like the ocean, weather, and the afterlife, and could be worshipping them to keep them placated.
** The villian turned the male heroes into pigs as she knew only males could hurt her and the females were powerless. Why not turn the males into females? She got whacked around pretty thoroughly by the super-pigs...
*** Because Homer was the last original writer?
* So does anyone know just WHAT "big plans" DC apparently had for Cassandra Caine? From what I can tell, that was the motivating factor in [[ExecutiveMeddling telling]] Adam Beechen to write an excuse for her to be evil. So was their bright idea just to make one of Batman's loyal soldiers turn against the pursuit of (his sense of) justice? Or was that just another stepping stone to something else?
** Cass Cain has finally re-emerged in Hong Kong as part of Batman, Inc., using the code name of Blackbat, and will also appear in a forthcoming limited series.

* Sadly, we know what happens when skyscrapers full of people explode. Yet DC keeps doing it with no noted repercussions. Did Not Remember The Research?
** Falling/exploding skyscrapers are a classic superhero trope. It goes back to the days of the Comics Code when writers had to do something to establish a villain as a threat but couldn't show any on-panel civilian deaths, so they showed him destroying property instead. And as writers kept trying to outdo previous stories the property damage caused by villains got progressively worse until whole buildings were exploding. Yes, it borders on a CriticalResearchFailure, but in my opinion this is very much a case of Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad. The only real alternative (aside from massively downgrading the villains so they can't destroy skyscrapers anymore, which I don't think anyone would want to see) would be to actually ''show what really happens'' when skyscrapers explode. And that would raise a whole lot of uncomfortable nagging questions in the minds of readers. Like, why haven't the governments of the DC universe not started aggressively eliminating all supervillains and/or all metahumans in general? If battles between heroes and villains actually resulted in as many civilian deaths as would actually happen when a skyscraper exploded, why are superheroes still viewed so positively by the general public of the DCU? Why hasn't there been a push for a Marvel-style Superhero Registration Act? No, I'm happy to leave the (relative) realism to the 616 universe and keep the idealistic non-realism of the DC universe the way it is.
** Ugh, after the way Creator/MarvelComics bungled the Superhero Registration Act in every conceivable and possible way, it is actually relieving that Creator/DCComics is ''not'' going down that road!
** Superscience and magic exist. Maybe they're using it in construction to prevent 9/11 from happening over and over.
* Ted Kord and to a lesser extent Booster Gold. Despite being always on the front lines when the chips are down, for -most- of their career they are treated like little more then drooling imbeciles just because they enjoy a good prank. Granted, sometimes they really did deserve it (like when Blue let himself go or Gold set up a fight for glory) but for the majority of their career? The League might as well be urinating on them for all the respect they got. Hell, one of Ted's best friends ended up shooting him in the skull.
** Uh? Max Lord shooting Ted had absolutely nothing to do with how much respect the rest of the League gave those two. Max was a ''villain'' at the time, and shot him because Ted wanted to, you know, stop his villainous plan.
** As for respect, okay, they might be more-or-less competent when crunch time comes, but people who always seem to be goofing off, taking nothing seriously and pranking everyone around them can also get ''very'' annoying ''very'' quickly.
* Batman has a villain called Maxie Zeus, a man deluded into thinking himself to be, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Zeus]]. The existence of Wonder Woman and her backstory proves that Zeus is very much real, and everything we know about the guy says he's fond of striking people he doesn't like with a BoltOfDivineRetribution. Why hasn't Maxie been smote for impersonation and besmirching Zeus' character yet?
** What character? Zeus is a jerk. Maybe he likes a crimelord being all 'him'.
*** No no, if you impersonate Zeus he kills you, well known mythology fact. But i think they don't want to port the character over to keep things simpler.
*** If I recall my DC mythology correctly (and correct me if I'm wrong), Zeus isn't top dog these days. He was replaced by Athena and Ares long ago as the age of information made their domains paramount of fear of weather and shit like that. And After the New 52 reboot he's just AWOL.
** Perhaps Zeus has simply lightened up over the years. Or perhaps the Bolt of Divine Retribution is more of a metaphorical one in this case -- after all, having your plans constantly foiled by a man wearing a bat-themed costume, getting sent to Arkham, and being treated pretty much as a huge joke by everyone around you can't be much fun. Could be Zeus has a little hand in that.

* It's well-documented that Captain Marvel (or Shazam if you prefer) derives his powers from several different gods, including Zeus and Mercury. Mercury is largely considered to be the same individual as the Greek god Hermes just under a different name. Wonder Woman's speed and flight powers also come from Hermes and, post-Flashpoint, her lightning-related powers from Zeus. Are these gods really supplying both these heroes with their power at the same time? I've never seen either of these gods (or Heracles) mention the existence of Captain Marvel, the Wizard Shazam, or the Rock of Eternity so is their use of these godly powers even sanctioned? This isn't even getting into the wider Shazam family like Mary Marvel, Black Adam, and everyone else with those powers.

* Since witches, warlocks, and sorcerers exist in their universe, shouldn't they be offended by stage magicians? Shouldn't they feel insulted and disrespected that some mortals around the world are pretending to do magic?
** Why would they? Even in the real world it’s professional death for a stage magician to claim to have actual magical powers, and very few lawyers or doctors are offended by the existence of such shows as Marcus Welby or Perry Mason. In-universe, the only stage magician we ever see who ever claims to possess real magical skills is Zatanna, and even then she reserves true magic for her topper.

* Since witches, warlocks, and sorcerers exist in their universe, shouldn't they be offended by stage magicians? Shouldn't they feel insulted and disrespected that some mortals around the world are pretending to do magic?

** Falling/exploding skyscrapers are a classic superhero trope. It goes back to the days of the Comics Code when writers had to do something to establish a villain as a threat but couldn't show any on-panel civilian deaths, so they showed him destroying property instead. And as writers kept trying to outdo previous stories the property damage caused by villains got progressively worse until whole buildings were exploding. Yes, it borders on a CriticalResearchFailure, but in my opinion this is very much a case of TropesAreNotBad. The only real alternative (aside from massively downgrading the villains so they can't destroy skyscrapers anymore, which I don't think anyone would want to see) would be to actually ''show what really happens'' when skyscrapers explode. And that would raise a whole lot of uncomfortable nagging questions in the minds of readers. Like, why haven't the governments of the DC universe not started aggressively eliminating all supervillains and/or all metahumans in general? If battles between heroes and villains actually resulted in as many civilian deaths as would actually happen when a skyscraper exploded, why are superheroes still viewed so positively by the general public of the DCU? Why hasn't there been a push for a Marvel-style Superhero Registration Act? No, I'm happy to leave the (relative) realism to the 616 universe and keep the idealistic non-realism of the DC universe the way it is.

* Since witches, warlocks, and sorcerers exist in their universe, shouldn't they be offended by stage magicians? Shouldn't they feel insulted and disrespected that some mortals around thew world are pretending to do magic?

* Since witches, warlocks, and sorcerers exist in their universe, shouldn't they be offended by stage magicians? Shouldn't they feel insulted and disrespected that some humans around thew world are pretending to do magic?

** Perhaps Zeus has simply lightened up over the years. Or perhaps the Bolt of Divine Retribution is more of a metaphorical one in this case -- after all, having your plans constantly foiled by a man wearing a bat-themed costume, getting sent to Arkham, and being treated pretty much as a huge joke by everyone around you can't be much fun. Could be Zeus has a little hand in that.

** Ugh, after the way MarvelComics bungled the Superhero Registration Act in every conceivable and possible way, it is actually relieving that DCComics is ''not'' going down that road!

*** If I recall my DC mythology correctly (and correct me if I'm wrong), Zeus isn't top dog these days. He was replaced by Athena and Ares long ago as the age of information made their domains paramount of fear of weather and shit like that. And After the New 52 reboot he's just AWOL.

*** No no, if you impersonate Zeus he kills you, well known mythology fact. But i think they don't want to port the character over to keep things simpler.

** What character? Zeus is a jerk. Maybe he likes a crimelord being all 'him'.

** Because Homer was the last original writer?

** Falling/exploding skyscrapers are a classic superhero trope. It goes back to the days of the Comics Code when writers had to do something to establish a villain as a threat but couldn't show any on-panel civilian deaths, so they showed him destroying property instead. And as writers kept trying to outdo previous stories the property damage caused by villains got progressively worse until whole buildings were exploding. Yes it's a DidNotDoTheResearch moment bordering on a CriticalResearchFailure, but in my opinion this is very much a case of TropesAreNotBad. The only real alternative (aside from massively downgrading the villains so they can't destroy skyscrapers anymore, which I don't think anyone would want to see) would be to actually ''show what really happens'' when skyscrapers explode. And that would raise a whole lot of uncomfortable nagging questions in the minds of readers. Like, why haven't the governments of the DC universe not started aggressively eliminating all supervillains and/or all metahumans in general? If battles between heroes and villains actually resulted in as many civilian deaths as would actually happen when a skyscraper exploded, why are superheroes still viewed so positively by the general public of the DCU? Why hasn't there been a push for a Marvel-style Superhero Registration Act? No, I'm happy to leave the (relative) realism to the 616 universe and keep the idealistic non-realism of the DC universe the way it is.

* Why does DC need to redo continuity every few years? Find a continuity and stick with it, guys.
** DC writers are notoriously lazy with continuity. And they love to "reimagine" and "reinterpret" and "reboot" their characters. If they didn't periodically redo the continuity the whole mess would collapse and their readership would disappear.
** Basically, DC comics suffers from mismatched worlds and stories due to the non-integrated nature of their original properties and because of the fact that DC editorial decisions tended to keep this wall between the major characters and teams up. Almost any kind of crossing over and mixing of these worlds distorts the various characters settings out of line with the main character concept, forcing the company to constantly reboot if they don't want to explain why any given dork from the Justice League doesn't clean up Gotham in ten minutes; and why Superman never asks Captain Atom to help him when Bizarro attacks.
*** To some extent there'w a presumption that Hero X is busy with Hero X-type stuff. Batman is considered quite capable of handling mob crime in Gotham, freeing up Superman to keep the Earth from plummeting into the Sun. Geographical and Historical separation means some hero/villain pairs are not as well matched as others (if Batman and Superman traded Luthor and Joker, those villins would appear in about one more story each. Ever. Joker would be in the phantom zone, and Luthor would be ruined permanantly.))
** That's what they did back in '86, they found the post-crisis continuity and stuck with it, despite having to iron some pretty big wrinkles for it to work over the next years. The problem is 10-15 years later the people in charge was not the same that decided to stick with that continuity, and the readership wasn't the same either (even people who were reading back then grew older and different things appeal to you as an adult than as a teenager) and those new readers and creators don't feel they have to stick with the decisions made all those years ago by their predecesors, so they find a new continuity and stick with it, and then 10-15 years later...
*** You can in fact have CharacterDevelopment and AlternativeCharacterInterpretation while still sticking to the same continuity you know.

*** Because some of the gods of their Pantheon are male? While the outlook of the male gods regarding the Amazons have [[CharacterDerailment varied over the course of the years]], at various times Hermes, Poseidon, and Hephaestus in particular have been portrayed as taking an active interest in their well being. In any case, the Amazons might just realize the unfortunate consequences that might ensue if they failed to venerate deities who portfolios include things like the ocean, weather, and the afterlife, and could be worshipping them to keep them placated.