Editing DC Comics (section)

==Notable Heroes==
===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 [[Superman|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''<ref>It helps that for the surviving ones, their gimmickry is usually focused on things that real people obsess about (The Mad Hatter takes his Lewis Carroll fandom way too far, Two-Face is obsessed with duality and chance, the Riddler has a complex about needing to prove he's smarter than anybody else, etc.) or are played-up quirks used as, effectively, branding (the Penguin is a standout here)</ref>. 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 [[Batman|separate article about him]], mainly because he's actually fairly influential on /tg/ stuff.

===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 powers and blessings as she aged - reared on the hidden paradise of Themyscira‎, home of the [[Amazon]]s. After their isolation was broken by a male international spy Steve Trevor who crash landed on the island. she willingly embarked on an exodus to "man's world" as an ambassador to spread a message of peace, compassion, love, tolerance, equality 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.

===Martian Manhunter===
J'onn J'onzz is a green martian from, where else, [[Mars]]. He was transported to Earth by a scientist, who died from a heart attack from seeing him. John has a plethora of powers, including shapeshifting, flight, intangibility, invisibility, telepathy, telekinesis, heat vision, and more. And despite all of that, he's still vulnerable to fire somehow. His only other weakness would be an addiction to chocolate snacks.

===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. As such, there's a veritable roster of Green Lanterns to pull stories from, and that's before accounting for any honorary characters or any members that came or went from other parts of the lantern spectrum.

Both incarnations have had really lame weaknesses in comparison to their incredible power. Alan Scott was unable to affect 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; nowadays 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 this stigma 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 '''S'''olomon, Endurance of '''A'''tlas, power of '''Z'''eus, the Courage of '''A'''chilles and the speed of '''M'''ercury 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 '''S'''elena, Strength of '''H'''ippolyta, Skill of '''A'''riadne, Speed of '''Z'''ephyrus, Beauty of '''A'''urora, and Wisdom of '''M'''inerva. Since Hippolyta was already taken in the DC universe as Wonder Woman's mom and the problems of [[Loli|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 [[Animu|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-[[Cegorach|Con-Man]] poster boy, and base model for any high-CHA Arcana character/NPC. John rarely actually does magic, and instead tricks his enemies into doing what he wants, such as promising his soul to the leaders of Hell's [[Tanar'ri|different]]  [[Baatezu|factions]], risking a new [[Blood War]] for the soul of one measly mortal if they don't cure him of his [[cancer]]. A big part of his characterization is that he doesn't really believe in magic, but the demons and ancient spirits he's dealing with do, so when he does need to do magic, he banks on his high CHA, plus Arcana and Deception checks to bullshit [[Kingdoms of Ind|Indian]] demons into destroying themselves. So long as the caster doesn't break character and throws enough magic spell components together, the universe just lets it happen, much like a GM letting you cast spells so long as you've got "some gold" and "a component pouch."

He actually is magical, though, being the current incarnation ("Constant"ine, get it?) of the "[[Cegorach|Laughing Magician]]," all of whom are just as shitty as he is; it's also actually implied that he was never supposed to ''be'' the Constantine, and that was supposed to be his [[Vilitch the Curseling|twin brother]], who he killed in the womb and has been tampering with his life ever since, orchestrating events so that one day [[Nurgle|John will give up to despair and give his soul over to him]]. Another running theme through all of his incarnations is that he'll sacrifice his friends and use them as pawns to get ahead of whatever's trying to kill him. Of course, because this is Black Magic, his friends don't suffer clean deaths, but [[GRIMDARK|have their souls taken by demons to be made  their playthings for all eternity]]. 

Was for a long time kept in a sort of limbo: he was the posterboy of the Vertigo imprint ("mature" horror/fantasy with [[SJW|social commentary]], that was initially DC adjacent, but then very rarely interacted or referenced what went on with the rest of DC) until DC folded everything with a reboot in 2011. Since then, he's been more or less a part of the DCU even though his solo-run comics aren't, because DC's done a lot more rebooting since then (including a reality reset by Dr. Fucking Manhattan, which made Constantine and Watchmen's creator [[Elminster|Alan Moore]] [[Butthurt|very mad)]]. Speaking of Alan Moore, he and quite a few writers of Hellblazer swear that they've met him in real-life, which is only mildly more weird [[Rick Priestley|than talking Ultramarine models]].

===Hitman===
That's not his superhero name, it's his [[Officio Assassinorum|job]]. His real name is Tommy Monaghan and he was created by Garth Ennis of ''Preacher,'' ''The Boys,'' and ''[[Adeptus Arbites|Judge Dredd]]'' fame. Tommy is a hitman that specializes in taking out guys with super-powers, because he's the only one crazy enough to go after them. Tommy doesn't really consider himself as a "super," even though he was given the (temporary and painful) power of X-ray vision because of an obscure and unimportant JLA event that gave regular people powers as collateral damage, and [[Imperial Guard|instead relies on manliness, grit, and lots of bullets]] to take them out. He doesn't take contracts on "good guys," but [[Murderhobo|also isn't afraid of killing someone in front]] of the Green Lantern, Batman, and Superman (separately on different occasions, and then once with all of them in the same building ''and then being fucking acknowledged by Superman for his '''moral courage''''' in killing the bad guys in front of Batman.) 

Ok, so he's cool, what makes him /tg/ related? A big part of it is that his comic is a big "fuck you" to the Superhero genre that's ''within'' the main continuity. He interacts with these superheroes by dragging them down to his level and getting them to see things from the perspective of the "normals" who end up as collateral damage, an angle rarely explored in official Superhero TTRPG settings; you're either fighting Good Vs. Evil, or fighting the Good Guys who are all secretly evil. The DCU's main heroes are all untouchable demigods that can't be permanently killed and always act justly, even when they don't because "reasons." Tommy, on the other hand, has no real powers, understands that killing is illegal and will result in more violence, but does it anyway because if he does it, he gets rid of people that deserve it, <s>saves his friends</s>, and ensures that when the time for revenge comes, <s>it'll all fall on him </s> Tommy wanted to deal with the fallout all on his own, but his entire crew decides they're not going to let him die alone so they go out in a blaze of glory, but incapacitate the kindest member of the crew right before he leaves so that someone will live to tell their story '''TL;DR''' it's the closest you can get to "The Boys" while still staying within a DC setting.

Also noteworthy on /co/ for minable memes, the most famous being [[Slaanesh|Bueno Excellente]], a friend of Tommy's who is a "vigilante" that can only say "BUENO" and whose fighting style is [[Rape|date rape]]. Seriously. Tommy and Bueno managed to drug '''both''' the Green Lantern and Lobo, filming the  getting married to Bueno, and doing other "things" married couples do as blackmail.

If the above disturbs or disgusts you, realize that (1) it was the 90's, the prime time for such <s>stupidity</s>[[edgy]] material, and (2) it was written by Garth Ellis, the Edgelord's Edgelord.

===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)<ref>In the original comic, Raven was the one who brought the Teen Titans together. Her angst centers around her father, Trigon, who has ''plans'' involving using her against her will.</ref>, and Starfire (gorgeous alien flying brick)<ref>In the initial version, and in most retellings, her rescue is part of the first adventure of the Titans</ref>.

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). Over time interest for the New Teen Titans started to peter out thanks to a mix of meddling executives and long-time writer Marv Wolfman feeling the fatigue working on a book where he was forced to use characters he didn't like (and being on the same comic for almost 16 years straight is a LONG time), and the book was cancelled in the mid-90s. Several relaunches were attempted including one with most of the old team, but they either were trash fires or just didn't sell well, and the creation of Young Justice poached most of the more interesting characters. Then the cartoon came out and the then-ongoing Titans and Young Justice were axed in favor of a comic based on the show. After that run ended the Titans comic became extremely edgy and kept violently killing off its characters. From there the comic devolved into a series of false starts on runs that didn't last long either through quality, nobody cared about them because they were not the "main" cast or DC decided on yet another reboot. The Titans are languishing to this very day, being only a shadow of what they were in the 80s even with most of the bronze age cast being there.

And Beast Boy ''still'' isn't allowed to grow up past being a teen.

===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.

===Doctor Fate===
A sorcerer wearing the Helmet of Fate, within which resides the Lord of Order, Nabu.

===Animal Man===
Not as notable but still pretty well known, he's the avatar of the red who can take the powers of all animals, his comics are known for being very weird, meta and breaking alot of conventional superhero tropes. 

His original comic run was very meta, with alot of 4th wall breaking and shocking moments<ref>Notably, The Coyote Gospel, which casts a Wile E. Coyote expy as a full-on allegory for Jesus. Played seriously. And widely praised as one of the greatest single issue comic stories ever.</ref>, on the 26th issue he even met the author (It sounds very self masturbatory but it's actually really good<ref>In part because it's at least as much about said author acknowledging what he did and why he did it and engaging in heavy self-critique.</ref>.)

Had a new run for the New 52 that while not as good as the original, it still had a lot of charm and was very well written.