Unused And Underused Concepts In The DC Universe

[Agent Z]

What concepts or ideas that haven't been seen or developed enough in the DCU would you like to see explored?

1. Cyberspace - The idea of the net being an entire realm inhabited by A.Is has been done quite well in other media like Digimon, Tron and the Matrix. I'd like to see DC do something similar.

2. The Land of Nightshades - The realm of shadow manipulaters that Suicide Squad and Shadowpact member Nightshade hails from.

[The Odd Man]

3. Skartaris - Swords! Dinosaurs! Skimpy costumes! What's not to love??

[Trey Strain]

Supporting characters.

Everybody doesn't need to be a super-hero or a billionaire.

[godisawesome]

Hypertime as the could-have-been alternate timelines; less distinct than the old parallel earths, which can still exist as their own entity. I loved when Dark Flash had to leave because his presence was changing the timeline, and Black Zero was a great concept for Superboy. Plus, I think Hypertime could serve a functional purpose by explaining why different possible future can keep popping up and why they can alter the timeline: as future possibilities for our current stories, they're also Hypertime worlds, but ones that still have a chance to become the actual future for the characters. So the Legion of Superheroes can exist in one timeline and interact with our group, and for all intents and purposes be the designated future... But another variation of the same team can show up, and also be the future. The Tomorrow Titans keep shifting the timeline more towards their world each time they interact with ours, and any future glimpse that isn't fulfilled still X it's but isn't connected to our world anymore.

[chief12d]

The Red could use more focus, especially with Vixen doing stuff with the JLA.

[Jackalope89]

The Red could use more focus, especially with Vixen doing stuff with the JLA.

And Beast Boy with the Teen Titans. The two could even do a team-up sort of thing.

[Ascended]

Agreed with all of the above.

I'll also add

The 5th dimension. It's a realm of pure thought, full of beings capable of manipulating our world like clay. How is this *not* used more???

Intergalactic empires. We've got Thanagar, Rann, Almerac, the Vega system collective.......and generally, they don't see much development these days.

Pantheons. We know the gods of Egyptian and Norse myth (among others) exist in the DCU, but aside from the Greek gods getting attention in Wonder Woman, none of these gods get much panel time despite being tied to several heroes of note such as Hawkman and Dr. Fate.

The ground-eye view. When was the last time we got a look at the DCU from the perspective of the regular people? Its such a grand, big place, and some of my favorite stories and moments are when you get to experience it through the eyes of an average person who isn't married to an alien god or a well trained cop in a major vigilante-infested city.

The Source. More Kirby and more New Gods are always good, and we get a decent amount of that. But the Source? There are so many mysteries surrounding it. Maybe its best if no one ever tries to dig deeper, odds are no one but Kirby himself could do it justice. But there are a few writers who might come close, like Morrison.

[Sutekh]

Intergalactic empires. We've got Thanagar, Rann, Almerac, the Vega system collective.......and generally, they don't see much development these days.

I would love to see more development of the 21st century alien / interstellar DCU. No 30/31st century imports needed. I don't care what the Khunds or Dominators were doing *a thousand years before they became space-faring threats* (and I especially don't want some lame 'Invasion!' scenario where they inexplicably have the exact same spacefaring technology that they had a thousand years in their own future, because they are apparently incapable of advancement...).

The Vega system, in particular, is crawling with interesting races and worlds, but Thanagar and Rann and the many races introduced as Green Lanterns, are all out there.

Did the Appellaxians, for instance, ever *succeed* at taking over a world, or worlds, and is there an Appellaxian Empire out there? Inquiring minds want to know!

Pantheons. We know the gods of Egyptian and Norse myth (among others) exist in the DCU, but aside from the Greek gods getting attention in Wonder Woman, none of these gods get much panel time despite being tied to several heroes of note such as Hawkman and Dr. Fate.

I was just going to post this, but you beat me to it! Marvel has gotten some good mileage out of their use of the Norse mythos, and both companies have played around with Greek myth and figures like Hercules (mainly through Hercules at Marvel and Wonder Woman at DC), but the Egyptian pantheon, in particular, is tied to Hawkman, Dr. Fate and Captain Marvel / Black Adam, at minimum, and should, IMO, get way more focus than it does.

Back when Sobek betrayed Osiris (the DC characters, not the Egyptian gods of those names!), I wondered if it was all part of some long-term plot to attempt to steal the semi-divine power of the Marvel family by Sivana, by creating a creature that would literally devour one of them and metabolize it. But then... Fat lotta nothing, apparently just done for shock value. Boring.

There's a lot of rich stuff to be mined in just that one mythology, like an eternal enemy of the gods, Apep/Apophis, the Devourer of the Dawn, who all of the gods opposed because it literally wanted to eat the sun and plunge the world back into primordial endless night, or a 'good' goddess of necromancy, in Isis, who dragged her husband back from the land of the dead, bridging the lands of the dead and the living so that things like ghosts could exist (as the dead could now escape back into the world of the living), and conceived a son with her kinda-dead husband...

Plus all the other ancient pantheons. Even if the Chinese, Japanese, Mayan, Yoruba, etc. faiths aren't all developed out do the degree that comic book Olympians are, characters based on / inspired by figures like Raiden or Shango seem like they'd be a blast.

[j9ac9k]

Darkstars and L.E.G.I.O.N. = The GLC can't be the only "peacekeepers" out in space. The GLC has recently seen its ranks diminished and pre-Rebirth there were people trying to fill the void. I was hoping for a reboot of one of these concepts. The universe is a big place and these two concepts should have a place in the DCU.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Lords of Choas and Order. You'd think that that'd get significant play, but I haven't seen that concept pop up in years.

[HandofPrometheus]

I'll just say DC's cosmic concepts are poorly used or not used at all. Their cosmic side needs work.

[Ascended]

Did the Appellaxians, for instance, ever *succeed* at taking over a world, or worlds, and is there an Appellaxian Empire out there? Inquiring minds want to know!

Oh, I forgot about them! Yeah those guys are just begging for some development. They were purely energy based beings who had to bond to a physical, elemental host right?

Man now my head is buzzing with ideas......

I was just going to post this, but you beat me to it!

Bwahahaha! Move over, Buried Allen, there's a new fastest poster around!

Plus all the other ancient pantheons. Even if the Chinese, Japanese, Mayan, Yoruba, etc. faiths aren't all developed out do the degree that comic book Olympians are, characters based on / inspired by figures like Raiden or Shango seem like they'd be a blast.

Agreed on both these lesser known pantheons and your thoughts about the Egyptian gods as well. I cut out that bit just to save space but Im right there with ya.

There's also a lot of really cool stuff in Native American mythologies that would work wonderfully for DC. The Navajo creation myth in particular stands out as something DC could do a lot with. Not all Native cultures are the same of course, and likewise their religions were different too, but in many of them there's a slightly different feel than you get out of the Norse, Greek, and Egyptian stories. The Native peoples generally had a different kind of relationship with their "gods" than the likes of Zeus, Bast, or Freya.

When Chris Roberson took over Superman's Grounded story, he briefly brought in a new Super-Chief, who walked a very interesting line between "Superman" mythology and his Native heritage. I forget which tribe he was a part of, if it was even mentioned. But he was a fun character with a different spin than we usually see in DC/Marvel, and I was hoping to see more of him. Sadly that never happened and Roberson left DC on bad terms, never to return.....

[golgi]

I'll just say DC's cosmic concepts are poorly used or not used at all. Their cosmic side needs work.

Which ones would you like DC to use? I feel DC uses them enough. They've had a Lucifer series, a Sandman series, and aside from actual on goings, DC uses them in separate titles like Sandman, Justice League Dark, etc...

DC actually has a lot of cosmics, uses them for a story arc, then forgets about them. DC creates a lot of gods and cosmics, but only uses the main ones like Darkseid, Anti-Monitor, Sandman, etc...

Marvel, at the moment, is crapping all over their cosmic characters. This is why I like the DC approach. More exposure can mean bad development or stories.

[WonderScott]

The New Gods - they get used (especially the Apokoliptans) - but they're inconsistent in how they are represented. In one book they can throw down with the Justice League heavy hitters in Darkseid War. In another title, they're getting taken out by Lois Lane (that happened in Superman recently.) DC needs to do a better job of explaining/defining how they're different than the average human, metahuman, Kryptonian, demigod, or divinity so when they show up it means something.

Kobra should be a bigger threat than it is and be in conflict with other organizations - League of Shadows, Leviathan, the School of Night, and/or Dr. Cyber's organization (if we ever get the return of the mecha-Bondian version of her.)

Agreed with what everyone else said about mining the Egyptian and Norse pantheons more in addition to the Olympians. Marvel developed so many pastiches (Squadron Supreme, Imperial Guard, Sentry, etc.) based on DC concepts and really developed the characters interestingly over time that a little turnabout is fairplay. At least more than the heroes and villains of Angor please.

Homo Magi - Not all sorcerers, witches, or magicians need to be or have a connection to Homo Magi in the DCU (there should be many means to achieving magical power), but it'd be nice to see them explored more similarly to Amazons or Atlanteans and their societies.

ARGUS - We had a decent intro to the organization (Red and Black Rooms and The Circus) in the DCnU and then nothing. Make ARGUS a thing again and run by Steve Trevor and Etta Candy. Let the Wonder Woman mythos "own" it like Superman "owns" Cadmus and STARLabs for the most part.

Secret Society of Super Villains - DC has some of the greatest villains and people are interested in them interacting. Why we don't have an ongoing villain title or two (I'd take an SSoSV and a Legion of Doom title please) exploring the different types and levels of evil, madness, brilliance, honor, betrayal, subterfuge, redemption, and friendships and alliances and romances going on between the malevolent characters in the DCU, I'll never know.

52 Earths - We have, more or less, 52 Earths that have been loosely defined. Why don't we yet have an intrepid team of heroes from the main Earth exploring them on some type of mystery/quest? Build up those travelers and build out those worlds.

[Doctor Bifrost]

Gemworld - I think a relatively stable Gemworld could be a great source of narratives and characters. DCU-Earth heroes can visit there and get drawn into intrigues and threats, magic-powered characters from there can come looking for artifacts (that Aquaman or Dr. Fate or John Constantine don't want them to have), Gemworld natives who get into trouble there can flee to, or be exiled to, Earth, where they can cause trouble, become heroes or villains, or get involved in stories "under the radar," pretending to be locals. It seems like most writers, when they get their hands on Gemworld, (a) think it has to be All About Amethyst, and (b) have a tendency to create a massive war that destroys all of it, blow it up, etc. I think it's much more valuable as an ongoing setting and source for narrative elements.

The Lords of Order and the Lords of Chaos (as someone else mentioned) - again, you don't always need to use these characters in a massive war between Order and Chaos, or a story in which an entirely new age of magic dawns, changing everything (and sometimes leaving the Lords behind). I enjoy stories where we see individual Lords of Order or Chaos, who may have individual plans and goals, may empower individual humans in pursuit of the goals, and so on. (At one point Hawk and Dove turned out to be empowered by a Lord of Order and a Lord of Chaos - who were in love! And in Season of Mists in the Sandman, Neil Gaiman made great use of Shivering Jenny, a Lord of Chaos, and Kilderkin, a Lord of Order.)