Should The DCU Be Like The Real World?

[Timothy Hunter]

Hello, it's Tim here. This is a question I have always wondered. Should the DC Universe reflect the real world or be radically different due to various factors such as alien contact, magic, and superpowered beings ?


If you want the latter, then tell me what the DC Universe would look like in your ideal mind.

[Lightning Rider]

This is a tricky one. I like the DCU to be the world of tomorrow, not just in the sense that the heroes are aspirational figures, but that the cities and societies of the world are also a little bit better. Not everywhere, and not perfect, but in general better off because of the existence of superheroes.

If I think about it for too long though, the questions starts overlapping with the question of to what extent superheroes intervene in controversial social problems. I don't expect superheroes to all have my politics or have the same politics as each other, but Superman existing on a planet where military action slaughters civilians or climate change threatens to turn us into Krypton within the next century, and not doing anything about it, doesn't really fit in my mind. So for that reason also, it can't be quite as bad, at least that's how it works in my head.

[Ascended]

Hello, it's Tim here. This is a question I have always wondered. Should the DC Universe reflect the real world or be radically different due to various factors such as alien contact, magic, and superpowered beings ?


If you want the latter, then tell me what the DC Universe would look like in your ideal mind.

Ohh, fun question!

I agree with Lightning Rider that it's a tricky question. I think there's pro's and con's to either approach, but I personally really like it when the DCU is more fantastical than the real world (note: "fantastical" is not the same as "futuristic"). Especially if we're dealing with a version of the DCU where superhumans have been active since WWII, I think it makes a lot of sense. I mean, if superheroes have been around almost a century but almost nothing has really changed, it doesn't say much for the heroes, does it?

However, there's a lot of risk in that too. You're already dealing with protagonists who're wildly impossible and have elements in their mythos and setting that are completely unrealistic. Moving the world itself further in that impossible direction could cause a disconnect with the audience, as well as major inconsistencies within the shared universe. I mean, if you're delving into how superhumans change the world, then you want to make sure that Metropolis is truly a City of Tomorrow......but that doesn't work with Gotham, which is best in a more grounded environment.

DC's probably making the best choice, where there are fantastic elements in the world but they haven't become widespread yet. Like, Ted Knight's cosmic energy technology is being developed for mass production in cars and houses, but is still years away from hitting the market. Dinosaurs might wander around a particular island in the Pacific, but for some reason they die when taken away from it so you don't see them in zoo's. Magical theory might be studied at the major Ivy league universities but you don't see those kinds of classes at smaller schools or community colleges, etc.

[Timothy Hunter]

This is a tricky one. I like the DCU to be the world of tomorrow, not just in the sense that the heroes are aspirational figures, but that the cities and societies of the world are also a little bit better. Not everywhere, and not perfect, but in general better off because of the existence of superheroes.

I might be in the minority, but I don't want the DC Universe to be generally better than the world we live in now. Do I want it to be a gritty dystopian hellhole like the world of Watchmen? No. However, I do think that the DC Universe would be better off if it was not seen as utopian, and in fact the fictional elements of it's world make it almost more troubled than our own. It would create conflict, and it would be a nice contrast to the hopeful and virtuous DC heroes such as Superman and Wonder Woman.

[Flash Gordon]

I think it's important for it to resemble our world almost entirely. So Superman's appearance on the world stage is a HUGE event that has shaken the very foundations of society. Everything else follows that.

You can have your Cadmus running weird ass experiments on people, in the subways of Metropolis. Atlantis is a thing that humans are vaguely aware of. Aliens visit. Things are weird, and different, but enough of that stuff happens on the fringes of society that the world itself kinda just chugs along as normal.

I don't want things to be even slightly utopian. We don't live in anything remotely utopian, so neither should our heroes. They should rage against injustices to try and craft a better day.

[Frontier]

I mean, Marvel purports that it's "The World Outside Your Window" but even that only goes so far.

[Timothy Hunter]

I think it's important for it to resemble our world almost entirely. So Superman's appearance on the world stage is a HUGE event that has shaken the very foundations of society. Everything else follows that.
.

You could still have a narrative in the DC Universe, where it resembled our own, but when Supernan came along, the world slowly and slowly became more fantastical.

[MajorHoy]

I use to rarely watch The Real World on MTV.

I wouldn't want the DCU to be like that.

[Ascended]

I think it's important for it to resemble our world almost entirely. So Superman's appearance on the world stage is a HUGE event that has shaken the very foundations of society. Everything else follows that.

You can have your Cadmus running weird ass experiments on people, in the subways of Metropolis. Atlantis is a thing that humans are vaguely aware of. Aliens visit. Things are weird, and different, but enough of that stuff happens on the fringes of society that the world itself kinda just chugs along as normal.

I don't want things to be even slightly utopian. We don't live in anything remotely utopian, so neither should our heroes. They should rage against injustices to try and craft a better day.

I totally agree that the DCU should resemble our own world almost exactly, until superhumans arrive. Once that happens, history should turn out differently and I want to see that reflected, at least to some degree. If the current DCU is set ten-ish years after Clark's debut, then the last decade of DC history and the advancements and developments and changes, shouldn't be almost exactly like what has really happened.

That's not to say the world should be a perfect utopia (that's what the villains are for) but there should be changes, some large and some small.

As an aside, way back in the early days of Invincible (RIP!) they introduced Midnight City.....where some crazy mage had put the whole city under a dome of shadow. He was stopped but the spell was never broken, so the city just had to learn to deal with it being night all the time. Its protector was a crazy Batman riff (because obvious commentary is obvious) and I just loved the whole concept. Been wanting to see some of that in the DCU ever since.

[DrNewGod]

It depends on the character. Batman and Green Arrow have to be distorted into something beyond their most popular interpretations if the implications of a world that includes, Flash, Green Lantern, Superman, and Wonder Woman are fully imposed upon their adventures. But limiting Flash, Green Lantern, Superman, and Wonder Woman to a world that's best suited to Batman and Green Arrow would take a lot of the potential (and, a lot of the fun) out of those characters. Moreover, even the pre-superhero historical world can't look too much like our own, if we're to have room for the likes of Gorilla City, Atlantis, Dr. Fate, and Vandal Savage.

At the same time, if you really let what some of the more powerful characters can do have real impact on the world around them, it wouldn't be long before we're no longer writing about a world to which any new reader can easily relate.

To me, all that suggests that the best approach is to keep the DCU close to our world, but not perfectly so, and don't get too hung up on continuity. Use continuity to flavor the setting, but don't let it be the only taste that a reader can detect.

[LordMikel]

I use to rarely watch The Real World on MTV.

I wouldn't want the DCU to be like that.

That was great.

[Killerbee911]

Having Superheroes grounded in the real world makes it easier for the writers but then leaves obvious questions

1. A teenager can't get a license until 16, drink or join the military until 18 but they can fight as superheroes with no issues?

2. They are spaceships, people coming back from the dead, magics and crazy inventions but war,diseases are still around in the same form with advance tech or magic.

3. Why doesn't a superhero(s) dedicate themselves to guarding prisons? I mean seriously how many times is someone going to escape from Arkham or Belle Reve

Planting superheroes in the real world makes more logical stories but also bring along real world issues. It is not a bad idea for DC or Marvel to have different internal logic. DC would benefits a little more different universal logic than say Marvel, DC has fake cities as big part of its stories and strong tie to past with World War 2 . The prime set up for DC imo has older generation of heroes who fought in a World War( alt history World War 3 could do the trick) and Superheroes are strong accepted part of the culture (I can see superhero laws and even superhero schools like My hero academia being a thing in DC).

If I said that every hero in DC hero had to register for hero license and a teenager could register for hero permit at 16 which allows them save people primarily and fight villains if the situation call for it. That would make sense right? If I said that DC heroes are still running around in capes and domino mask because that is tradition and makes people remember the older heroes in the past who were loved that would make sense too right? So I guess diverging from the real world makes more sense for DC to me because ask the question more why didn't the Justice League step in at DC.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I think superheroes work better as metaphors for real world problems. If you think about any of these characters with any degree of realism, they tend to fall apart, particularly the supposedly more grounded characters like Batman.

Despite Christopher Nolan's hopelessly pretentious attempts to make Batman seem plausible, the character simply isn't. He'd be dead or seriously injured for life in a week and his tactics would inevitably result in the deaths of dozens of criminals and innocent people. He would not be considered a hero. He would be considered a crazy maniac because that's exactly what he is. An entitled rich douchebag traumatized by witnessing his parents' murder in front of him would be exposed almost immediately and the public would not be in fan of his completely irresponsible actions. Not only would it not help prevent crime, it would encourage more vigilantism and any criminal apprehended would have a perfectly valid legal claim that would get their charges dropped.

So, no, I don't want a realistic DCU. I want real emotional stakes and complexity, but I am under no illusions that the adventures of people running around in tights punching each other is something that makes sense in a real world setting.

[Timothy Hunter]

Having Superheroes grounded in the real world makes it easier for the writers but then leaves obvious questions

1. A teenager can't get a license until 16, drink or join the military until 18 but they can fight as superheroes with no issues?

2. They are spaceships, people coming back from the dead, magics and crazy inventions but war,diseases are still around in the same form with advance tech or magic.

3. Why doesn't a superhero(s) dedicate themselves to guarding prisons? I mean seriously how many times is someone going to escape from Arkham or Belle Reve

Planting superheroes in the real world makes more logical stories but also bring along real world issues. It is not a bad idea for DC or Marvel to have different internal logic. DC would benefits a little more different universal logic than say Marvel, DC has fake cities as big part of its stories and strong tie to past with World War 2 . The prime set up for DC imo has older generation of heroes who fought in a World War( alt history World War 3 could do the trick) and Superheroes are strong accepted part of the culture (I can see superhero laws and even superhero schools like My hero academia being a thing in DC).

If I said that every hero in DC hero had to register for hero license and a teenager could register for hero permit at 16 which allows them save people primarily and fight villains if the situation call for it. That would make sense right? If I said that DC heroes are still running around in capes and domino mask because that is tradition and makes people remember the older heroes in the past who were loved that would make sense too right? So I guess diverging from the real world makes more sense for DC to me because ask the question more why didn't the Justice League step in at DC.

1. Superheroism in the DC universe, and fiction at large, is typically presented in a grey area between the legal and illegal.

2. My thinking would be that the diseases that are common place in this world would probably be eradicated in the DC Universe by extraterrestrial technology. However, that always leaves open for diseases from other planets that alien technology hasn't yet learned how to master to wreck havoc on Earth.

3. Smart idea. This would actually make a good subplot in a DC book.

[DGraysonWorldsGreatestSpy]

Places In the DCU: If you take it from a World Of Tomorrow stand point then Seasteading & Terraforming The Earth is well within the human grasp.
Superheroes: A melding Between Machine & Man can resemble powers in some way but for real close superheroes you need nuclear fusion or exotic/designer elements.