Originally Posted by
Ascended
Well, Im a bit torn on the topic myself.
DC's entire mystical cosmology is a really weird mess. You have christian angels and demons, Greek myths, Egyptian gods, New Gods, and gods from other mythologies pop up once in a while as well. And then there's new characters and concepts that come from those, like Trigon, Etrigan, Dr. Fate, ect. And then the weird universal forces like the Red and the Green. So....how many creation myths are we working with here? How many sun gods and gods of war and gods of toe nail clippings and whatever else? And then there's the giant hand at the beginning of the universe, gods from other planets who have shown up (X'hal, Rao). Are imps and elves and leprechauns really 5th dimensional imps, as some stories say, or are they creatures of magic and myth, as other stories say? What about the Endless? What about Uncle Sam? Is he really the manifestation of American patriotism, and if so how does he and those like him fit into things?
And so on and so forth.
For the most part, this is a non-issue. I just roll with whatever the story in my hands tells me and I dont worry much about the wider DCU or the contradictions that crop up. But the rest of the universe is fairly well defined, whereas the myths are just all over the place.
So before DC started playing around with other mythologies (more than they already do) I'd like to see some sort of effort put into smoothing all that out and coming up with a explanation for how all these beings, who largely overlap each other, co-exist. Are they all just manifestations of the Source playing pretend? Are they reflections of each other, like the Roman and Greek gods were portrayed for a time in Wonder Woman? Independent agents who all work with and/or against each other? Are they multiversal or limited to just one reality (we know the New Gods cross dimensional borders but what about the rest?) Are the New Gods really what came after the Norse Ragnarok, as Kirby originally conceived, or what? Just what, exactly, is going on? Can all of these conflicting myths even be tied together, no matter how loosely?
All that said, I'd like to see figures from folklore brought into the DCU. Paul Bunyan, John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, Pescos Bill.....and that's just in America, there are tons of fascinating folk heroes (and villains) from all corners of the world who could show up in the DCU.
As for gods.....Chinese myth is something I know very little about but always found interesting. Aztec and other Central American mythologies are full of great characters, and I'd love to see what could be done with the Norse pantheon, even if that is overdone already in the comics industry.