-Post-COIE
-New 52
-Nolanverse
-and from what I'm seeing so far, DCEU.
Overrated universes imo:
-Arkham videogames
-Young Justice
-DCAU
-Flash/Arrow-verse
-Post-COIE
-New 52
-Nolanverse
-and from what I'm seeing so far, DCEU.
Overrated universes imo:
-Arkham videogames
-Young Justice
-DCAU
-Flash/Arrow-verse
Post-Crisis
Pre-Crisis
DCAU
YJU
Arkhamverse
"It's too bad she won't live! But then again, who does? - Gaff Blade Runner
"In a short time, this will be a long time ago." - Werner Slow West
"One of the biggest problems in the industry is apathy right now." - Dan Didio Co-Publisher of I Wonder Why That Is Comics
Justice Riders and Gotham by Gaslight. I am a sucker for those Victorian-era elseworlds. Was one of the earths in Multiversity a combination of those two? I would absolutely read a book set on that world...
Arrowverse
Current Pull: Lazarus, The Realm, Seven to Eternity, Aquaman, Flash, Justice League Dark, Justice League Odyssey, Sideways, Black Panther, Captain America, Daredevil, Death of the Inhumans.
Future Pull: Killmonger.
For me it's a tie between pre-Crisis Earth-2 and Earth-1. (Yeah, I'm old school).
Vertigo always seemed an odd fit for the mainstream DCU. Constantine, at least up until the reboot, aged in real time. So you had a Constantine in 1984 that interacted with Swamp Thing who in turn interacted with characters like Superman and Batman and was still interacting with a 30 year old Superman right up until the end of his run (I think just prior to the reboot there was a White Lantern Swamp Thing story where he teamed up with Superman and Batman. By that point, DC was trying to force the Vertigo line to interact with the mainstream DCU much more). In a way, it's a Constantine who lived through the reboots of the DCU and still remembered it. And then you had Animal Man who was so meta, he didn't really fit in either world. Grant Morrison kind of ruined the character for anyone who came after him by putting himself into the comic.
Meanwhile, in the mainstream Constantine title, he got further and further away from the DCU to the point where having him take place in the same universe as super-heroes just seemed kind of silly. I think DC really missed an opportunity to give them their own universe with the reboot. It could have consisted of Constantine, Swamp Thing, Sandman, Shade, Kid Eternity, and a non-costumed Animal Man. Throw in I, Vampire and maybe Resurrection Man and Klarion the Witch Boy and you'd have a complete universe. Maybe have some kid in the background reading a Superman comic to indicate that this is indeed a wholly separate universe from the mainstream DCU.
I'll elaborate a bit on post-Crisis. The DC Universe was one single (if messy) Universe, and the JLA got to interact with their JSA counterparts, who were given their own space and their own roles as mentors. Having characters with crossovers was no issue. Continuity is always a pain, but post-crisis, we had a streamlined revision of the characters' past and most of my favorite stories come out of the decades of adventures that followed as new takes and modern writing enriched these characters.
I'm a bit confused by people who like the "Arrowverse/DCAU" the best. I enjoyed the DCAU a lot but you're basically getting a dumbed-down version of a lot of these characters. Batman's essence is preserved, sure, but you only get one version or interpretation of him. Same with Superman, who is also a little dumbed down. You only get 1 Green Lantern in John, who's origins and backstory are ignored, and a comic-relief version of the Flash. Again, I enjoyed it, but it's so limited compared to what's available in much of the source material.
The Arrowverse...I haven no words. Teen Soap Opera about Bruce Wayne with a bow.
#1 is Pre-COIE
Honorable mention to Post-COIE...the first couple of years....before DC made a mess of Hawkman (Katar Hol).
"History of the DC Universe" by Wolfman and Perez, when the DCU use to make sense.
Pre-Crisis DCU: Specifically the Bronze Age, with Earth-1, Earth-2, and the multiverse--trying to cram everything together is what started the decades of reboots and revamps. I'm surprised they didn't just introduce a combined Earth (i.e. with elements of Earths-1, 2, 4, and S) as another world in the multiverse to test out the concept before ditching the entire multiverse--granted, I never would have gotten rid of the multiverse, but maybe at least test it first before destroying everything else. In any case, I liked the Maggin and Bates' Superman, the Batman titles, the Titans, and the Legion--DC was riding high and I think they essentially snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, despite the short-term interest Crisis and the aftermath generated it ultimately led to a downward spiral and a series of fixes that just led to more problems.
DCAU: This ranks slightly above the New 52 because it was around for longer and spanned many different shows, and yet made them all fit together into a cohesive whole. It was a universe where characters acted as they should given what was previously established by other shows and gave us some great character moments and revitalized interest in many lesser known ones. Truly one of the best things DC has done.
New 52: I loved what Morrison did with Superman and Azzarello did with Wonder Woman and there were much less continuity hiccups than after COIE, but wasn't as smooth as it should have been, particularly since DC had the benefit of knowing EVERYTHING that went wrong after COIE, yet they still made many of the same mistakes (though far less than before, thankfully). Overall, I'm happy with it, though, and don't want to see it go away--I want to see these characters develop in new ways.
Post-Crisis DCU: To be honest, I feel odd ranking this as one era, since it changed far more frequently than the others, resulting in a mixed bag overall. There are certain things I like from the post-Crisis DCU, but they never seemed to take place in same post-Crisis DCU (if that makes sense). I suppose I liked the "event era" of the post-Crisis era the best--Infinite Crisis, 52, Final Crisis, the Rebirth series, Blackest Night, Johns' Green Lantern and his retooling of Brainiac, etc al. Granted, the event era, as I call it, proved the law of diminishing returns, but it also had all the creators I liked working on all the characters I liked.
1. Pre-Crisis DCU. COIE destroyed a lot of what made DC fun. Since then they have tried to be Marvel Lite. (Which is kinda funny now because over the past few years, and especially with Secret Wars, Marvel has gotten to feel more like old-school DC than the traditional, reality-based Marvel.)
2. Timm-verse DCU. Justice League Unlimited was much more interesting than the Justice League comics were at the time it aired, and indeed it was the best representation of DC's superheroes since the Silver Age of comics. Batman: the Animated Series was a masterwork, as was the Superman series and Young Justice. I would have been entirely happy if the DCU had rebooted into that mold.
My least favorite version of the DCU is definitely everything that came after Flashpoint. The only good thing about Flashpoint and the New 52 is that they made a great jumping-off point.
1.) Pre-Crisis (especially the Bronze Age - Loved the Bronze Age Superman, Batman, JLA, Teen Titans, Legion of Superheroes, The Barry Allen Flash, Green Arrow/Green Lantern team up and Earth 2)
2.) The Flashpoint Universe ( Loved Thomas Wayne Batman)
3.) The Flarrowverse
4.) Gotham by Gaslight
5.) DCAU
6.) Post-Crisis ( Superman, Batman, The Flash (Wally West), Hawkworld, Green Arrow: Longbow Hunters)
Last edited by Mister BoMan; 01-15-2016 at 07:57 AM.