Wonder Woman - not Superman - is DC's first superhero of the Heroic Age

[stargazer01]

He wasn’t the first in Post Crisis or New 52, so I don’t think it will affect him at all to be honest.

who was the first in those versions?

[Tzigone]

who was the first in those versions?

JSA members in post-COIE, though I don't know which particular member. But really, Max Mercury was operating as Quicksilver and under other names and got his powers in the 19th century, as I recall. There may be others further back. IRL, Zatara premiered in Action Comics#1, too, but I don't recall him ever having a secret identity.

The Western heroes (some with secret identities) were made explicitly part of the same world - but I don't know if they already were before that. Of course, they didn't have powers.

I probably should look up early post-COIE to see who the first superhero was. I didn't really think of it until you asked, but it's a worthy question.

[bat39]

who was the first in those versions?

I think it was the Crimson Avenger in the Post-COIE timeline. With Jay Garrick also showing up fairly soon after.

In the New 52, Superman was supposed to be the first publicaly known superhero...though I don't think they really made such a big deal about it in-universe. There were certainly others before him who weren't publicaly regarded as 'superheroes'. Also, Batman, Aquaman and possibly Hal Jordan GL were all technically active before him.

[stargazer01]

I think it was the Crimson Avenger in the Post-COIE timeline. With Jay Garrick also showing up fairly soon after.

In the New 52, Superman was supposed to be the first publicaly known superhero...though I don't think they really made such a big deal about it in-universe. There were certainly others before him who weren't publicaly regarded as 'superheroes'. Also, Batman, Aquaman and possibly Hal Jordan GL were all technically active before him.

well Batman doesn't have powers and mostly works in his city. Aquaman has powers, but how much? Was he working in secret or openly? Green Lantern is a cosmic superhero. You assume he would get a lot of attention... Like Wonder Woman if she was very powerful and could fly.

Depends really on some factors.

[vasir12]

well Batman doesn't have powers and mostly works in his city. Aquaman has powers, but how much? Was he working in secret or openly? Green Lantern is a cosmic superhero. You assume he would get a lot of attention... Like Wonder Woman if she was very powerful and could fly.

Depends really on some factors.

Aquaman was a lot of power. Honestly in the New 52 everyone debuted around the same time.

[SiegePerilous02]

They all debuted around the same time, but I think it was written as Clark having them all beat publicly just a hair. AC #1 was the first of the New 52 titles launched, wasn't it? Along with JL. I think that conveys the intent that he was the first. He was even active as Superboy somewhat, maybe not to the extent he was in pre-Crisis, but he at least met the Legion. So while Arthur, Bruce and maybe Hal were technically active before his public debut as Superman, they weren't known or thought of as being real and we still have to factor in the Superboy time.

Even if Batman debuts first, he's kind of an outlier compared to the rest. He doesn't have any powers, he's basically a nut in a costume. He's not remotely realistic, but he wouldn't elicit the same "HOLY ****" reaction from the world that Superman, Wonder Woman or Aquaman would when they go public.

[Lokimaru]

They all debuted around the same time, but I think it was written as Clark having them all beat publicly just a hair. AC #1 was the first of the New 52 titles launched, wasn't it? Along with JL. I think that conveys the intent that he was the first. He was even active as Superboy somewhat, maybe not to the extent he was in pre-Crisis, but he at least met the Legion. So while Arthur, Bruce and maybe Hal were technically active before his public debut as Superman, they weren't known or thought of as being real and we still have to factor in the Superboy time.

Even if Batman debuts first, he's kind of an outlier compared to the rest. He doesn't have any powers, he's basically a nut in a costume. He's not remotely realistic, but he wouldn't elicit the same "HOLY ****" reaction from the world that Superman, Wonder Woman or Aquaman would when they go public.

Batman doesn't make one question the nature of reality. His continued popularity does but he doesn't.

[Last Son]

So wait, this means Wonder Woman and the JSA are the first superheroes known to the world?

This feels like DC just totally ignoring Action Comics #1..


I don't understand what relevance is Superman going to have in the comics after this..

It feels like there are some characters they feel they have to tie into World War II whereas with Superman, maybe his connection to the war is a little more loose. It's like how Steve Rogers always has to tie into World War II, rather than just have him be a supersoldier in a fictional war which is part of a floating timeline, or even retconning him into a more recent real-life war like they do with Tony Stark.

[DragonPiece]

This seemed like the best thread to put this, so the new DC timeline will be making it's debut sooner than we thought, in Wonder Woman 750: https://www.newsarama.com/48569-wond...yan-hitch.html

What's even more interesting and possibly Superman related is this quote from Didio: "There's been a lot of chatter, myself included, about our timeline," DiDio said in Facebook Q&A with retailers. "The purpose is to bring in a baseline of storytelling that brings a level of consistency and more uniformity in the interpretations of the characters. We are looking to build a series of books that will re-tell the history of the DC Universe. In some ways, that will become our bible for the DC Universe."

This seems to be our first confirmation we will get books detailing the history of the DC Universe, this has been badly needed for Superman since superman reborn so I'm glad this may be happening.

[Ascended]

I think it was the Crimson Avenger in the Post-COIE timeline. With Jay Garrick also showing up fairly soon after.

I'm pretty sure that's right.

In the New 52, Superman was supposed to be the first publicaly known superhero.

If I remember right, the earliest showing we have is Zero Year, where Bruce is just putting on a costume. In the Action Comics tie-in, Clark is already a public figure and has been for some short amount of time. So his public debut comes at least a couple weeks before Batman's, but probably not any longer than a month.

Then Morrison's opening Action arc hits; Clark's been public for six months in issue 1, and the hurricane in Zero Year is old news by then (Gotham has been rebuilt so it's been a few months at least). I think that first arc covers anywhere from an additional 1-3 months, depending on how long Clark stews in his brief "retirement" after the public turns against him, and at the end of that arc Clark finds the New52 armor and hears about new heroes (like Barry) starting to show up.

Metropolis hasn't finished rebuilding from being bottled by Brainiac when Darkseid attacks and the League is formed, so there likely isn't much of a time skip there; a few weeks, maybe a month or two.

So Clark was public somewhere around 7-9 months before Flash and the others, and maybe 2-4 weeks before Batman (who, though public, doesn't have any real profile outside of Gotham until Darkseid's invasion when he's seen with the others)

I don't remember when the opening arc of Pak's Superman-Batman arc hits. Clark is still in the t-shirt and Bruce is out of his prototype Zero Year costume, so it happens after the hurricane but before Brainiac bottles Metropolis. The heroes are forced to forget the encounter and remember Darkseid's invasion as their first meeting.

Aquaman was active before all of this with the Others, but they weren't public. Arthur was a folk tale told along the New England coast but that was largely it. So that doesn't discount Clark being the first public hero.

[Vordan]

This seemed like the best thread to put this, so the new DC timeline will be making it's debut sooner than we thought, in Wonder Woman 750: https://www.newsarama.com/48569-wond...yan-hitch.html

What's even more interesting and possibly Superman related is this quote from Didio: "There's been a lot of chatter, myself included, about our timeline," DiDio said in Facebook Q&A with retailers. "The purpose is to bring in a baseline of storytelling that brings a level of consistency and more uniformity in the interpretations of the characters. We are looking to build a series of books that will re-tell the history of the DC Universe. In some ways, that will become our bible for the DC Universe."

This seems to be our first confirmation we will get books detailing the history of the DC Universe, this has been badly needed for Superman since superman reborn so I'm glad this may be happening.

It just feels kind of pointless to try to give Supes a solid history when Bendis is on the books. Bendis doesn’t really care about the nitty gritty of continuity (neither do I to be honest) so whatever they do is going to end up having contradictions in the Bendis books. And to be fair to Bendis DC has already failed at doing this with Infinite Crisis, New 52, and Superman Reborn. How many times are we going to try to make sense of continuity at this point? Might as well just stick to Black Label stand-alone stories.

[NeonZ]

In the New 52, Superman was supposed to be the first publicaly known superhero...though I don't think they really made such a big deal about it in-universe. There were certainly others before him who weren't publicaly regarded as 'superheroes'. Also, Batman, Aquaman and possibly Hal Jordan GL were all technically active before him.

They were active before he went public, but Superman was shown to be active during Batman's Year Zero already in a tie-in, so he just was not widely known yet.

It just feels kind of pointless to try to give Supes a solid history when Bendis is on the books. Bendis doesn’t really care about the nitty gritty of continuity (neither do I to be honest) so whatever they do is going to end up having contradictions in the Bendis books. And to be fair to Bendis DC has already failed at doing this with Infinite Crisis, New 52, and Superman Reborn. How many times are we going to try to make sense of continuity at this point? Might as well just stick to Black Label stand-alone stories.

The issue with Reborn is that it seemed to be just a Superman editorial initiative, rather than linewide, even though it should have had linewide effects. It resulted in the New 52 JL getting referenced several times as the first one or the early days of the heroes by various writers even after Reborn, when that contradicts what was seen there.

[manwhohaseverything]

It just feels kind of pointless to try to give Supes a solid history when Bendis is on the books. Bendis doesn’t really care about the nitty gritty of continuity (neither do I to be honest) so whatever they do is going to end up having contradictions in the Bendis books. And to be fair to Bendis DC has already failed at doing this with Infinite Crisis, New 52, and Superman Reborn. How many times are we going to try to make sense of continuity at this point? Might as well just stick to Black Label stand-alone stories.

Is'nt bendis working with didio? Would bendis not care about something he helps to create?

[Vordan]

Is'nt bendis working with didio? Would bendis not care about something he helps to create?

Bendis doesn’t believe that continuity should be law that other writers must follow. He’s basically in the opposite school to the old Mike Carlin mandate that everyone MUST follow every continuity detail. He contradicted stuff he wrote over at Marvel pretty freely. He’s been better about it here at DC but I doubt he’s going to do a total 180 on his previous attitude. And don’t forget this is DC. Reboots meant to “fix” continuity happen about every five years because Didio will abruptly change direction whenever it pleases him.

[Superlad93]

I continue to be fine with this whole Wonder Woman being first thing. Her sometimes being already decades older than Clark and Bruce by the time they meet works with this.

Just as window dressing for the universe it works fine.

To be honest with you, I find myself more and more okay with and even interested with the timeline as I think about it.

This crazy idea that the present day in the DCU is 1997 but with the tech of 2020 is actually really fascinating to unravel. That inherently means that in the DCU space aliens and super smart people like Lex running around finally means something to the foundation of the world. It's like how in Watchmen Doctor Manhattan and Ozymandias, the two most extraordinary beings in that world, change it so that by the 80s they're in some ways more advanced than us in 2020.