u/MagicJoshByGosh

I love superheroes, and I’ve always been a fan of writing stories about the characters I love. While one of my biggest passion projects that I talk about here all the time involves hundreds of original characters in an expansive multiverse of superhero stories, I definitely don’t shy away from writing stories about the heroes and villains we all know and love. I’ve written some tales about Marvel and DC characters where I either drop them into an unfamiliar situation, or have them cross over with one another in interesting ways, or I just completely rebuild their origin stories from scratch. But I’ve never really been sure of where I could share them with people. None of my close friends or family are really into that kind of stuff, and I don’t really branch out on the Internet to spread my ideas elsewhere on the web. I could post things on any of the various Marvel or DC subreddits, but those kinds of posts I’ve seen never really get any comments, and I love talking with people about my stories, so I would really appreciate people actually engaging and interacting with me so I can explain more lore or design choices that I neglected to mention in the post itself. So I figured I’d maybe post some things in this sub about my various ideas because I like to think this community is very supportive of each other and likes to ask questions and share advice — but as I’m sure you’re all aware, we don’t get many submissions about pre-existing characters here. But I don’t know if that’s because the folks here generally aren’t interested in that, or just because not many people have really thought about talking about these ideas on this platform.

I’m kinda rambling, but all in all, I was just curious to see if the creators here would be receptive to posts like the stuff I talked about, such as fanart of the potential child of the ever-popular Spider-Man / Supergirl ship, or an AMA about a universe where the Avengers are all high schoolers, or a Batman redesign from a world where he learned magic from Zatanna, or a what-if scenario where the Infinity Gems suddenly appeared in the DC universe, or any of a multitude of other potential ideas some of you geniuses might have. ‘Cause let me tell you, I think I have some cool ideas myself.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

I'm not sure if this is allowed on this sub, but I have literally no idea where else I could possibly post this and I refuse to get help from an LLM. I might be typing all this in vain. I guess we'll see. If you're reading this, though, then yay, it's allowed!

Anyway, I enjoy making little writing projects about various superhero things, including a relatively new idea where DC's been a champion of superhero cinema ever since selling the film rights to several of their most popular characters in the nineties to avoid going bankrupt, while Marvel had some success in the seventies and eighties before getting an unsuccessful cinematic universe in the 2010s and now a new rebooted one in recent years. I will say, while I am a big fan of both Marvel and DC, I know much more about Marvel lore than I do about their Distinguished Competition. Thus, I figured I'd ask the wonderful weirdos of Reddit for help in expanding this idea.

I have already made some headway in creating the various character and film matchups for this massive project. The real-world lore goes as follows:

DC was going bankrupt in the nineties, and to avoid this, they decided to sell the film rights to some of their plethora of superheroes and supervillains. Sony Pictures was offered their entire comic book pantheon, but foolishly decided that they only wanted Superman. Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox bought the rights to Batman and Wonder Woman, while Universal Pictures bought Green Arrow and a few other miscellaneous properties. Disney bought DC Studios after they finally got their own cinematic universe up off the ground, and now, in the present day, after Fox merged with Disney and Universal didn't do jack shit with Green Arrow for fifteen years, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Arrow are all back with their DC allies (pun very much intended) while Sony continues to work with Disney to produce Superman films set in this shared film world.

I know y'all on this sub love to match up Spider-Man with either the Flash or Nightwing (and for good reason, because all three characters are fairly similar in personality), I based these initial parallels on sales. The X-Men were consistently Marvel's best-selling IP (though I believe that has changed since the nineties), and Batman has always been DC's best-selling character. Second to the X-Men has usually been Spider-Man, and likewise with Superman over at DC. I figured I'd round out the Trinity by making Wonder Woman the Fantastic Four parallel (also considering they both have alliterative names, which I am just now realizing), and the Green Arrow / Hulk pairing is based on future creative decisions for this hypothetical DC Cinematic Universe. Also, the character of Zatanna, who is tangentially related to Batman via their childhood friendship, would have her rights shared between Disney and Fox before the merger, alongside a Quicksilver parallel that I haven't yet been able to figure out.

This would leave the rest of DC as the founding material for this DCCU (Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Universe DC Cinematic Universe). They would still have the rights to the Justice League as a group, but they wouldn't have the team's three biggest characters. This is the foundation of my idea. Superman has a couple solo franchises before joining the DCCU, while Batman and his supporting cast have their own universe and Wonder Woman has a few generally-panned movies before slowly being integrated back into the DCCU with their friends.

Some of the more important character parallels I have so far are:

- Superman / Spider-Man

- The BatFamily / the X-Men

- Wonder Woman / the Fantastic Four

- The Justice League / the Avengers

- Batman / Wolverine

- Green Arrow / the Hulk

- Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) / Iron Man

- The Flash (Barry Allen) / Captain America

- Aquaman / Thor

- Black Canary / Black Widow

- Martian Manhunter / Hawkeye

- Harley Quinn / Deadpool

- Nightwing / Cyclops

- Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) / Phoenix (Jean Grey)

- Alfred Pennyworth / Professor X

- The Joker / Magneto

- Lex Luthor / the Green Goblin

- Green Lantern (John Stewart) / War Machine

- The Flash (Wally or Ace West) / the Falcon

- Zatanna / the Scarlet Witch

- Doctor Fate / Doctor Strange

- Thunderbolts (aka the New Avengers) / Suicide Squad (aka the Justice League of America)

There are more that I either didn't think needed to be specified or didn't think were important enough to take up more text space and further reduce the chance of people reading through this. However, those were the big ones that have their names attached to huge franchises or are majorly important to this cinematic venture.

There are still a lot that I haven't figured out, though, and before I am fully able to move on with this idea, I need to finalize ideas. This list roughly sums up the most important ones:

- The Netflix crew (Daredevil, Luke Cage, Elektra, Jessica Jones, the Punisher, Iron Fist)

- Ant-Man and the Wasp (possibly either the Shazam Family or Hawkman and Hawkgirl)

- Black Panther

- Captain Marvel

- Vision (I thought about Red Tornado, but I don't know if that's good)

- Ghost Rider (maybe John Constantine?)

- Blade (also maybe John Constantine?)

- Quicksilver (someone kind of related to Batman but also to the Justice League as a whole)

- The Guardians of the Galaxy (their villains have all originally been FF villains repurposed for the GotG, so maybe this parallel could be someone Wonder Woman related?)

- Thanos (can't be Darkseid, because he's a Superman villain, but considering Thanos first appeared in an Iron Man comic, maybe this one could be Green Lantern related?)

- The Eternals (I was thinking the New Gods for this one, but I'm unsure)

- Venom

- Shang-Chi

- The various other pre-Disney+ television characters (the Runaways, the Gifted, Cloak and Dagger, Helstrom, Legion, the Inhumans)

- Moon Knight

- She-Hulk (I was thinking Arrowette or Red Arrow for this one)

- Agatha Harkness

- Wonder Man

I think that's everyone and everything. Any help would be appreciated. I really like this idea, but I don't know nearly enough to properly do this. If you have any questions about other, less important character parallels I've come up with myself or my reasoning behind certain decisions that may help you think, I'll happily explain. Thank you to everyone who read through all this nonsense.

I made a huge mistake creating my characters first without most of the proper plotting. I know my characters’ physical descriptions, personalities, personal identities, and specialties, but I barely know anything about what actually *happens.* I even know exactly when I want some of the characters to die.

One of the downsides of excessive character outlining, I suppose.

I don't spend too much time on this sub, so I don't know if this has been a discussion among y'all, but has anyone else noticed this pattern with the Absolute headliners (Clark, Bruce, Diana, Wally, Jo, and John) and their main villains in the Prime Universe? Whatever the hero lost seems to have been given to their greatest villain.

- Clark didn't grow up with the farm life on Earth. Sure, he lived on a farm on Krypton with his parents, but now that he is an adult and Krypton has been destroyed, he has no true home. Lex, meanwhile, has — well, had, I guess — the farm life, with a loving family. He has (had) a true home.

- Bruce and his parents have never had the kind of money that the Wayne family on Earth 0 have. His dad was a teacher, and his mom was a social worker, and, while they weren't necessarily poor, they weren't Richie Rich rich. Meanwhile — though I don't think I have to spell this out for anyone who has been keeping up with the Absolute Universe — the Joker has immense wealth likely comparable to the Bruce Wayne we've known for years. He has all the sway, the tech, the help… which actually reminds me of something else. Bruce has essentially no one anymore, save for Alfred and Harley. (Maybe spoilers for AB #20?) >!And I guess Waylon is definitely still trying to keep their friendship going.!< Joker, however, has plenty of associates, including the extended Batfamily.

- Wally doesn't have the legacy associated with the Flash mantle. Barry never preceded him, so he has had no one to teach him the ways. And even Jay before him was never the Flash. However, the Thawne family has that exact legacy. Eobard in the forties(?), and now Elenore in the present day.

- Jo has Hal, Cam, her agent friends, and… that's kinda it. I mean, I guess John and Guy are there, too, but they don't really have much in the way of helping out physically. Meanwhile, Sinestro and the Black Lanterns have an entire Corps behind them, while the Green Lanterns are a scattered bunch who are slowly and methodically picked off, one after another.

- John… I'm not entirely sure. I haven't kept up with that series as much as I should have, so I'm not certain on this aspect in his story. If anybody has any ideas, please feel free to let me know.

This has made me wonder about Diana. She kind of has three "archenemies" that some comic fans debate about: Cheetah, Ares, and Circe. (I personally prefer Circe being considered her nemesis (no pun intended), but that's neither here nor there.) Most people — at least, the ones I've talked to about this topic — see Ares as taking the Green Goblin spot, while Cheetah and Circe take the Doctor Octopus and Venom spots, as a comparison. What if it is revealed in an issue of AWW somewhere down the line that Ares is actually a sort of ruler of Themyscira, subjugating the Amazons? This apparent trend would be continued with her, then, as the leading position on Paradise Island will have been taken from her and given to Ares.

Again, I don't know if I'm just now discovering this while everybody else already knows this as basic, fundamental information about the Absolute Universe and its various series. I might just be like an isolationist island tribe who finally invent sea travel, only to discover that modern society has literally been to space hundreds of times. I mean, it is kind of in the foundation of the Absolute Universe that hope and the side of good are the true underdogs, so it only makes sense that a clean swap would happen. I didn't even mention Flash's Rogues being something of a superhero team themselves in AF.

Anyway, I'm done ranting. Have other people noticed this? Am I simply late to the party?