Does the DC universe feel kinda....small to anyone else?

This Thread got me thinking about this. and while i think Forever Evil is awesome i can't help but feel like the DCU is kinda small. You have earth, wherever the GLs are and the fourth world.....is there more im unaware of? am i completely off base or does anyone else feel the same way?

It's because DC doesn't really focus on cosmic stories at all. They have as many if not more alien races and characters as Marvel, but Marvel tends to keep a pocket corner to have a consistent showcase for cosmic stories whereas DC tends to focus on Earth in general and Superman/Batman in particular.

What do you mean? The GLs aren't JUST on earth, they patrol the whole universe.

@night_thrasher: i think DC should ake an effort to flesh out their entire universe. i love superman and batman but they have other characters they can use as well

Multiple dimensions... When it comes to like, planes of existence, there's like that time traveller place. Pretty sure The Question has his own dimension right?..

@the_stegman: yeah thats why i said "wherever the GLs are"

@sog7dc: I think they tried with the beginning of New 52 but I think DC has less patience when it comes to sales than Marvel does. Because they will axe a book with modest sales a lot quicker than Marvel will it seems.

@night_thrasher: thats sad. i wish DC would take more chances. especially with a reboot. if theyre gonna do the same thing as pre-52 and focus on the trinity then what was the point?

"Cough" Larfleeze "Cough"

I think the OP meant that the Green Lantern Corps may patrol the entire universe, but we don't see a whole lot of it, or get a good view of it outside of them. Compare it to Marvel: Let's say the Nova Corps is the GL equivalent (since it basically is), and the Fourth World is the Negative Zone equivalent. What does DC have left? Lobo? The other Corps, which are basically just off shoots of the Green Lanterns?

Now compared to Marvel: We've got Galactus always running around with his Heralds, we've got the Kree and Skrulls fighting or otherwise developing. We've got the Guardians of the Galaxy running around, the Annihilators for a while. We've got the Shi'ar and what they're doing. We've got the Phalanx, the Phoenix Force, the Collector, we've got Beta Ray Bill, Thanos and his people. The Celestials. All these guys and things running around the cosmic part of the Marvel Universe.

And all DC has are the Corps, the Fourth World, and Lobo, to my knowledge.

exactly.

I have almost no interest in alternate universes, I think its one of the most convoluted things in comics. And I only sometimes care about things on a universal scale. (I still haven't got around to reading any of the New 52 GL books, or even GJ's run)

So its perfect for me. I'd rather they focus on Plant Earth. Its the only planet that matters to me 9/10.

Yeah, basically the DCU is completely limited to Earth. Minus the few occasions the GLC get's to go on a field trip.

technically still a "Lantern Book" the better and unfortunately sadder case is Threshold

Also. Valiant's universe is currently restricted to Planet Earth save 1 character who only sometimes goes off world.

And it feels larger and more epic than either Marvel of DC this year.

@fallschirmjager:

I only like alternate universes for the purposes of diverse and bold story telling. And multiverses open up the chance for so much opportunity in story telling. But my main thing is making the main DC universe feel like an actual universe. An ever expanding unimaginably massive place.

@sog7dc: you're off base... First of all currently the DC universe is very young and new, but overall the DC universe is huge, bigger than marvel universe actually, let me know if you want a detailed answer :)

That implies you have to use an alternate universe to tell diverse and bold stories. You do not. Its just a crutch. "Hey we're going to try something bold, but we're going to put it in an alternate universe in case it screws up so there's no real consequences"

or

"we want to try something different, but we can't figure out a way, so lets say its just an alternate universe!"

I pretty much don't care for it. The only alternate universe I've ever read is USM.

And again. You don't have to expand out in the the universe to do that. Planet Earth is fully capable of giving that feeling. Other companies have and are doing it right now.

@fallschirmjager:

I guess we must agree to disagree. Don't call it a universe if you're only going to focus on earth.

@blackdog2009:

Yes lol go into detail. Was pre-52 an expanded universe?

Read some Valiant titles and then see if you still feel that way. I'm only reading 4 of their books and it feels huge.

@fallschirmjager:

I'm reading archer and Armstrong, shadow man and bloodshot and it doesn't feel any bigger than marvel or DC

I think the Pre-52 DC universe was huge. But, it didn't 'feel' that way because of the way they utilized it. I think the OP isn't implying that Marvel is bigger, only that DC isn't really utilizing their cosmic assets. I got into DC seriously after 52 because of the fact of how epic it felt and how much bigger the DC catalog was compared to what I thought. My disappointment was really how little DC really pushed the non-Trinity books.

Did you read Harbinger Wars? How was that not huge? Just because they aren't in space doesn't mean things aren't happening on a grand scale. Things dont' have to literally be universal to have grand scale consequences.

My point is: You do not have to use cosmic events and alternative realities to have a grand story. If that's not whats being debated than I guess I misunderstood it.

@fallschirmjager:

I Haven't read harbinger wars yet.

I'd recommend it highly. It makes Forever Evil and Infinity look silly imo :P. And this is coming from someone who was barely reading any indie books prior to this year. Both Wars, and the main Harbinger series. X-O Manowar and Unity too. Unity might be even better than Wars!

If you still don't think it feel huge then we'll have to agree to disagree lol.

@fallschirmjager: I plan on reading them. Maybe after I get some Christmas cash lol.

@fallschirmjager: Yeah the OP wasn't really on scope but on scale. Meaning Marvel seems to focus more on cosmic events then DC does.

Perhaps this is a purposeful action on the company's part. Ever consider that? History plays a part in decisions. Ooooohhhh.....cryptic.

Larfleeze has as much to do with the Lanterns as Red Robin currently. He's part of it, but he's not used a lot in it.

Still he's the Orange Lantern Corps. Just like Batwoman has about as much to do with Detective Comics at the moment. A batbook is a batbook is a batbook.

And DC doesn't even utilize all of their earth heroes because they cancel titles after 3 months if they don't sell as well as batman (an exaggeration but you see what I mean)

Give it time to grow. I currently feel that Marvel's universe dwarfs it in size (just me,though),but give the DC universe more time to grow with all of their assets. When the Lantern universe grows and it (hopefully) establishes more,then I feel that they will be just as vast and diverse as Marvel's cosmic universe (but I think Marvel's has more depth and is a bit more vast because of its past history).

So basically,just give it time to develop more and it will seem more....vast.

Although I don't know why I brought up Marvel since that has nothing to do with this......

@cameron83:

My concern is that DC doesn't seem to have a good history of utilizing all their characters that aren't named Clark, Bruce or Diana

Oh my god this is currently how I feel.

But again,in due time the universe will develop more and more...competent writers (looking at you,Lobdell) will come along for corners of the universe that will then become more of a priority. But since the universe is only starting to grow recently,we will have to give it time.

Its because they focus so much on Superman/Batman at the detriment to everything else. In the perfect world they would have a minimum of 52 titles who's goal would be to have a wide and varied universe. But at the moment they are focused so much on month in and out sales I just don't see it happening till after Forever: Evil at the earliest.

@cameron83: @timelord: to me I think it should be one book per character except for team books.

I grew up a DC fanboy but am beginning to respect Marvel more in general, partly because of this, among other things.

@sog7dc: There are 4 justice league titles , worlds finniest , Superman/Batman and Batman and ... so 8 titles of The New 52 are team based books kind of sad when you think about it

@timelord: it really is. DC is kind of asleep at the wheel huh? It sucks DC won't evolve. It's like they rebooted for the sake of rebooting

@sog7dc: I love DC and if it wasn't for the new 52 I would not be here. But man do they need to take more chances with there characters why don't we have a Martian Man Hunter or Cyborg book yet? And editorial needs to back off and give there teams the creative freedom to do the jobs they were hired to do.

nice name.

@timelord: me as well. I almost walked out of my LCS empty handed til the owner told me about the new 52. But now i think it's messed up that Katana and Vibe have solos but Shazam Martian Manhunter and Orion don't....for goodness sakes DC has an entire host of characters in the new gods they refuse to utilize. They could do so much with the new gods....

@timelordscience: :) Time lord science? What Time lord science?.....

Its bigger on the inside. How many daleks in there? Millions.

Paraphrasing I know but its 930PM and I am drunk and on the internet and its Xmas eve here in NZ.

@sog7dc: Read Wonder Woman Orion is starting to take more of a staring role. But they have so many B and C list heroes that could sustain there own books if I had the power the things I would do differently.

I guess

hey, you got the specific reference! While drunk! haha.

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