Who are DC's major cosmic figures?

[shaxper]

I've been reading a lot of classic Doctor Strange lately, which is like a guided tour through Marvel's cosmic universe. I've seen a long list of beings that could destroy the planet with a snap of their fingers, from Dormamu, Umar, and Zom to Eternity, Death, Galactus, and the Living Tribunal that encompasses all three of them. Then you have a character like the Beyonder who uses humans as his play toys when he grows bored.

On the DC side, you've got The Spectre and Anti-Monitor, and, on a far lesser level, The Phantom Stranger and the Greek Gods of Paradise Island (which are comparable to Marvel's Norse gods).

Is that really all DC has in contrast? Am I being very forgetful and leaving someone important out?

[jv2k]

The new gods.
The endless.
Many other mythological gods.
Batman.

[NotSuper]

I'd say that Superman-Prime counts. He's got the powers of a pre-Crisis Kryptonian and has absorbed excess energy from a Guardian.

[shaxper]

The new gods.

Would you really rank them on the scale of being able to wipe out an entire planet, though? Darkseid's a real bad-ass with an army to be feared, but could he really sock it out with Galactus?


And who is The Endless?

[Zero Hunter]

And who is The Endless?

The characters from Sandman.

Dream, Death, Destiny, Desire, Delirium, Destruction, and Despair

[Superbeast]

Would you really rank them on the scale of being able to wipe out an entire planet, though? Darkseid's a real bad-ass with an army to be feared, but could he really sock it out with Galactus?


And who is The Endless?

I think you meant who are The Endless, the answer to which is Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair and Delirium.

All the members of The Quintessence are virtually God like. They include Marvel, Zeus, Highfather, The Phantom Stranger, Ganthet and The Spectre. It's why The Spectre tried to take them out individually so they couldn't get in his way as a group.

[shaxper]

I think you meant who are The Endless, the answer to which is Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair and Delirium.

Ah, thank you. I thought Sandman wasn't part of the actual DCU, though.


All the members of The Quintessence are virtually God like. They include Marvel, Zeus, Highfather, The Phantom Stranger, Ganthet and The Spectre. It's why The Spectre tried to take them out individually so they couldn't get in his way as a group.

This is an area of the DCU that I apparently know nothing about. So Highfather and Ganthet always possessed these powers, or were they given to them more recently?

So, if I understand you correctly, alone they don't count as much more than, say, a Doctor Strange type character, but combined they pose a serious cosmic threat?

[CYOTI]

This is an area of the DCU that I apparently know nothing about. So Highfather and Ganthet always possessed these powers, or were they given to them more recently? No they were always
incredibly power. Ganthet being a Guardian of the Universe and Highfather being one of the eldest and the mightiest of the New Gods.

[Superbeast]

Ah, thank you. I thought Sandman wasn't part of the actual DCU, though.



This is an area of the DCU that I apparently know nothing about. So Highfather and Ganthet always possessed these powers, or were they given to them more recently?

So, if I understand you correctly, alone they don't count as much more than, say, a Doctor Strange type character, but combined they pose a serious cosmic threat?

Well Sandman did feature Wesley Dodds and Etrigan so I don't know why you'd think that.

The Guardians have existed since the dawn of time and Ganthet was the most highly regarded of them for a long while. Highfather is immortal and has also existed for an unknown amount of time. Shazam also existed for many centuries as part of the Quintessence. Spectre as God's Vengeance again has existed forever, possibly before the universe was even created. Only Phantom Stranger was a relative rookie although now Marvel is since Shazam's death.

They are WAY beyond Doctor Strange in terms of power even on their own. Only Marvel might be on that level these days. Think more Living Tribunal level powers. These guys are so powerful even death hasn't stopped Highfather or Shazam from continuing to exist on another plane.

[BeastieRunner]

Ah, thank you. I thought Sandman wasn't part of the actual DCU, though.


Brave and the Bold has been using Destiny a lot lately and the Challengers of the Unknown have the Book of Destiny right now.

[DDM]

I think you meant who are The Endless, the answer to which is Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair and Delirium.

All the members of The Quintessence are virtually God like. They include Marvel, Zeus, Highfather, The Phantom Stranger, Ganthet and The Spectre. It's why The Spectre tried to take them out individually so they couldn't get in his way as a group.

"Is" & "are" are both correct in describing the Endless since they are a group of individuals who sometimes act together since Endless is a group noun. It just depends what he wants to convey.

[Superbeast]

Addressing a group is generally plural unless they are working together att that time eg "The Justice League is on it's way" "The Endless is at work now", which The Endless rarely do. So it would be still generally be "are". Now if he said "What is The Endless and what can they do?" or "What is the influence of The Endless in the DCU?" rather than "Who is The Endless?" which is a singular mode of address and inquiry then that'd be different, however since they are singular aspects of a larger collective,"are" is still more appropriate.

However thanks for adding nothing to the thread other than a post to critique my grammar.

Anyway, Shaxper, a list of DC cosmic beings on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_entities_(DC_Comics)

List of Gods can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gods_%28DC_comics%29

The top dog of all affairs once was The Presence who has never been fully revealed but it seems the current God of the DCU is Elaine Belloc after The Presence abandoned the role. Yes. their God is called Elaine.

[Slaughter]

The cosmic powers in the DC Universe are:

The Presence - THE SUPREME BEING.

Kismet - She's like Eternity in the Marvel Universe, you can see her in JLA/Avengers, she is also had very important roles in the Superman's comics.

The Endless - Don't know much about them.

Imperiex - Imperiex is the living embodiment of Entropy. His mission is to end the current universe and start a new one. Kinda thought as the Galactus of the DC Universe, but stronger and more powerful.

The Old Gods - They are the ones who existed before the New Gods. In the end, they destroyed themselves, unleashing the godwave.

The New Gods - They are the gods who came after the Old Gods. Darkseid, Highfather... you get it. Possibly the most powerful pantheon in the DC Universe.

The Black Racer - He's death, but for New Gods.

And there's also the Malthusians and their spin-off races: The Guardians of the Universe, the Zamarons and the Controllers.

[marshal99]

Dominus is another cosmic being , and should be far beyond superman's capabilities but PIS dictates otherwise.

[Superbeast]

The Endless - Don't know much about them.



"The Endless are merely patterns. The Endless are ideas. The Endless are wave functions. The Endless are repeating motifs. The Endless are echoes of darkness, and nothing more...And even our existences are brief and bounded. None of us will last longer than this version of the Universe." Take note, DDM.

They came into being the second anyone imagined their concept and predate Earth's existence. They are basically ideas made tangible although they can choose how they appear and try to appear in a form most acceptable to that race. Each has their own kingdom which they reign supreme over and which represents them in appearance. While they can die by letting Death take them, they must accept it and let her, the idea behind them can't die though and must be passed on, if that didn't occur it would end up causing severe devastation by upsetting the order of the universe.

[Shellhead]

With the recent interaction with Destiny and his Book in Brave & the Bold, maybe we could see more of the other Endless. It's funny how two of DC's nicest and most likeable characters are Death and Destruction. Technically, Destruction retired years ago, and nobody holds that office right now. Maybe they could have a great storyline involving the mainstream DC characters and the introduction of a new Destruction.

[Eumenides]

Overlooked cosmic characters:

Extant: I know he's not popular among fans, but he does have amazing powers. Especially when he had the worlogog with him, he could control Time.

Time Trapper: another villain who can control Time, create pocket dimensions and take on the Legion of Super-Heroes on his own.

Infinite Man: DC sure loves villains with omnipotence over Time :D

Solaris: alas, if only someone would bring him back to the DCU, he'd be a major cosmic threat.

Sun-Eater: it took Parallax, energized by Oa's Power Battery, to defeat one of these creatures. And supposedly there are more of them in space.

[DDM]

Addressing a group is generally plural unless they are working together att that time eg "The Justice League is on it's way" "The Endless is at work now", which The Endless rarely do. So it would be still generally be "are". Now if he said "What is The Endless and what can they do?" or "What is the influence of The Endless in the DCU?" rather than "Who is The Endless?" which is a singular mode of address and inquiry then that'd be different, however since they are singular aspects of a larger collective,"are" is still more appropriate.

However thanks for adding nothing to the thread other than a post to critique my grammar.

Anyway, Shaxper, a list of DC cosmic beings on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_entities_(DC_Comics)

List of Gods can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gods_%28DC_comics%29

The top dog of all affairs once was The Presence who has never been fully revealed but it seems the current God of the DCU is Elaine Belloc after The Presence abandoned the role. Yes. their God is called Elaine.

A group does not have to addressed in the plural verb though; that's one of the great things about group nouns. Either the singular or plural form is correct in this case. The group can be taken as a singular as well as just one group.

[Superbeast]

A group does not have to addressed in the plural verb though; that's one of the great things about group nouns. Either the singular or plural form is correct in this case. The group can be taken as a singular as well as just one group.

Go read the quote I put up from Sandman #40 on the other page where the group of The Endless are adressed with "are" and then please drop it.

Also an underrated cosmic character: Access. The only guy who can cross over from the Marvel to DC universes and back.

[Eumenides]

You know, the more I think about it the more I believe the DCU is pretty poor in Cosmic Characters in comparison with Marvel, which is odd considering DCU has a longer continuity and had a longer Silver Age history.

On the other hand, the DCU has more and better mystic/occult characters than Marvel. That's my perception anyway.

[Sijo]

Marvel's Cosmics began in the same, vague fashion that DC's did, they just got organized and expanded upon better.

Far as I can tell, only the Monitors (Pre-Crisis) count as true Marvel-type Cosmics (the current Monitors are pathetic.)

Everybody talks big about The Endless but what have they done, really, other than exist for billions of years (and whine about it all the time?) Not a single one of them appeared in any of the Big Crisis. They might as well be Vertigo-only characters.

And I'm pretty sure the Lucifer stories were he becomes Godlike and then God is replaced by a woman are not canon. :p

As for the New Gods, they aren't anymore Cosmic than the Marvel Gods, though they do have supertechnology. Only The Source itself counts as Cosmic (Highfather gets his power from it.)

And the Quintaessence is just a group of mystics gathered together to observe but rarely interfere. Seriously, I don't know where this notion of Phathom Stranger being in Spectre's league comes from, that obviously wasn't the case in "Day of Vengance".

Kismet and Dominus are lords of Order/Chaos, yes they're supposed to be Masters of Reality but again, nothing really impressive has been done with them. Kismet basically has been hiding from Dominus all the time.

[dupersuper]

And I'm pretty sure the Lucifer stories were he becomes Godlike and then God is replaced by a woman are not canon. :p


Since it was a Sandman spin-off, I'm pretty sure it is...

[666MasterOfPuppets]

The cosmic powers in the DC Universe are:

The Presence - THE SUPREME BEING.

Kismet - She's like Eternity in the Marvel Universe, you can see her in JLA/Avengers, she is also had very important roles in the Superman's comics.

The Endless - Don't know much about them.

Imperiex - Imperiex is the living embodiment of Entropy. His mission is to end the current universe and start a new one. Kinda thought as the Galactus of the DC Universe, but stronger and more powerful.

The Old Gods - They are the ones who existed before the New Gods. In the end, they destroyed themselves, unleashing the godwave.

The New Gods - They are the gods who came after the Old Gods. Darkseid, Highfather... you get it. Possibly the most powerful pantheon in the DC Universe.

The Black Racer - He's death, but for New Gods.

And there's also the Malthusians and their spin-off races: The Guardians of the Universe, the Zamarons and the Controllers.

Didn't Kismet sacrifice herself by giving her power to Superman during OWaW? Or was the whole thing retconned?

As for Imperiex, he was sent by Superman to the beginning of time. Darkseid himself said that this would have consequences that we have never seen hinted at in any DCU comic book.

BTW, Darkseid shoud be in the list, IMO.

[666MasterOfPuppets]

With the recent interaction with Destiny and his Book in Brave & the Bold, maybe we could see more of the other Endless. It's funny how two of DC's nicest and most likeable characters are Death and Destruction. Technically, Destruction retired years ago, and nobody holds that office right now. Maybe they could have a great storyline involving the mainstream DC characters and the introduction of a new Destruction.

I hope so. But didn't DC need the permission of Neil Gaiman or something?

BTW, I always remember this Pre-Crisis story in which Destiny himself paid Superman a visit.

[666MasterOfPuppets]

Overlooked cosmic characters:

Extant: I know he's not popular among fans, but he does have amazing powers. Especially when he had the worlogog with him, he could control Time.

Time Trapper: another villain who can control Time, create pocket dimensions and take on the Legion of Super-Heroes on his own.

Infinite Man: DC sure loves villains with omnipotence over Time :D

Solaris: alas, if only someone would bring him back to the DCU, he'd be a major cosmic threat.

Sun-Eater: it took Parallax, energized by Oa's Power Battery, to defeat one of these creatures. And supposedly there are more of them in space.

I seem to recall that Superman defeated a Sun-Eater by himself during Casey's run in Adventures Of Superman. It was his run's last issue. A great read, IMO.

[666MasterOfPuppets]

BTW, I believe Grant Morrison is bringing back Solaris in his All-Star Superman run.

EDIT: Doesn't The Empire Of Tears have anything to do with this cosmic entity thingy?

[FanboyStranger]

And I'm pretty sure the Lucifer stories were he becomes Godlike and then God is replaced by a woman are not canon.

Actually fits perfectly with the new conception of Multiverse: Lucifer saves his own particular conception of reality, then heads off into the Bleed when it's all done.

Granted, I'm the one who said that Tim Hunter's role in BoM: Life During Wartime was a precursor to the revelation of the multiverse in 52.

This stuff can be done, continuity-people...

[Laughing Mask]

the guardians, captain marvel since he's now the retainer of the rock of eternity & the powers of shazzam, metron, darkside,

[JCAll]

DC also has the 5D Imps. But I've never seem a compelling explaination for their power level. And the level goes between absolutely unbeatable and utterly pathetic at the drop of a hat depending on the writer.

[Babylon23]

With the recent interaction with Destiny and his Book in Brave & the Bold, maybe we could see more of the other Endless.

I believe Neil Gaiman has to be consulted about the use of any of the characters he created for Sandman. Destiny was an existing DCU character, so DC can still use him whenever they like.