Gods (DC comics)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Various divine characters have appeared in DC comics publications over the years. This includes figures from actual mythologies and religions, as well as completely original ones.

Contents

[edit] List of gods

[edit] Terrestrial

  • The Atlantean Gods worshipped by ancient Atlanteans were Lords of Chaos and Order named Chaon (chaos), Gemimn (order), Tynan the balancer, and Deedra. As seen in the series Arion, Lord of Atlantis.
  • The Egyptian gods, through Shazam, granted Black Adam his powers. Several other DC characters, such as Hawkman, are connected (directly or indirectly) to the Egyptian deities.
  • The wizard Shazam was granted his original powers by a pantheon of now Forgotten Gods named: Voldar, Larem, Arel, Ribalvei, Elbiam and Marzosh.
  • The Greek gods have been featured in numerous comics, most notably in Wonder Woman and Hercules Unbound, later merged with the Roman Gods to re-form the Olympian Gods.
  • The Hindu Gods as represented by Rama were introduced in the pages of Wonder Woman.
  • The Gods of the Jejeune Realm appear in the comic book series Vext. They are describedas a pantheon of minor deities (invented for this series) that was broken up due to lack of worship, its members forced to live as normal humans. Although supposedly set in the DC Universe, it has not been referenced to since its cancellation.
  • The Gods of Mu from the lost continent of Mu, were trapped below the sea when it sank; they escaped briefly years ago but were recaptured by the Justice League (in Justice League of America v.1 #156) all except their goddess of love, who soon after was involved in the events surrounding the wedding of Ray Palmer and Jean Loring (JLA # 157.)
  • The Norse gods also exist in the DC universe, but are not as prevalent as in the Marvel Universe. A "Thor" battled The Sandman but this may have been an impostor. The Justice Society was trapped in a limbo fighting off Ragnarok for a few years (in "The Last Days of the Justice Society" special) but this was later revealed to be false Ragnarok and they were later released. Some Norse gods later encountered both the New Gods and the Justice League on separate occasions.
  • The Roman Gods were actually created when the Olympians split themselves in two in order to receive worship from both the Romans and the Greeks, not realizing that this was a trick by Darkseid to weaken their power. After the events of the "War of The Gods", the duplicated deities merged. It was from some of these gods that Captain Marvel received his powers, as did Son of Vulcan.
  • The Orishas, a group of elemental African deities, first appeared in a Firestorm, The Nuclear Man #95 March 1990.
  • The Parliament of Trees are Plant Elementals, and the "gods' of all plantlife on Earth.
  • The Titans of Myth were involved in Donna Troy's origin.

[edit] Cosmic

  • The Endless exist separately and above all the gods except the Presence. They interact with the various "deities" and with mortals.
  • The Kryptonian Gods Rao God of the Sun, and Cythonna Goddess Of Ice fought long battles against each other, referred to as "The Wars Of Fire and Ice".
  • Martian Gods worshipped by the Martian Manhunter include H'ronmeer, the Martian god of death, fire, love and art. and Lord L'Zoril', the Martian God of Dream (Morpheus of the Endless).
  • The Triarch are the three creator gods of Maltus, the Maltusians later evolve into the Guardians of the Universe. The first god Daalon sired three children; Quarra the Creator, Archor the Sustainer and Tzodar the Destroyer.
  • The New Gods are a race of giant alien gods invented by writer/artist Jack Kirby for his Fourth World Saga. They are descended from a Norselike race known as the 'Old Gods' who, billions of years ago, destroyed themselves in a great war, splitting their planet Urgrund in two; these halves would become the planets New Genesis and Apokolips. The destruction of Urgrund also unleashed the "Godwave" upon the universe, a wave of energy that created the terrestrial gods.
  • The Presence also known as or 'The Voice', is the fictional omnipresent deity of Judeo-Christian beliefs. It is represented as the actual creator of the universe, but according to the Rama arc in Wonder Woman is no more powerful than any other chief deity. Angelic and demonic characters such as the The Spectre, the Word, Eclipso Zauriel and Lucifer) were supposedly created by this being.
  • The Source is a shared cosmic consciousness deified by the New Gods.
  • The goddess X'Hal is a fictional deity from the Vega star system.

[edit] Vertigo

[edit] Events involving the gods

  • When Dream of the Endless obtained the keys to Hell, several pantheons competed to obtain them (note that some deities, such as Thor, are depicted incorrectly in this story.)
  • The gods of various pantheons were tricked into battling each other by the sorceress, Circe, in the War of the Gods crossover series.
  • Not long afterwards (in a Wonder Woman storyline) the Titans attacked the Hindu gods and the angels of the Silver City.
  • Recently, Zeus was deposed as ruler of the Greco-Roman gods by his daughter Athena with help from Wonder Woman.
  • During the Infinite Crisis, the Olympians and Titans left the universe to escape the coming chaos. However they may have now began to return as seen in current issues of Wonder Woman.

[edit] See Also