Is DC's Magical Universe really that great?

Is DC's Magical Universe really that great?

I've read is centers around Atlantis before it sunk

If Captain Atom has taught me anything, it's that characters and comics that kind of take the sidelines compared to the more visible Justice League can be unexpectedly great.

So, I'm going to go with a "probably". Never read 'em myself, by virtue of the above. I'm starting to get into Dr. Fate though, and that's pretty good.

I recognize detective chimp and the phantom stranger. who are the rest of the people here? I think I recognize enchantress and blue devil, but I might be a pleb and be getting those wrong.

Nightshade is the blue girl.

Ragman is the guy who looks like his outfit is made of rags

>Is DC's Magical Universe really that great?
Yes. Besides Shadowpact, Dr. Fate and all that you've got all the Vertigo stuff. Sandman, Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, Lucifer. If you haven't read any of them go fucking do it now.
Marvel's magical stuff frankly sucks in comparison. All they've really got is Dr. Strange, Asgard (sometimes) and the survivors of Marvel's 1970s horror comics.

>chimp in suit
>mask guy in suit
>black haired girl in green outfit
>black haired girl in red outfit with skulls
>black haired girl in blue outfit
>patchwork clothing man
>hawk man
>blue man

you're welcome

As a marvel fan it's so much better than marvel, DC actually respects magic unlike marvel .

Thats only because they had the Vertigo stuff to augment it

DC uses magic as a reason to get really fucking meta, which is something I definitely like and respect. It's not an approach to magic that you see very often, but it set a good dividing line between science (the rules of the universe) and the stuff that is literally outside of it.

>Marvel doesn't respect magic
More like Marvel can't use most of their magic because they lost the rites to Conan.

Those Vertigo titles were always part of the DC universe, though. There was never a time when they weren't. I mean, hell, Swampy played a direct role in CoIE.

You're basically saying, "Mystic DC is only good because it has mystic DC."

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Azrael, Blue Devil, Detective Chimp, Phantom Stranger, Enchantress. I've forgotten who the lady in red is.

Their team is shadowpact and the title of the series was under the same name.

>it's another DC thread that needs a Marvel comparison in the first five posts

Because they keep it separate for the most part. There's crossoevers and magic in other titles, but the magic users usually stick their realms.

In Marvel you have Strange being the magical town bicycle.

Considering the shit Marvel does on twitter on a daily basis, I'd say that should be reversed. As far as I know only Simone talks shit to Marvel.

Pretty much any Marvel thread on Sup Forums will have a DC fan shitting on them in the first 5 posts. Any DC thread will have a DC fan bring up Marvel in the first 5 posts.

I like them both, but I really have to agree with Marvel has some good cosmic shit, at least they used to

I've got mixed feelings about DC's efforts to connect its magic characters, but I like that they try
Did anything come of the initials of "Shazam" being filled in with fictional DC deities?

I think what he's saying is that Marvel had a lot more "Clarke's Third Law" kind of stuff, which I know Kirby in particular favored, whereas DC's magic is underpinned more by the British invasion writers' very meta leanings. You could argue that magic is less respected if it's just treated as a subset of science.

It's a thread asking what makes DC's setting so great. Of course it's going to invite comparisons to its largest competitor; that's the easiest way to show how it stands out. Why does this need to be explained?

>Ragman actually is a normal guy under the costume

I always assumed he was like some ghost or some shit.

Isn't having clothes made of the sewn-together souls of the damned spooky enough?

The costume is possessed by a lot of spirits but there's always been a regular guy wearing it

I can get that. But I don't think it should be undersold just how important Conan was to mystic Marvel. Probably like 3/4 of the magical characters/creatures/magic items/ types of magic/cults/etc mentioned inMarvel comics from 1970-2000 had it's roots in the Conan comics that were being published. Major parts of the Marvel Universes history and creation story as well were tied to Conan. Once they lost that, they barely had anything left to work with magic wise but Doctor Strange and Magik. It's not surprising that it's taken till now for them to get interested i it again.

Bends didn't help either, with his hatred of Scarlet Witch and mishandling of Doc Strange.

Clockwise from the top: Phantom Stranger, Detective Chimp, Blue Devil, Zauriel, Nightshade, Ragman, Warlock's Daughter, Enchantress.

You mean during Darkseid War?
Nothing at all.

Start with the Books of Magic 4 part mini, then learn about anything that caught your eye.

They still have non-exclusive publishing rights to anything they created in their Conan stories, IIRC. They also have a very extensive Judeo-Christian magical side through their horror titles in the 70s and 80s. I think the bigger issue was that during the late 80s and early 90s when the X-titles became their big thing magic was pushed to the wayside and was mostly used as just another superpower so you had a good decade or so of influence where magic was downplayed.

Maybe, maybe not.

We got a great one shot out of it, and the future Shazam series Johns said might be coming might touch on it.

>source: my ass and my bias

Obviously he's the one shitposting in both threads.

A Shazam! series might not touch on it as his patrons aren't really brought up much and the New Gods don't really interact with him; the longer it takes for a Shazam! series to be published the less likely they are to deal with it.

>A Shazam! series might not touch on it as his patrons aren't really brought up much and the New Gods don't really interact with him; the longer it takes for a Shazam! series to be published the less likely they are to deal with it.

He only had 1 quasi-New God, S'ivaa, and then he had an Old God, Yuga Khan. The rest were normal deities. the Martian fire deity, Greek goddess lady, Australian Thunder God, and that Russian god, IIRC.

But yeah, the longer it takes, the less likely it is to be dealt with. I'd love the series to cover Billy having to get back the power from each of his original gods, with the plot impetus being something like gods from inside the Source have difficulty always being able to lend there power. Would be a cool way for him to travel and show off heroics, and slowly rebuild his original power set.

I just want the Shazamily back.

That would be nice too

it's a lot better than Marvel's... Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, Sandman etc. what said

Marvel has only Ghost Rider who's really just a normal superhero and Dr. Strange who hasn't been good since the 80s ... they were onto something good when they still had Tomb of Dracula but sadly I doubt anything of that scale will ever come about under current Marvel leadership

Fate has always been the "meat and potatoes" cornerstone of DC's more "magical side". Shazam!/Captain Marvel is kind of on the fringes and Blue Devil is more goofy & fun compared to the much more grim tone of the others

The ones I've listed are really the only ones that I've ever personally enjoyed. I've read others like Deadman, The Phantom Stranger, and The Spectre and thought they were "good, but just not for me"

You could just run it as no more than three Thunder Kids active at once or their powers fritz after a little while. Black Adam's back, Sivana is kicking around with Mr. Mind, they've set up Ibac, and laid a foundation for Isis and Osiris.

I always think of this place

It was then justice league dark happened.

A mini dr fate story time with art by timm.

>timm
>it's clearly Darwyn Cooke
Fuck I am a special kind of retarded.

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Happy fourth of july Sup Forums

Thanks for the little story. This made me smile. Gotta love Dr. Fate.

>Marvel had a lot more "Clarke's Third Law" kind of stuff, which I know Kirby in particular favored, whereas DC's magic is underpinned more by the British invasion writers

That's a really good observation I hadn't noticed before.

To add to it, it's a common belief that "Marvel has better cosmic, DC has better magic" but in a lot of ways they're kind of one and the same, aren't they? Everything in Marvel is dripping with Kirby's influence, including the very laws of their universe, and so everything magic is tied to the sci-fi cosmic side of things.

DC's universe is a culmination of so many different genres over so many decades that magic and science have both been presented in disparate ways so that they CAN'T be conflated even if someone wanted. Thus both magic and sci-fi are rooted in very old concepts and ideas, whereas Marvel was all founded on pop-science ideas of the 60's and 70's.