The Marvel Universe was created in the 1960s whereas DC universe has evolved slowly. The DC Universe constantly churned up new characters and storylines and has constantly been expanding. This has given them an opportunity to further develop own characters, but, also to bring the superheroes belonging to other companies into their own multiverse.
They have done crossovers and have even acquired characters that originally belonged to Quality Comics, Charlton Comics, Archie Comics and also various standalone DC imprints of the past such as Milestone and WildStorm. The process of merging such popular faces into the new environment has been going on since the 1950s. Several of these superheroes had a brief run in the DCU, and then they went out whereas some of them have occupied a major position. In this list, let’s have a look at some of these popular superheroes who jumped from one company to another when their comic book worlds smacked into each other.
1. PLASTIC MAN (1956)
Plastic Man was created by Jack Cole, way back in 1941 for Quality Comics. He moved over to National Periodical Publications (DC’s name back in the 1960s) when they purchased it. While the then editor Julius Schwartz didn’t know about this acquisition, and they created a character called Elongated Man who was a copy of the Plastic Man. Later on, in the 90s he was a part of the Justice League, and Frank Miller referred to him as the mightiest superhero in The Dark Knight Strikes Again.
2. CAPTAIN MARVEL/SHAZAM (1972)
Captain Marvel was originally created by Fawcett Comics who lost its rights to DC/National when they sued the former for copyright infringement, and a bitter battle pursued that saw Fawcett settle the decade-long fight and go bankrupt in 1953. DC started publishing this character’s comics in 1972, but, they had to change the name from Captain Marvel to Shazam due to copyright issues with Marvel. He is a part of the main DCU and in 2011 was officially renamed as Shazam to avoid any issues with the DC’s main competitor.
3. BLUE BEETLE (1985)
DC acquired Charlton Comics Library’s characters in 1983 and asked Alan Moore to create a new saga for them. That story became Watchmen and later the actual Charlton Comics characters made their own entry into DC with Crisis on Infinite Earths when their world merged with the DCU.
Blue Beetle was originally created by Fox Comics in 1939 and was later bought over by Charlton who re-introduced it in a fresh version in 1964. Later it was the source of inspiration for the Nite Owl character of Watchmen. DC introduced a brand new Blue Beetle as a teenager Jamie Reyes who wears an alien power suit.
4. CAPTAIN ATOM (1985)
Charlton Comics had a character called Doctor Manhattan and once DC bought them over, they created a rehashed version called Captain Atom. This character hasn’t been seen since the 1986 DC Comics Presents #90.
5. THE QUESTION (1985)
This character was created by Steve Ditko after he parted ways with Stan Lee. This superhero was inspired by Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy which was we saw through the character of Rorschach in Watchmen.
6. STATIC (2009)
Realizing that Static has been a part of the DCU only since 2009 might surprise those who have known him since the 2000-2004 animation show Static Shock wherein he featured in the Bruce Timm DC Animated Universe. This character originally belonged to DC’s standalone venture Milestone and is currently a part of DCU.
7. THE WATCHMEN (2016)
The most disputed set of characters that debuted in DC Universe is the recently included Watchmen. The DC Rebirth series is a crossover which has roped in the typical DC heroes and the Watchmen. This new crossover concept will see the arrival of a fresh concept “The Doomsday Clock” in November 2017 which focuses on Superman and Doctor Manhattan. Irrespective of what you feel for this concept, there is certainly a great deal of source materials based on the rendezvous of an alien superhero who protects humanity and a human who has become an alien to his own species.
