Gods (DC Comics)

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.

List of gods

Terrestrial

• The African gods known as Orishas, are a pantheon of African deities represented by the hotheaded thunder god Shango.^[1]
• 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 Celtic gods are a pantheon of Celtic deities.
• 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, Lumian, 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. They also empower the Greek hero known as the Olympian.
• The Hawaiian gods are a pantheon of Hawaiian deities.
• The Hindu gods as represented by Rama were introduced in the pages of Wonder Woman. Deadman is given the power to possess any living being by a Hindu goddess (created for the purposes of the story) named Rama Kushna (a corruption of Rama-Krishna).
• The Japanese gods are a pantheon of Japanese deities.
• The Gods Of The Jejeune Realm appear in the comic book series Vext. They are described as 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 Mesopotamian gods are a pantheon of Mesopotamian deities.
• The Mexican gods are a pantheon of both Mayan and Aztec deities.
• 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.^[2]
• 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 Parliament of Trees are Plant Elementals, and the gods of all plant life on Earth.
• 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 the original Son of Vulcan. Recently (in the miniseries The Trials of Shazam!) the Roman Gods are being treated as separate entities again, now known as the "Lords of Magic". Whether this is a retcon of their earlier origin or there is some other explanation for these beings has not been made clear yet.
• The Titans of Myth were involved in Donna Troy's original.
• The Zoroastrian gods are a pantheon of Persian deities.

Cosmic

• The Cancer god, supposedly Russian in origin, has been encountered by both Swamp Thing and the Atom.
• The Endless exist separately and above all the gods. These cosmic beings interact with the various mythological pantheons 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". Other Kryptonian gods were Yuda (goddess of the moon),^[3] Telle (god of wisdom), Mordo (god of strength), and Lorra (goddess of beauty).^[4][5]
• The Martian gods worshipped by the Martian Manhunter include H'ronmeer, the Martian god of death, fire, love and art (a masculine version of Death of the Endless), 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. Note that The Triarch encountered by DC heroes were not actual gods, but transformed Oans.
• 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 was said to have also unleashed the "Godwave" upon the universe, a wave of energy that created the terrestrial gods in 1980's post-crisis dc universe.
• The Presence, also known as 'The Voice', is the omnipresent deity of Judeo-Christian mythology. It presents itself as the actual creator of the universe. Angelic and demonic characters such as The Spectre, the Word, the Radiant, 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.

Events involving the gods

• When Dream of the Endless obtained the keys to Hell, several pantheons competed to obtain them (note that these deities, such as Thor, are in the Vertigo imprint, and as such, may not resemble their mainstream counterparts, although issue #26 showed Odin displaying the Justice Society unintentionally in his thrall)^[6]
• The gods of various pantheons were tricked into battling each other by the sorceress, Circe, in the War of the Gods crossover limited series.
• Not long afterwards (in a Wonder Woman storyline) the Titans attacked the Hindu gods and the angels of the Silver City.
• Pre Flashpoint event Zeus was deposed as ruler of the Greco-Roman gods by his daughter Athena with help from Wonder Woman.
• During the events of the Infinite Crisis limited series, the Olympians and Titans left the universe to escape the coming chaos.
• At the end of the Amazons Attack! limited series, it was revealed that the Greek gods are made captives of Darkseid, and that Athena was being impersonated by Granny Goodness.
• Gog an old god from the world from which the new gods were then born, fell in through the multiverse landing on Pre flashpoint earth. Laying dormant for years he used a human in order to awaken himself. He performed miracles and gave gifts in order to gain a following as he tried to make the earth dependent on him, when rejected he turned on everyone cursing all that he had gifted. He was defended by the JSA and imprisoned on the source wall.

See also

• Cosmic entities (DC Comics)
• List of DC Comics cosmic entities

References

1. Firestorm, The Nuclear Man #95 (March 1990)
2. JLA #157
3. Yuda - Supermanica
4. Earth-Prime Timeline
5. Krypton - Supermanica
6. The Sandman (vol. 2) #24, 26, 27, 56, 66; The Dreaming #8