#titansverse

@unknownunseenunheard I made you a shitty meme.

As a longtime DC Comics fan, I am so glad to see my favorite heroes, villains and so on sharing one giant and cohesive multiverse where they can interact with one another despite coming from different stories set in different realities. That does feel like I’m diving deep into the actual DC Multiverse, the one you can read inside comic books.

However, things are now so big that I have to admit I am too confused about which and TV shows are actually part of this multiverse, hence why I am writing this post, just in case other people may feel the same way about it.

When the CW aired Crisis on Infinite Earths, it helped connecting many separate franchises with one another, with some of them being classic movies and TV shows from yesteryear. As such, I will be using that as a reference for canonicity, especially since there haven’t been so many new products that aired since.

I will divide the movies and TV shows into their franchises, but with three specific categories:

·       Movies and shows that have aired since Arrow (2012) and Man of Steel (2013) since debuted and are connected thanks to Crisis

·       Movies and shows that were included into the multiverse by Crisis despite the fact they aired before Arrow

·       Movies and shows that could be part of this multiverse, but there are no confirmations yet

I used both Arrow and Man of Steel because they are the starting point of DC’s largest TV and movie franchises yet, respectively the Arrowverse and the DC Extended Universe.

Now, without further to do, let’s see what is canon within this multiverse!

“Modern” movies and shows in the multiverse

While some of these started out as being their own thing, with the intention of forming their own franchise, they have since merged into one big multiverse.

Arrowverse

The network where most of these TV shows air (or aired) is The CW, hence why there is also the term CWVerse connected to it, even though fans still prefer to call it Arrowverse, after the show that started it all.

Some of the shows weren’t supposed to be part of the franchise from the start, but have since united into one cohesive multiverse.

·       Arrow (2012-2020)

·       Constantine (2014-2015)

·       The Flash (2014- )

·       Supergirl (2015-2021)

·       Legends of Tomorrow (2016- )

·       Black Lightning (2018-2021)

·       Batwoman (2019- )

·       Stargirl (2020- )

·       Superman & Lois (2021- )

·       Naomi (TBD)

DC Extended Universe

DC’s largest movie franchise yet in terms of installments, it was connected to the Arrowverse thanks to Crisis on Infinite Earths. I won’t list down all the announced projects, because this franchise is somewhat infamous for announcing movies and then not making all of them. By the way, these are all the movies that have been released or are in production as of right now.

·       Man of Steel (2013)

·       Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

·       Suicide Squad (2016)

·       Wonder Woman (2017)

·       Justice League (2017)

·       Aquaman (2018)

·       Shazam! (2019)

·       Birds of Prey (2020)

·       Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

·       The Suicide Squad (2021)

·       The Flash (2022)

·       Aquaman 2 (2022)

·       Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)

·       Black Adam (TBD)

·       Wonder Woman 3 (TBD)

·       Blue Beetle (TBD)

The Conjuring Universe

This horror franchise shares some production elements with the DCEU (such as producers, directors and even actors), and some small links have been made to connect the two, so they can be considered canon.

·       The Conjuring (2013)

·       Annabelle (2014)

·       The Conjuring 2 (2016)

·       Annabelle: Creation (2017)

·       The Nun (2018)

·       The Curse of La Llorona (2019)

·       Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

Titansverse (aka the former DC Universe shows)

DC Universe was a streaming service that tried to create its own multiverse. It included four shows, which have since joined the Arrowverse (Stargirl being the most prominent case, which is why it is listed as part of it). The shows are:

·       Titans (2018- )

·       Doom Patrol (2019- )

·       Swamp Thing (2019)

HBO Max movies and shows

HBO Max is planning to release movies and shows set across the multiverse, even tying them with other franchises like the Arrowverse and the DCEU. The shows in question are:

·       Peacemaker (2022- )

·       Green Lantern (TBD)

·       Gotham City Police Department (TBD)

·       Justice League Dark (TBD)

There are also other projects, but information about them is still scarce, so, maybe, this post will become updated soon if they announce something about them.

As for the movies, well, there are two particular cases.

·       The Batman (2022) is linked to this multiverse because the Gotham City Police Department show will be a spin-off of that movie

·       Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) is actually an alternate version of another film, Justice League. They could both be considered canon, due to this being a multiverse.

In reality, these shows weren’t connected through Crisis, having been announced afterwards, but they are still confirmed to be part of the multiverse.

Past movies and shows included in the multiverse

Crisis on Infinite Earths managed to pay homage to past DC franchises by including some of them in the crossover event, thus tying them all together. In chronological order, these are:

·       Fleischer Superman cartoons (1941-1943), included by the comic book tie-in

·       Batman (1966-1968), its companion movie (1966) and, by extension, The Green Hornet (1966-1967). Adam West and Burt Ward reprised their role in Legend of the Super Heroes (1979) which sees them in a comedic special with other members of the Justice League, as well as in two animated movies released in 2016 and 2017). There is a comic book that crosses over with the Wonder Woman show (1975-1979), which may actually be included twice, since a version of it does appear in the comic book tie-in of Crisis of Infinite Earths.

·       Superman movie series (1978-1987) due to Brandon Routh reprising his role from Superman Returns (2006) which is supposed to be an alternate sequel to Superman II. However, due to him mentioning events of Superman III, it may not be so clear which movies are supposed to be canon in this multiverse. Supergirl (1984) is supposedly included

·       Batman movie series (1989-1997) which could also include Catwoman (2004)

·       The Flash (1990-1991) which was also included as part of the multiverse as far back as 2016

·       Smallville (2001-2011). Tom Welling does reprise his role as Clark Kent, but there are canon issues between his portrayal in the crossover and the show’s proper, which suggests he didn’t play the Smallville Superman, but a version from that multiverse

·       Birds of Prey (2002-2003)

·       Green Lantern (2011) due to footage from that movie shown at the end of the crossover. However, it is not clear yet if that was supposed to indicate that the movie was now canon or if that was simply archive footage to connect it to the announced HBO Max show

·       Lucifer (2016-2021) is the only show that was included while being concurrent with the Arrowverse (Black Lightning may count as well, since the crossover is what brought it to the franchise)

Movies and shows that could be part of the franchise

With one exception, those movies and shows were released at the same time as the Arrowverse and the DCEU, but either there haven’t been plans to connect them together or there is no indication if they are already part of the franchise.

·       The Dark Knight trilogy (2005-2012). Props from that franchise have appeared in the Arrowverse, whose version of Gotham City even resembles the one of the films

·       DC Animated Movie Universe (2013-2020). The Arrowverse has aired three animated shows. While Vixen and The Ray (both lasting two seasons) were included as canon with the actors voicing the main characters appearing in the live-action shows, “Constantine: City of Demons” doesn’t seem to be connected to the franchise except for Matt Ryan voicing him. In fact, that version of Constantine is more consistent with that of the DC Animated Movie Universe, so, maybe, that world is connected

·       Gotham (2014-2019) and its prequel Pennyworth (2019- ) aren’t connected within the Arrowverse as of right now

·       iZombie (2015-2019) is curious in that it is a show that aired on The CW for its entire run, but no attempts have ever been made about tying it into the Arrowverse

·       Preacher (2016-2019) is based on a DC imprint, but it always tried to be its own thing

·       Powerless (2017) tried to be its own thing from the beginning. They jokingly consider it to be set on “Earth-P” as part of the multiverse, but that isn’t considered as canon

·       Krypton (2018-2019) could count due to the fact that they planned its inclusion in the crossover, but was scrapped. Also, this show started as a DCEU prequel, so some connectivity could still be there

·       Joker (2019) is set in its own universe, and there are no plans to include it in any place as of right now

·       The Boys (2019- ) does adapt a comic from a DC imprint, but it is not considered as part of the multiverse, at least not yet

As you can see, this franchise is so enormous that it makes sense why some could be confused about what belongs where.

Anon, I am so sorry for how long this took. I would say I was busy with some project or another but this should have been my prior commitment. I hope this reaches you and that it’s what you’re looking for.

I did try catching up on comicsverse but I didn’t manage to get very far with NTT over the last few months. Haven’t gotten past the arc where Post-Crisis Robin!Jason gets involved yet! So I chose to write for Titansverse again.

with all that said, here it is.

Ficlet requests: give me a number + a pairing

Prompt: #34 - Good Enough

Pairing: Dick/Joey

Fandom: Titans TV series

A/N: this story is set right before Dick and Dawn come clean to Joey about their superhero ids and that they’re going after Deathstroke. Joey at this point does not know that Slade works as a mercenary. The implicit canon-divergence here is that DickDawn isn’t a thing anymore. In my head they’d just agreed to a mutual breakup after weeks of Dick becoming more and more distant trying to focus on the Mission full-time, and Dawn gets fed up waiting for him. That plus Dick realises he’s probably catching feelings elsewhere. 

--

Dawn once said he had a "saving people" complex. Dick always shrugged it off; it came with his night-job, after all. Besides, if he could save even just one person, why wouldn't he?

But never before had he felt so unsure and useless as he was now. With Donna still grieving and the team almost torn apart over their decision to involve Joey, Dick was finding it harder and harder to remain unbiased and lead the team the right way. Hell, he wasn't even sure if he was leading them in the right direction.

He wondered if Bruce ever had the same problem with the Justice League. He doubted it. Even if Bruce did, he was Batman. People tended to just acquiesce as soon as they saw the cape and cowl.

Dick sighed. Joey stirred besides him, tilting his head with an inquisitive look thrown his way. They were sitting on the beach again, the spot they kept finding themselves coming back to every weekend despite Dawn's insistence that they cut things off before it's too late. They were one less member tonight, Donna having elected to stay after hours at the museum, and Hank and Dawn both turned in earlier for their morning shift the next day. That left just Dick and Joey, what remained of their drinks, and the dying embers of the bonfire.