MCU Has a DC Comics Within

Fans, readers, and even the man we met in the bookstore who has no idea of Superman or Spider-Man’s actual universes have one question—do DCU and Marvel exist parallelly, or are they in the same multiverse?

Well, we may not have the full answer, unless the comics confirm it but we surely have one proof: DCU exists in the MCU.

Yeah, Eternals, the 2021 addition to the MCU established that DC Comics exists in the MCU.

When we heard it, all of us were jacked thinking if DCU exists does DCEU and MU too exist, and if so what is this reality; is it like a mega version of Earth-616!?

The DC-References

Now, when Kingo, Ikaris, Sersi, Sprite, and Karun meet Gilgamesh and Thena. Karun introduces himself as Kingo’s valet to which Gilgamesh uses the reference of Alfred to Batman.

Later, when they go to rope in Phastos, his son on seeing Ikarus compares him to Superman and even Phastos mentions him to Clark, sarcastically.

DC Comics was launched as National Comics in 1937, while Marvel, was initiated as Timely Comics in 1939. After two decades, Timely became Marvel Comics in 1961, while from the 50s itself, National had been nicknamed “DC Comics” though it officially changed its name in 1977.

And not to be sidetracked we have some big names in comics jumping ship to and fro most of the time like Jack Kirby, Jim Lee, Stan Lee, Michael Bendis, Gil Kane, Geoff Johns, Michael Turner, Marc Silvestri, and many more.

More Blasts from the Past

Jack Kirby started contributing to the comic book industry in 1941 by drawing Captain America punching Hitler. A few piles of this issue are shown in the movie, Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), ironically, this was the main cover of Captain America #1 (1941) in the real world. So, does this mean that the man who co-created many of the artworks and plots for MU lived in the MCU, or is he playing an unseen role like Stan Lee’s unnamed awespiring cameos? 

1. When trying to shoot web, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) says, Up, up and away, web!” (Superman ref) and “Shazam! (Spider-Man [2002])
2. Again when visiting Aunt May in the hospital, she uses the reference of Superman (Spider-Man {2002}) to Peter

(Spider-Man: No Way Home introduced Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man along with Andrew Garfield’s Amazing Spider-Man as one of the universes connected to the MCU.)

3. In Iron Man 3 (2013), Hogan refers to Avengers as Super Friends

(Earth-1956, home of DC cartoons, The Adventures of Superboy (1966-1969) and Super Friends (1973-1985). Both shows co-exist on Earth-1956, canonized into DCU in Dark Crisis event.)

4. And then there is Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022) with Kevin Bacon pretending to be Batman or Bruce Wayne, and if Kevin Bacon exists as himself Ryan Reynolds was killed by Deadpool for deciding to play Green Lantern. 

Could this Ryan be of the MCU or some other reality!?

Deadpooling into MCU

But, speaking about Tobey’s Spider-Man in MCU, we just remembered, how Deadpool got Hugh Jackman back as Wolverine, in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Deadpool 2 has a few zingers about DCEU, like the one mentioned earlier while mentioning Kevin Bacon, in his flicks, especially in Deadpool 2.

Deadpool being a fourth wall breaker and having a zinger at DC from time to time is justifiable and harmless fun. But in three weeks we’ll soon have Deadpool and Wolverine enter the MCU thanks to the Time Variance Authority (TVA). TVA played a big part in molding Loki (2021-23). Anyway, the movie has TVA recruiting Dp and Logan for some mission, and now the fourth wall breaker has started an MCU connection, he could be the key to the DC universe. 

They have already made Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) a part of the MCU, by having Tom Hardy’s Venom zapped in and out of the MCU and SSU.

Maybe in MCU, all these are something new, be it Raimi’s trilogy or MCU, it seems those worlds have Superman as a big pop culturish icon. There’s been a rumor flying for quite some time that James Gunn is planning a DC/Marvel crossover, could it be DC crossing over into the MCU!? Albeit, it is not there in the immediate DC or Marvel charts, this could be a go maybe later!

Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope to see a Marvel/DC crossover in some possible way on the screens! 

Deadpool & Wolverine released on July 26, 2024.

	Upcoming MCU Flicks	Release Date
1.	Captain America: Brave New World	February 14, 2025
2.	Thunderbolts*	May 5, 2025
3.	The Fantastic Four: First Steps	July 25, 2025
4.	Blade	November 7, 2025
5.	Avengers: Doomsday	May 1, 2026
6.	Avengers: Secret Wars	May 7, 2027

^{Pic Credits: Marvel/DC Comics/MCU}