Talk:Presence (DC Comics)

The God Arguement
I've been working on a stalled article about the Presence for my own fan site so I thought I'd have a go at cleaning up this article. I've tried to give more structure and context to the various elements and have specifically separated the Vertigo Comics references into a different section. As it was/is the article is about more than just the Presence (which is a specific version of God introduced by Grant Morrison and then reused by other writers) so there could be an arguement for moving it to "God (DC Comics)" or "The Supreme Being (DC Comics)." --Jason Kirk 16:58, 12 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Seeing as the being is known as the Presence and not God, moving the article makes no sense. --68.81.70.65 (talk) 13:55, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Eclipso
Eclipso needs to be updated for the retcon. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.142.120.1 (talk) 01:57, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Decreator and superman praim(one million)need too Mohamadwolf (talk) 04:49, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

Preacher is not part of the DC universe/canon
The part about the Preacher series doesn't belong here, as Preacher is a stand alone & creator-owned title by Garth Ennis that isn't part of the DC universe or canon. Preacher's God isn't the same as the Presence/Yahweh of the DC/Vertigo multiverse. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.235.42.229 (talk) 07:49, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

No, I, too, do not believe the "God" in Preacher is indeed the true Presence, but to remove it now may cause much controversy. And, regardless of our own opinions, I think it at least should be briefly mentioned somewhere on Wikipedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Acanta (talk • contribs) 22:19, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

The "Hand of the Creator"
There is a misunderstanding about the "Hand" (we talk about this) This article says that the Anti-Monitor attempted to replace it during the Crisis storyline. That's not the case: it says that the hand had always been that of the Anti-Monitor. It may had originally been a subtle reference to God, but the storylineline turned it into a Predestination paradox instead. MBelgrano (talk) 19:56, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

I added the visual callback to it of Doctor Manhattan appearing as the hand, as it's not QUITE the hand of the Creator, but seems a reference to it. TerryAce (talk)

External links modified
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Powers and abilities
As per discussion here, this article has been given 2 weeks of protection from editing by anon IPs. This is because of the repeated addition of material unsupported (and sometimes contradicted) by the P&A section. The IP keeps varying (so it is difficult to engage with the user), but it does appear to be the same user.

So can we please resolve this issue here. Emperor (talk) 15:19, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

Well, as I mentioned earlier, inserting these categories does not make logical sense.

"Omnipotence", is blatantly contradicted, as the character stated that he was shaped by external forces in "Lucifer vol.1 #75", and was recently killed by an unknown metal invading his body in "Lucifer vol.2 #1". This was later revealed to be the work of one of his fallen archangels in "Lucifer vol.2 #5".

"Omniversal" is nonsense, as "Omniverse" means all of fiction and reality combined, not just DC.

And "Boundary Manipulation", which is not even a term that Wikipedia uses. David A (talk) 08:13, 21 April 2016 (UTC)

David, Omnipotence doesn't mean you're not shaped by external forces, or that you can't be killed. It just means you can do anything. If the Presence was shown trying to defend itself and failing, that would indicate a lack of omnipotence.

Of course, it's never conclusively established that the Presence is omnipotent, either. I think people are adding details from the DC wiki. --Mugasofer (talk) 14:03, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Omnipotence means that somebody is not dependent on anything, including external forces. It means that a character is completely absolute, supreme, boundless, and immutable. For DC, that trait is much better embodied by the Overmonitor/Primal Monitor, which has no apparent limitations whatsoever. In addition, the Presence was recently apparently killed by the angel Gabriel, so that is another limitation. David A (talk) 20:57, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Being shaped by an external force is not the same as being dependent on it. Anything that interacts with external forces is, by definition, shaped by them to a degree.

Death has nothing to do with omnipotence, although the manner of death might, if it involved something the Presence couldn't affect or block. --Mugasofer (talk) 22:24, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Being shaped by external forces means being empowered by them. An omnipotent character is very mych far beyond that sort of thing. In addition, in response to a fan question, the writer of the Lucifer comicbook clarified that the Presence meant that he was created by the dreams and imagination of humanity, not the other way around. David A (talk) 08:19, 1 May 2016 (UTC)

Presence is revealed to be alive in the main DCU by Phantom Stranger in Swamp Thing #6. He explicitly mentions "The One He serves" sending him to Alec Holland and "works in Mysterious Ways." This confirms He's alive, since we know for a fact Phantom Stranger works for Presence. TerryAce (talk)

And this whole argument got rendered moot. Holly Black (writer for Lucifer vol 2) has confirmed that Vertigo has an entirly seperate canon from DC. We've all wasted our time. https://twitter.com/hollyblack/status/728300734501027840 ((User:TerryAce|TerryAce)) (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 06:18, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

Well, it did not use to be completely separate. Neil Gaiman gave permission so that Dream of the Endless appeared in a Justice League story by Grant Morrison, and so Death of the Endless appeared in a Superman story by Paul Cornell. In addition, various regular DC characters appeared in Sandman and Books of Magic.

I am not sure what to do about this new information, even if it would be true? Should there be two pages for the Presence? One for the DC version (last seen manifesting as a dog), and one for the Vertigo version? David A (talk) 08:21, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

(Shrugs) Maybe a page for The Presence for DC and one for Yahweh (which is what he's most often called in Vertigo)? TerryAce (talk) 10:27 9 September 2016 (UTC)

Given all of the inconsistencies that this would cause, I am uncertain. Aside from the previous mentions, the Spectre comicbook by John Ostrander also featured characters from The Sandman. At the very least, I do not have enough free time to do so myself. David A (talk) 10:56, 11 September 2016 (UTC)

That's a fair point, but I always assumed they "diverged" as there's multiple writer mentions of a DC/Vertigo split. It's also common for characters from another universe to visit the "Main" universe if they're popular enough, without their series being canon (Notable examples include Lord-Death Man, Mercy Graves, and the Batman Beyond characters) Also, Mike Carey said the same thing as Holly Black back in 2006 ("Vertigo is it's own little fiefdom now, so the issue of shared continuity doesn’t really arise any more." http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2006/mike-carey-talks-ghosts-superheroes-fallen-angels-and-the-devil-you-know/) — Preceding unsigned comment added by TerryAce (talk • contribs) 04:51, 20 September 2016 (UTC)

Well, I am fairly certain that Death of the Endless showed up in Paul Cornell's Lex Luthor story in the Superman books long after 2006, so I am not certain what to do. It seems like DC has a very fluid grasp on this issue. Perhaps DC and Vertigo simply happen in different universes, or even multiverses, but cosmic entities that transcend this scale can still show up in either continuity? David A (talk) 13:35, 20 September 2016 (UTC)

I checked it up, and it happened in 2010. Also, this admittedly happened in 2003, but in The Sandman: Endless Nights, a citizen of the planet Oa (from Green Lantern) showed up. David A (talk) 14:41, 20 September 2016 (UTC)

From what I've read (admittedly, from Dan Didio during Brightest Day in 2009) It basically breaks down like this. "We in DC take ideas and characters from Vertigo, and vice versa, if it can fit into the universe, but most things stay in their separate universes." This handily explains the contradictions away (like Michael being free during Christ's death when he's supposed to be imprisoned at that time, Hell and Heaven still existing in the DCU, The Presence still being God in the DCU with Elaine nowhere to be found, and San Franciso not being nuked) (http://www.cbr.com/dan-didio-digs-into-brightest-days-finale/) TerryAce (talk) 13:22 22 September 2016 (UTC)

Okay. So the Vertigo cosmic entities that have appeared in the regular DC continuity, are different versions of the same characters? David A (talk) 18:32, 22 September 2016 (UTC)

As near as I can tell, yes. Which again, makes sense, seeing as it handily solves all the contradictions. TerryAce (talk) 20:31 22 September 2016 (UTC)

Hmm. This is a bigger issue than we can resolve here. It would likely involve splitting all of the Vertigo character page history sections into two parts. One for the Vertigo versions, and another for the DCU versions. It is probably best if you start a discussion topic about this over at Wikiproject Comics. David A (talk) 12:53, 23 September 2016 (UTC)

The Omnificent and Omnidivine powers is true Mohamadwolf (talk) 09:28, 5 December 2019 (UTC)

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