Start with "Great Darkness" and talk about the supreme deity of the DC Universe
A friend had a private message the other day, wanting to know the relationship between Pralaia and the Great Darkness.
In fact, strictly speaking, they have nothing to do with each other, different characters created by different authors, but the DC Universe has a unity, and through the setting, Pralaia and Great Darkness are essentially different manifestations of the same existence.
A year or two ago, Xiao Di wrote an article about the supreme god of DC, but in this short period of time, the DC universe has undergone very big changes, and many of the contents of that article are no longer suitable for the current setting. So take this opportunity to talk about the supreme deity of the DC Universe.
It must be noted here that both DC and Marvel settings are constantly changing, especially in different periods of DC, there have been a lot of the same type but not the same system, in different periods, these contradictory branch systems will be forcibly integrated together, so that many systems or characters will be deleted or changed settings.
Just like the magic system of the DC Universe has many branches, such as the God branch under the source system, the representative figures of this branch are ghosts, phantom strangers, eclipses, demon king Nero, angel king Asmodel, etc., the main characters in the god system of vertigo comics, Such as Lucifer and Michael, rarely appear in this system, and the four angelic groups of this system, the angel king, etc. are not found in the god system of vertigo comics, although these two systems are based on the existence of the supreme god (God).
There is also the magic branch under the source system, which is the system of Dr. Destiny, which mainly has two factions, the Lord of Order and the Lord of Chaos, both of which are from the Supreme God "Dark World".
There is also Wonder Woman's earth god system, whose hero and villain abilities come from the gods, and the divinity of the gods comes from the "source" of the supreme god.
There is also the magic system of the Vertigo Comics, which includes the Doom Patrol and Zatana, Constantine, Lady Shangdu, Swamp Monster, etc., and many of the enemies of this system, such as the Exterminator and the Candlestick Maker, are based on Christianity, but they appear without any entanglement with existence and angels.
Of course, there is also Neil Gaiman's Sleeper Universe, which although occasionally intersects with Lucifer and the like, is also an independent system, and the endless family members such as the Sleeper are the embodiment of the rules of the universe.
Some of these magic-related systems intersect and some don't, and many of them have conflicting settings. But after Flashpoint in 2011, all the systems were fused into one universe, so a lot of the settings changed.
Therefore, the Supreme Deities mentioned in this article did not exist at the same time, and some may not be applicable now.
Start with Pralaia, the embodiment of the Void and Darkness
In the 2015 comic strip Justice League Dark #39-40, a supreme god of DC, Pralaia, appears.
Pralaiya is the Void before creation, and everything comes from Pralaiya and eventually returns to Pralaiya.
When the Dark Justice League called her the Void Goddess, she was rebuked by Pralaiya, who considered the title to be a contempt for her, because Pralaia transcended all things.
Pralaia is the Darkness itself before the Light of Creation appeared.
There are two labels on Pralaia, one is void and the other is darkness. That is to say, Pralaia is both void and dark. Everything in the world originated from Pralaiya and will eventually be destroyed and returned to Pralaiya.
Great darkness
In the 2022 comic strip "Justice League Incarnation" #4中, screenwriter Joshua. Williamson reinvented dc's origins. Before the creation of the world there was nothing but infinite darkness. Then light was born, from tiny to imperceptible, brighter and brighter, and soon nothingness was gone. Darkness receded.
An imperceptible little imperfection appeared in the flawless light, and then in an instant a multiverse was born.
This points to the great darkness of the multiverse that was born before the light of creation.
So Pralaiya is the Great Darkness itself, or Pralaiya and the Great Darkness are two sides of the same coin.
This issue of the manga was completely rejected after its publication
The 2019 comic strip Lucifer V3#10 is a doppelganger of Lucifer.
Master Watcher = Pralaia = Great Darkness?
In fact, Joshua is not a mature screenwriter with his own style, and his work is obviously borrowed from Grant. Morrison, Jeff. Jones and Mark. Wilder's style.
The setting for the birth of the DC Multiverse alone borrows from the white light of life and the black light of death in Jeff Jones's "Lamp Cluster Epic".
In the "Lamp Cluster Epic", in the beginning, there is only absolute darkness in the universe, and then white light appears, and darkness attacks white light, shatters white light, and gives birth to the seven-color spectrum.
The birth of the universe in "Justice League Avatar" not only imitates Grant Morrison's "Final Crisis" and "Heaven and Earth Ensemble" not only in terms of setting, but also in composition.
There is a set-up contradiction between "The Final Crisis" and "The Great Ensemble of Heaven and Earth", which is described in 2008's "Final Crisis", which initially only has the watchdog, and the monitor has small flaws in them, and continues to multiply, and these flaws are the DC multiverse. The monitor sends a probe to investigate, and eventually the probe splits into two individuals, good and evil, the righteous individual is a thinking robot, and the evil individual is Mandolak. The Watcher breeds a family of Watchers to monitor this DC multiverse.
In 2013's "Heaven and Earth Ensemble", the setting was changed and enriched, creating the Monitor-Mind. The main watcher is the OverVoid (many people in China translate it as too virtual, and Xiao Wei believes that all Westerners do not know what it means to be too virtual Chinese)
The flawless master watchdog has a small flaw, and the master monitor creates the watcher and the anti-monitor. And the flaws were imprisoned.
Let's look at the "Justice League Avatar" above, even the details and font are the same as in "Heaven and Earth".
So the DC Multiverse was born in Pralaia, born in the Great Darkness, and born in the Main Watcher, and they were all OverVoid. Pralaia is the Great Darkness and the Lord Watcher.
The Lord Monitor, the Source, and God
Whether it's the Main Watcher or Pralaiya or the Great Darkness, they are infinite voids, and the DC multiverse is just a tiny flaw.
The DC multiverse is surrounded by a wall of origins, and beyond the wall of origins is an endless void.
In the 1997 event "Genesis", the divine wave that gave all gods and superpowers divine power and ability swept through the DC Universe twice and returned to the source, which would cause the destruction of the DC Universe. After the destruction of the Fourth World, the Fifth World was born.
In order to save the universe and, of course, to save themselves, everyone and the gods are trying their best.
Darkseid wants to break through the Origin Wall to gain the power of the Source, in fact, the Ghost and many Earth heroes also want to break through the Origin Wall to find a way to prevent the destruction of the universe. But all failed.
The Father of the New Creation Star, Zeus of Olympus, and Odin of Asgard decide to join forces to break through the Wall of Origins, and Ares, the god of war, joins in.
The Father, Zeus, Odin, and Ares, combined to form "The One", successfully entered the Origin Wall, but in the process of crossing the Origin Wall, Ares attacked the Heavenly Father, Zeus and Odin one after another, and successfully crossed the Origin Wall and gained the power of the Source.
In the end, with the power of faith in all life in the universe, he defeated Ares.
This event tells us that outside the wall of origin is the source, so the source is also the void.
In this way, the Source, the Lord Watcher, Pralaiya, and the Great Darkness are all one beings, or they are all different manifestations of oneness and many faces.
There is also a more interesting detail in genesis, when the ghost tries to cross the origin wall, the source's hand appears to write and communicate with the ghost, the source's hand is not only very similar to the hand of God, he wrote that the source is likely to exist (God). It can even be said that the source is existence (God).
In the 2020 event "Dark Nights Death Metal", Wally West tells Wonder Woman about the process of the dark multiverse conquering the DC Universe, mentioning that Perpetua also has a connected force in his body, and this power comes from existence and comes from the source.
So existence in the DC Universe (God) is the Source, so it is one and the same with the Lord Watcher, Pralaia, and the Great Darkness.
The Abyss and the Dark World
In the 2018 comic strip Justice League of Darkness V2#3, there is a detail that mentions that "the greatest magician in history gave it a lot of names." "It is the abyss, it is the dark world, it is the great darkness." "Constantine had witnessed its power, and a small piece of its debris broke free from its shackles and nearly burned heaven to the ground."
So the Great Darkness is also called Abyss and DarkWorld.
Throughout the history of the DC Universe, there have been three villains called the Abyss, one is the villain of DialErman, one is the villain of Batman, and the other is the villain of the Legion of Superheroes in the Parallel Universe, but apparently they are not strong enough to become great darkness.
The closest thing to great darkness is a deity called Abyssal Dark that appears in the comic Aquaman V8. This abyssal darkness is the source of Atlantis's magic and has always been sealed at the bottom of the deep sea.
The Abyssal Darkness has no strength to show, and it is impossible to confirm that he is the Great Darkness or one aspect of the Great Darkness.
The Dark World is a very powerful god in the DC Universe.
Everyone knows that the source of Dr. Destiny's power is Naboo, the lord of order. The Order Lords and Chaos Lords in the DC Universe were both created by the Dark World.
The Dark World created in his dream a dimension of his name, the Dark World, which was home to the ancient gods of Atlantis.
The Dark World created the first Lords of Order, Chaos, and Balancers.
At this time, the DC Universe had not yet been born. So the Dark World existed before the DC Universe was born and was able to create the World, so it makes perfect sense that it is an aspect of great darkness.
Throughout history, it can be concluded that in the DC Universe there is (God) = Source = Lord Watcher = Great Darkness = Pralaia = Dark World = Abyss (?) ）。
Write at the end
The gods mentioned in this article did not appear in a single period, and the minor plagues only linked them together through the same or similar settings. Many of these gods or settings may have been abolished or changed by DC, such as the Dark World.
So these gods should not be compared together, and the little plague is just a matter of setting up a connection that they may have.