There are a lot of forms of creativity out there, and they will often pick up their own stereotypes and cliches. Comic books are no different. While comic books and the characters within can bring a lot of excitement out of people, they are also known for creating storylines that seem to twist and turn around each other, never letting the reader fully grasp onto them before they run off in a different direction. This is why there are so many storylines out there that only the biggest fans know, the fans who have followed the villains and heroes for decades at this point.

We thought it would be fun to pull together a list of some of the superheroes and villains in the DC universe that people probably didn’t know were related. This will give people who are less acquainted with the characters a chance to take a look inside their lives, have a think about what the writers wanted to get across by making these characters related later on in their storyline or creating characters out of thin air in the hope of starting out a new family tree in the DC universe. Want to take a look?

It's time to have a look at some of the sibling match-ups that have taken place for years within the DC universe. We don't think that anyone, no matter how big a comic book fan they are, will have heard of every single one of these characters being related!

25 Wonder Woman And Ares

via: screenrant.com

We’re starting out by proving that comic book writers often make things far too difficult, even for themselves! Wonder Woman and Ares are tied together by their connection to Zeus, with their pre-flashpoint relationship being that of proxy. However, post-flashpoint, their relationship is slightly different.

Wonder Woman is a direct half-sibling of Ares, as well as his granddaughter.

Yes, in certain comic books and various animated depictions, Ares is both the grandfather and half-brother of Wonder Woman. Just, don’t think about it too much and everything will be okay…

24 Batgirl And Cluemaster

via: ultimatecomiccon.com

Anybody who has read any of the Batman comic books knows that he has a constant stream of young sidekicks that want to fight by his side. The third Batgirl, and eventually the fourth Robin, was no different. This woman started out as the Spoiler, a hero that took it upon herself to take down the Cluemaster.

This is because Cluemaster was the future Batgirl’s father.

She was so good at taking down her villain father that Batman decided to take her on as his official sidekick. She then goes from Batgirl to Robin during her tenure as a sidekick.

23 Flash And Cobalt Blue

via: screenrant.com

We all know that it can be easy for siblings to fight and get into trouble. Before Cobalt Blue was revealed by the writers, Flash had believed his twin had perished as an infant, but this wasn’t true. Instead, he’d been raised by a different family, a family made up of con artists, who taught Cobalt the way of the conman and imbued him with special powers. He is able to engulf himself in blue flame, which he decides to use against Flash when he finds out that his twin brother lived a much happier and more prosperous life.

22 Robin And Ra's Al Ghul

Superheroes and supervillains are complex beings, which means that they will often end up working together or even being together in this case. It’s well known that Batman entered into a relationship with Talia, the daughter of one of his main villains Ra’s Al Ghul, but many people don’t know that the two of them actually had a son. At first, Damien Wayne took after his grandfather, acting in cruel and violent ways. However, Batman was able to take the young boy under his wing and turn him into the fifth Robin.

21 Batman And Owlman

via: screenrant.com

As we’ve already explored, comic books have a tendency to get wrapped up in their own storylines. For example, in many comic books there are alternate universes, and these universes can end up colliding. In one alternate universe, Batman’s parents actually have two sons, and Bruce Wayne doesn’t survive.

This child, Thomas Wayne Jr., becomes Owlman.

Owlman and Batman end up coming to blows, with various comic books giving Batman’s brother different origin stories and superpowers. We personally think that bats are much cooler than owls, so we’re glad we got this sibling in the main universe…

20 Superboy And Lex Luthor

via: tvandmovienews.com

We all know that Superman’s main villain is Lex Luthor, but there are few comic book fans out there that know these two actually have a son, a character that is the combination of their DNA. Luthor created his son, who he named Superboy, in the hope of creating a powerful protege that would take after him.

However, Superboy takes after Superman a lot more than he does Luthor.

Lex Luthor ends up disowning his own son as he turns out too much like his archnemesis to be considered a supervillain.

19 Aqualad And Black Manta

via: ultimatecomiccon.com

It’s generally accepted that many parents want their children to grow up to become like them, maybe even go into the same career, and at least have the same values as them. Imagine how Black Manta must have felt when his own son ended up becoming the sidekick to his arch nemesis Aquaman.

Black Manta must be a pretty unimpressed father!

When Aqualad finds out who his father is, he ends up having to fight him, as Black Manta attempts to destroy his own son and his foster family.

18 Sinestro And Soranik Natu

When it was found out that Sinestro was actually running his planet like a dictator, he was stripped of his powers and banished to the antimatter universe. However, the Green Lanterns were not aware that he had left a daughter behind on his home planet! This daughter would go on to accept the ring of sector 1417 while practicing neurosurgery in order to save the life of one of her patients. She would go on to join the Green Lantern Corp. before finding out that she was the daughter of Sinestro who confronted her on the matter.

17 Deathstroke And The Ravager

via: screenrant.com

Deathstroke ended up having two children, with both of them eventually taking on the name The Ravager. The first, Grant Wilson, went the same way as his father and followed down the path of the villain, before losing the title when he passed during a mission to try and end the Teen Titans. His second child, Rose Wilson, took on the name of The Ravager.

She decided to go a different direction to her father, though.

She worked with the Titans before she was taken by her father and turned against her friends.

16 Doctor Sivana And His Four Children

via: ultimatecomiccon.com

A little known comic book villain, Doctor Sivana was the main nemesis of Shazam. Throughout his villain career, he ended up with four children named Thaddeus, Georgia, Beutia, and Magnificus. The first took went the same way as their father, becoming obsessed with ending the Captain Marvel Family while also working in the arena of science.

His two other children went another way though.

Beautia and Magnificus look nothing like their father, and while they initially go against the Marvel family, they end up working with them to stop their dad.

15 Catwoman And The King Of Cats

Catwoman has been used by Batman writers as a mixture of friend and villain for a very long time now, but most people don’t remember the storyline in which Catwoman discovered her brother. After regaining her memory, she moves away from crime, but a man named the King Of Cats is stealing valuables from everyone in Gotham using Catwoman’s MO.

The King Of Cats turns out to be Catwoman’s brother.

He tries to pull Catwoman back into crime, but thankfully it doesn’t work and he ends up fading off into the background forever.

14 Darkseid And Infinity Man

via: screenrant.com

Infinity Man has a crazy number of powers, powers that went pretty much unexplained for a very long time in the DC universe. However, when he got an origin story, readers were treated with the knowledge that he had been Darkseid’s brother this entire time.

The title was passed onto him by Astorr.

Drax, the new Infinity Man, nursed Astorr back to health, so he felt it only right to bequeath him the name as he started to perish of old age. We think that’s right!

13 Swamp Thing And Edward Holland

via: wegotthiscovered.com

The reason Swamp Thing’s brother has mostly been forgotten is down to the fact that most fans weren’t to keen on the comics he appeared in! In fact, the storyline Edward Holland appeared in was cancelled due to hatred from the fans.

Swamp Thing asked Edward to cure him.

In an attempt to prove that he is the smartest man in the family, Edward is happy to cure him, turning Swamp Thing back into Alec Holland. The writers ended up turning him back and getting rid of Edward completely.

12 The Demon And Merlin

Etrigan was created by Jack Kirby, a demon that was created to serve Merlin. However, Etrigan chose to take on a human form to in the hope of taking on the forces of evil who were using magic for their own gain. During a reboot of the character, Merlin became Etrigan’s half-brother.

Belial, Etrigan’s father, wanted to bind his son’s magic to a half-human so that he could control him. No points for guessing that half-human was Merlin! Since then, this little origin detail has been retconned out.

11 Raven And Trigon

via: digitalspyuk.net

Any fans of Raven will know that she doesn't exactly have a great past when it comes to family! Before she was born, Raven has hundreds of brothers and sisters that ended up dying.

Or did they?

The Titans ended up facing off six of Raven's half-brothers who had been born at the same time as her. All seven of them made up the deadly sins, which they used to manipulate mortals. Raven joined them for a short period of time before turning back to the light.

10 J’Onn And Malefic

via: screenrant.com

It can be pretty awkward getting on with siblings from time to time, but we don't think many brothers or sisters out there have destroyed an entire planet, apart from J'Onn's. Malefic attacked his brother's wife with his telepathic powers, an attack that ended up in him being penalised.

Malefic retaliated by destroying their home planet.

When he found out that J'Onn had survived, he made it his mission to take him out, but unsurprisingly he ended up going up in flames himself.

9 Terra And Geo-Force

via: niadd.com

Writers have to be careful when it comes to adding characters into established universes, especially if they're heroes or villains and their powers are too similar. When Terra and Geo-Force were brought into the comic book world at the same time, their powers seemed far too similar, so the writers decided they would solve this by making them siblings. This way, they didn't have to drop one of them. It also allowed the writers to play with their storylines, twisting them together.

8 Batman And Batwoman

via: cbr.com

One of the defining characteristics of Batman is that he has suffered through life on his own, that without Alfred, he would essentially have nobody in this world. However, there have been times when it has been revealed that family members of his still exist.

It's not alternative timelines this time though!

Whether they know it or not, the current Batwoman and Batman are related. We know this as it was Martha Kane, Batman's mother, who married into the Kane family, making the two of them related by marriage!

7 Ocean Master And Aquaman

via: cbr.com

Ocean Master and Aquaman are half-brothers, which adds a whole new level of drama to the fact that they are constantly fighting each other. Ocean Master wants to dethrone Aquaman so that he can become the ruler of Atlantis.

Ocean Master is incredibly jealous of his half-brother.

Ocean Master's story has been retconned numerous times by different writers, but in each new storyline, he is always the half-brother of the ruler of the seas, always giving him the same reason to hate his sibling.

6 Sportsmaster And Artemis

via: inverse.com

Artemis seems to change a lot depending on whether we're watching the animated show or following her story through the comic books. She is the daughter of Sportsmaster and Huntress, members of the injustice society.

In the comics, Artemis goes down the path of the villain.

However, in Young Justice, she is depicted as a hero, posing as the niece of Green Arrow in the hope of disguising the fact that she has a villainous past and to create a new life for herself.