Board Thread:Characters/@comment-27904334-20160714092217/@comment-33056490-20170908113701

During Mr. DeMatteis' run of the Spectre, he gave a pretty good explanation as to how the Presence can be influenced by the minds of men and yet still potentially claim omnipotence.

In Spectre #10, it was revealed that the White Page (and potentially the Writer) exists within the Mind of God. You see the White Page and the Spectre getting physically "erased" as though someone was doing it with an eraser. The description of the White Void he was thrown into matches that of Grant Morrison's Overvoid, a fictional representation of the White Page upon which all comics are drawn. In the end, it is shown that beyond even the Overvoid, only the Creator truly exists.

This refers to a concept touched on in Hinduism, which Mr. DeMatteis has spoken about on his website.

"The Hindus believe that all the gods are reflections of the One God that we all are. I see them as thought forms...created as much by the soul of man as the whim of the Divine. But (and here's the paradox), I also see humankind as thought forms dreamed into being by the gods/God. In the end, it's all One Infinite Being and all of this separation is just a beautiful shadow play. At least that's been my experience." - J.M. DeMatteis, 1 November 2010

In the end, everything in the DC Universe, including the Writer and the White Page, is "God". The reason why the Presence can be affected by the thoughts of mankind is because the thoughts of mankind are the thoughts of God. Mankind is a part of God and is therefore capable of influencing another part of God (the Presence). This explains the otherwise illogical concept of the Presence being affected by the universe he himself created.

According to Mr. DeMatteis, the Presence is an Aspect of God. It is a representation of God within the DC Universe. If the Presence is omnipotent or not is ultimately up to the whim of the Divine.