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HISTORY

In particular, the Earth of each universe has a different set of Superheroes , or the life histories of its superheroes are different from those of others'. In several cases, characters from other publishers acquired by DC—previously established with a Fictional Universe of their own—have been assigned their own alternate universe within the Multiverse. The universes are identified by referring to the alternate Earths, known as "Earth-One", "Earth-Two", "Earth-Three", "Earth-X", and so forth. The first such Parallel World was introduced in 1961 in ''The Flash'' (1st series) #123, in the story "Flash of Two Worlds".


''Crisis on Infinite Earths''

See Also: Crisis on Infinite Earths



The Multiverse was shown to be destroyed in the 12-issue Limited Series ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' by a villain known as the Anti-Monitor . One by one, the Anti-Monitor invaded each universe and destroyed it. The heroes of Earth-One, Earth-Two, Earth-Four, Earth-S, and Earth-X, along with survivors from at least two other universes, managed to hold off the destruction of these last five universes long enough to defeat the Anti-Monitor.

The five were merged into a single universe with its own history combining elements of the five, along with completely new elements. For example, there was a Flash named Jay Garrick in the JSA during the 1940s, and another Flash named Barry Allen in the JLA later. But Superman had a completely new history, different from the Superman of
Earth-One or Earth-Two.

Several characters famous from pre-Crisis works (most importantly the Kara Zor-El Supergirl and Barry Allen Flash ) were killed during ''Crisis'', and, as a result were either erased from history (in Supergirl's case) or simply proclaimed dead in the new, singular universe.


Post-Crisis

Some fans refused to accept that the Multiverse no longer "existed" after ''Crisis'', and posited that the "Post-''Crisis''" DC Universe was merely another alternate universe within the Multiverse, sometimes dubbed "Earth-PC" or "Earth-Sigma" (the mathematical "summation" symbol), Earth-2, or Clutter-Earth (a derogatory reference) after the events of '' Zero Hour ''.

A story in '' Animal Man '' by Grant Morrison referred to the Multiverse, with its effects coming undone as comicbooks, along with characters who no longer or never had existed, emerging from the Psycho-Pirate ’s mask inside Arkham Asylum.


Elseworlds

Although DC maintained that the other Earths no longer existed (and had ''never'' existed), during the 1990s they published occasional one-shots and mini-series labeled "'', also diverged from established continuity.


Hypertime

See Also: Hypertime (comics)



In 1999, DC introduced ''Hypertime'', which provided a conceptual framework to recognize both canonical and apocryphal stories. It was arguably a superset of the Multiverse, including not only the whole range of pre-Crisis stories set on alternate Earths, but any story set in any continuity. Hypertime was first referred to in '' The Kingdom '', in which an image of what appeared to be the original Earth-Two Superman was shown, suggesting that the Multiverse did in fact still exist in Hypertime. However, the concept has been subsequently used only a few times (most notably in two story-arcs in the pages of ''The Flash'' and ''Superboy''), and according to Dan DiDio, Executive VP of DC comics, Hypertime is no longer considered to be canon.


''Infinite Crisis''

See Also: Infinite Crisis



In 2005, DC began ''Infinite Crisis'', a DC-Universe-wide crossover and sequel to ''Crisis on Infinite Earths''. Stories leading up to the main limited series of seven issues contained scattered references and hints to the Multiverse (including the possibility that it could live again), including the character '', and the brief showing of an unnamed world with the "Superman Family", and Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman in Aztec garb.

Eventually, Luthor's plan was circumvented when his equipment was destroyed by Superboy (Kon-El aka Conner Kent), resulting in all earths merging into a new Earth. The effects of this transformation will be shown during the series '' 52 '' along with One Year Later .


CATALOGUED EARTHS

Traditionally, the "numbered" Earths were spelled out as words rather than with numerals - e.g. "Earth-Two" not "Earth-2" - in part to avoid confusion between similar looking numerals and letters in hand-lettered text. This convention was disregarded in ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'', and it became somewhat common to refer to the various Earths with numerals instead. However ''Infinite Crisis'' reverted to the original use of words. This is partly because Earths with numeral designations are part of the Marvel multiverse as well, and using the words instead of the numerals helps keep the two multiverses separate.