| Multiverse (dc Comics) |
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inhabiting each one. Art by Dan Jurgens and Art Thibert]] The DC Multiverse is a Continuity construct in which multiple fictional versions of the universe exist in the same space, separated from each other by their respective vibrational resonances. Each universe in this Multiverse differs from the others, in either subtle or profound ways. The universes are identified by referring to them as parallel Earths, such as "Earth-One", " Earth-Two ", and " Earth-Three ". HISTORY Although DC Comics continued publishing from the 1930s through the 1950s, the Golden Age Of Comic Books had come to a close in the late 1940s or early 1950s, and most Superhero comic books had ceased publication. The only superhero comic book titles to survive from the Golden Age to the present were Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. In 1956, DC's Showcase comics provided a starting point for the new Silver Age Flash (Barry Allen) . It was also firmly established in the Flash's first appearance that the Golden Age Flash was a comic-book character within the DC universe, whose fictional exploits inspired Barry Allen to take on the name. With the success of this character, more Golden Age characters' names were reused with new heroes, often having new costumes, identities or powers, such as Green Lantern , the Atom and Hawkman . and her multiversal counterpart realizing the existence of parallel Earths.]] The first Parallel Universe was introduced in 1953 in ''Wonder Woman'' #59 (vol. 1), in which Wonder Woman fell through a space-time warp and encountered her double, whose name, Terra Terruna, translated as Wonder Woman. After battling the villain Duke Dazam , Wonder Woman returned home. The parallel universe concept was not used again until ''Wonder Woman'' #89 (April 1957), which featured an alternate Earth where crime predominated. The second was "Magic-Land", an alternate Earth where Magic , instead of science, was the dominant force in the world. However, its existence has been ignored in current DC multiverse continuity. It appeared in Gardner Fox 's "Secret of the Sinister Sorcerers", Justice League Of America #2. December 1960- January 1961, nearly contemporary with Fox' ''Flash of Two Worlds''. The 1961 story which established the DC Multiverse as a major story element appeared in ''The Flash'' #123, the story " Flash Of Two Worlds " in which the new Flash uses his powers of super-speed vibration to climb a rope suspended in mid-air and vibrates into Earth-Two, where he meets Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash. Each universe's Earth has its own set of superheroes, with their own unique characteristics and life histories. In several cases, characters from other publishers acquired by DC, previously established within a Fictional Universe of their own, have been incorporated into the Multiverse in various alternate universes. '' Star Hunters '' #7 (October 1978), by David Micheline , Bob Layton , and Rich Buckler contains one of the first anecdotal mentions of the multiverse in a DC Comics title, including the term "Multiverse", and offers a description of multiple co-existing parallel Earths. It also describes an ancient war between the forces of light and dark using agents scattered across multiple universes. ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' See Also: Crisis on Infinite Earths and the second Starfire . Artist Rich Buckler ]] Until well into the 1970 s, mass-market comic books were dominated by a generation of creators who had either been involved in the creation of the Golden Age heroes of the 1940 s (e.g., Stan Lee , Jack Kirby , Julius Schwartz and Joe Kubert ), or been fans of Golden Age comic books and gone on to enter the industry themselves (e.g., Roy Thomas and E. Nelson Bridwell ). The earliest stories of the Earth-Two heroes were written and drawn by creative personnel who had worked on those characters during the Golden Age. As time went on, however, most of the new editors and creators were less familiar with the older heroes, and had greater difficulty maintaining the overall continuity of the Multiverse. The newer generation also took comic books more seriously, and were embarrassed by the light-hearted elements of the older stories, with their profusion of kid sidekicks and other spin-off characters. Accordingly, many staffers and creators saw a need to simplify the Multiverse and eliminate elements they perceived as silly. To this end, the Multiverse was reduced to a single universe in the 1985 12-issue Limited Series ''Crisis on Infinite Earths''. One by one, a villain known as the Anti-Monitor destroyed universes. The heroes of the last five universes (those of Earth-One, Earth-Two, Earth-Four, Earth-S, and Earth-X) along with a handful of survivors from other universes ( Pariah , Lady Quark , Alexander Luthor, Jr. , the Inferior Five ) held off the destruction of these last five universes long enough to defeat the Anti-Monitor. The five 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 decades later. But there was only one Superman, who had a modified history, different in some respects from both the Earth-One and the Earth-Two versions. 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. Other characters and concepts, such as Streaky The Supercat , Comet The Super-Horse and the Space Canine Patrol Agents , vanished without explanation. 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", "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 comic books, along with characters who no longer or never had existed emerging from the Psycho-Pirate ’s mask inside Arkham Asylum. Keith Giffen's Ambush Bug demonstrated an awareness of the events in ''Crisis'' in his various mini-series, in which it was referred to as "Crisis on the only Earth we're still allowed to use." The Books of Magic series, published under the Vertigo label and set in the DC Universe, had a storyline by Peter Gross (beginning in ''The Books of Magic'' #51) in which a Timothy Hunter from a parallel universe travelled from universe to universe, killing and absorbing the powers of his alternate selves. Elseworlds Although DC maintained that the other Earths no longer existed, during the 1990s they published occasional one-shots and mini-series labeled "'', also diverged from established continuity (or in the case of ''The Dark Knight Returns'', have had the continuity diverge from them). Hypertime See Also: Hypertime (comics) In 1999, DC introduced ''Hypertime'', which provided a conceptual framework to recognize both canonical and apocryphal stories, stating that all stories outside mainstream continuity happened in alternate timelines that had "branched out". Hypertime 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. This concept was first referenced in '' The Kingdom '', in which an image of what appeared to be the original Earth-Two Superman was shown. However, the concept has been subsequently used only a few times (most notably in story-arcs in the pages of ''The Flash'' and ''Superboy''). According to Dan DiDio, Executive VP of DC Comics, Hypertime will not be featured in any future stories. ''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 contained scattered references and hints to the Multiverse (including the possibility that it could live again). These references included the character Donna Troy returning from the dead and remembering her varied origins on the various Earths and the revelation that the evil Dark Angel had been her counterpart from Earth-Seven, as well as a mini-series involving Captain Atom being sent to the WildStorm Universe. In the ''Infinite Crisis'' series itself, the Superman and Lois Lane of Earth-Two, Superboy of Earth-Prime, and Alexander Luthor Jr. of Earth-Three—all survivors of the Multiverse—reappeared, and the former existence of the Multiverse was acknowledged. Earth-Two was recreated in issue #4, and the surviving heroes who originated from Earth-Two were transported there. In addition to this, worlds previously described only as "Imaginary Stories" or "'', a world featuring Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman in Aztec garb, and a world featuring characters from the First Wonder Woman Pilot as well as from the Later Wonder Woman TV Show alongside the original Teen Titans in a militaristic setting. Eventually, Alexander's plan was circumvented when his equipment was destroyed by Superboy (Kon-El, a.k.a. Conner Kent), resulting in all Earths re-merging into "New Earth". The effects of this transformation were shown during the series '' 52 '' and in the " One Year Later " storyline. ''52'' See Also: 52 (comic book) In the DC Nation column printed in the back of Week 37, Dan Didio revealed "the secret of 52" in a coded message. The message is spelled out using the first letter of every third word and said: "the secret of fifty-two is that the Multiverse still exists". In ''52'': Week 52, it is revealed that the Multiverse was recreated at the end of Infinite Crisis with the creation of fifty-two separate Earths, separated by their different vibrational frequencies, and each with a history of its own. These Earths were recreated as identical to New Earth and then altered by the machinations of Mister Mind . LIST OF UNIVERSES Original multiverse Catalogued 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 practice. Unclassified Various other Earths were arguably depicted in DC's substantial publishing output during the period in which the Multiverse was in effect. Some Earths have been posited to explain (for example) the Super Friends (based on the TV series). On yet another conjectured Earth-Crossover, the Silver Age DC Comics heroes lived side-by-side with the Silver Age Marvel Comics heroes, and it is on this alternate Earth where various team-ups and battles between the two publishers' heroes have occurred over the years. Some of these could instead be categorized using the "imaginary story" identifier which DC occasionally applied to stories they didn't wish to be considered part of continuity, especially before the invention of the Multiverse. After the first Crisis, several new universes appeared despite DC's intentions to the contrary. In addition, DC ran a number of crossovers with other companies that involved travel between different realities. Technically, none of these worlds were ever part of the Multiverse. This was until ''Infinite Crisis'' retroactively labeled the ''Tangent Comics'' universe and many Elseworlds as Earths of the Multiverse, even though they had been published long after the Multiverse was destroyed. ''Infinite Crisis'' did the same with and many Pre-Crisis ''Imaginary Tales''. In the "With A Vengeance!" story line of ''Superman/Batman'', the multiverse is visited by Bizarro and Batzarro. The Joker and Mr. Mxyzptlk summon Batmen and Supermen from various realities, both previously established worlds as well as unexplored ones. The 52 ''52'' Week 52 revealed the existence of a new Multiverse, which has similarities to the original DC Multiverse.http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/004448945.cfm A significant difference between this Multiverse and the original is that this one has exactly fifty-two Earths, known as New Earth and Earths 1 through 51. The fifty-two Earths were at first, identical to New Earth with the same history and people until Mister Mind devoured portions of each Earth's history, which altered their timelimes and resulted in new, distinct Earths with individual histories. The new alternate realities aren't duplicates of the realities that came before, and feature characters who didn't exist in the original Multiverse and are native to that Earth. For example, a version of Green Lantrern exists on Earth-5 and a Nazi-themed version of the Justice League exists on Earth-10. Newsarama: WW: CHICAGO '07: DAN DIDIO ON COUNTDOWN: ARENA The Guardians Of The Universe serve as protectors of the new Multiverse.''Green Lantern Sinestro Corps Special'' #1 (2007) Each universe within the Multiverse is separated by the Source Wall , behind which Anti-Life keeps the universes apart.''Countdown'' #39 The Bleed permeates the Anti-Life in unpredictable places behind the Source Wall, allowing for transport between the universes. Due to its unique position, the destruction of New Earth would set off a chain reaction that would destroy the other fifty-one alternate realities at the same time, leaving only the Antimatter Universe in existence. As a consequence of Alexander Luthor 's attempts to recreate the Multiverse,'' Infinite Crisis '' #1-7 fifty-two new Monitors were created to oversee the 52 realities created afterwards.''Countdown'' #40 The Monitors seek to protect the Multiverse from people who crossover from one alternate reality to another, through the Bleed or through innate ability, who the Monitors have labeled "anomalies".''Countdown'' #51 CONTACT BETWEEN UNIVERSES Most inhabitants of the Multiverse are completely unaware of the other universes. The first character recorded to cross the gap between them (chronologically in continuity, not publishing order as this tale was revealed in the series '' All-Star Squadron '' in the 1980s) was Uncle Sam of Earth-Two, who accidentally crossed over into Earth-X. (The first ''published'' story was Wonder Woman 's crossing into an unnamed parallel earth, in ''Wonder Woman'' (vol. 1) #59 (1953).) Barry Allen, the Flash of Earth-One became the first recorded individual during the Silver Age to visit another Earth, accidentally vibrating at just the right speed to appear on Earth-Two, where he met Jay Garrick, his Earth-Two counterpart. Other characters with super-speed powers have been able to duplicate the trick, but it has not been done routinely. Magic and technological devices have done the job as well. The Justice League of America's "transmatter" device (ordinarily used to transport between their satellite headquarters and the ground), was pressed into service for annual events in which the League and some of their counterparts on other Earths faced a universe-crossing "crisis" of one sort or another. Wonder Woman's invisible jet was also shown to be able to vibrate her across the multiversal barrier (''Wonder Woman'' (vol. 1) #300), and she also crossed over when her magic lasso was struck by lightning (''Wonder Woman'' (vol. 1) #59). Superman could travel to other Earths at will while Captain Marvel used the magical Rock of Eternity that granted him access to any of the Earths. Writers have occasionally put characters from different Earths together in the same story without explanation, a Continuity error often cited as a reason for eliminating the Multiverse in ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' or as an extension of "Earth-B" (cited by DC staff as the setting for team-up stories told in '' The Brave And The Bold '' which did not always conform to established continuity for Earth-One, or any other established Earth). For instance, one such story featured Catwoman committing murder, which neither the Earth-One nor Earth-Two versions would ever do as it was strictly against either character's moral code. Earth-616 , Marvel 's main universe, is typically acknowledged as being part of a Different Multiverse entirely; in the JLA/Avengers crossover, even after the barriers between Earth-616 and the post-Crisis DC Earth had been deliberately weakened, it was incredibly hard to make the voyage. Trade paperback Contact between the universes (or stories set on the other Earths) have been reprinted in the following graphic novels: REPRESENTATIONS IN OTHER MEDIA The ''Super Friends'' have had crossovers with other universes; in the episode " Universe Of Evil ", a freak accident causes Superman to switch places with his evil counterpart. The DC Animated Universe (DCAU) has depicted the Multiverse. Several characters from the main DCAU have visited parallel universes that were similar to the DCAU:
In an interview, '' Teen Titans '' producer Glen Murakami stated, possibly as a joke, that the show did not exist in the DCAU continuity, but instead took place on "Earth-T." PARODIES In the '' Futurama '' episode " The Farnsworth Parabox ", the characters meet versions of themselves from an alternate reality. They argue over which universe should be named "Universe A" until one group decides to be "Universe 1." Bongo Comics published a comic book series featuring characters from '' Simpsons '' and ''Futurama'' titled ''Infinitely Secret Crossover Crisis''. One of the conventions of DC's multiverse that the series parodies is the existence of one universe's characters as fictional comic book characters in another. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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