DC multiverse
The DC multiverse is a concept by the US comic publisher DC Comics , in which there are several mostly similar parallel universes .
background
Golden age
The first big wave of comics ( golden comic age ) began with Superman (from 1938 with US Action Comics # 1) and Batman (from 1939 with US Detective Comics # 27). A lot of other cartoon characters quickly established themselves with the predecessor of the current publisher DC Comics, among them Wonder Woman , The Flash and Green Lantern . After World War II , the popularity of superhero comics declined dramatically, and by the late 1950s, all superhero titles were discontinued, with the exception of the "big three" Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.
Silver Age
In 1955, DC Comics reintroduced the Flash character. However, this figure had only the name and the ability to move at tremendous speed in common with the Flash of the 1940s. Everything else such as costume, identity, origin of the superpowers, place of work, opponents and accompanying characters was new. With the unexpected success, the so-called Silver Comics Age was heralded, and soon Green Lantern and other characters were redesigned and reintroduced.
Justice League and Continuity
In 1960, the Justice League of America ( JLA for short , from US - The Brave and the Bold # 28) was a new, soon very popular series. Although there had already been something similar in the early forties with the Justice Society of America ( JSA for short , from US All Star Comics # 3), there was an essential difference, because the Justice Society only consisted of heroes, not their own Had comic series. The Justice League, on the other hand, consisted of the most popular heroes who were already known from their own series. Particularly noteworthy here are Flash and Green Lantern, which were firmly established in the Justice League. Although Superman and Batman were also formally permanent members of the Justice League, they never appeared on the covers in the first few years and were "prevented" from most early adventures. The reason for this was that these two popular heroes were already appearing in a large number of titles at the time and they should not be used in any more. In the years that followed, however, these two heroes also became increasingly central to the stories.
The existence of the Justice League had another consequence, because the various titles and heroes of DC no longer appeared completely independent of each other. With the Justice League as the amalgamation of the most important superheroes at DC, the various stories got a continuity , they seemed to take place in a common universe, although each of the superheroes only fought against his own and thus the same opponents.
Emergence
Flash of two worlds
In 1961, US- The Flash # 123 published a story in which the then Flash (Barry Allen) gets onto another world, namely that in which the Flash from the 1940s (Jay Garrick) works. The explanation given for this is the parallel existence of several universes, which are very similar to one another, but which are nevertheless different. Soon the term “Earth-1” was used for the world of “current” figures and “Earth-2” for the world of figures from the 1940s, although editor Julius Schwartz noted that it should have been the other way around. In US- The Flash # 137, the Flash of Earth-1 finally met the Justice Society of Earth-2.
The pseudoscientific explanation for this was that multiple elements can be in the same place as long as they vibrate at different frequencies. After each Flash was able to control its vibrations, it was possible for them to switch between the parallel worlds.
Justice League and Crises on Earths -1, -2 and -3
1963 appeared in US JLA # 21 and # 22 the titles "Crisis on Earth-One" and "Crisis on Earth-Two", in which the Justice League and Justice Society acted together. 1964 appeared in US JLA # 29 "Crisis on Earth-Three", whereby another earth was introduced. This earth was a so-called mirror universe in which the main character traits of the protagonists are turned into the opposite. So on Earth-3 the actual superheroes are super villains and vice versa (e.g. Ultraman as a counterpart to Superman).
Acquisition of the rights of other comic book publishers
DC Comics took over a number of other, smaller comic publishers over the years and thus also received their rights to various comic characters. Parallel earths were also assigned to these other, well-known heroes.
The earths of the multiverse
After all, a number of parallel earths had emerged by the end of the bronze age of comics :
- Earth-1
The earth with the most and best-known superheroes that were created from the Silver Age in the 1950s. Here z. B. Clark Kent aka Superman (whose Kryptonian name was Kal-El ) as a reporter for the Daily Planet. The JLA was also at home on Earth-1.
- Earth-2
The heroes of the Golden Age (1930s and 1940s) live on Earth-2 , e. B. the JSA. On this earth, Clark Kent (whose Kryptonian name was Kal-L ) had become the editor of the Daily Star and was married to Lois Lane .
- Earth-3
An earth on which many historical events took a completely different course. This was the home of the Crime Syndicate of America ( CSA for short ), whose leader Ultraman was a kind of evil counterpart to Superman. The only hero and opponent of the CSA was Lex Luthor .
- Earth-4
Home of the comic book characters from Charlton Comics , whose rights have been acquired by DC Comics. On earth-4 lived z. B. Blue Beetle .
- Earth-5
This earth was not explicitly named because v. a. look very similar for lettering “5” and “S”. The name is suggested for the earth shown and destroyed on pages two and three of US- Crisis on Infinite Earths # 1, on which apparently there were no superheroes.
- Earth-6
From this earth, shown and destroyed only in US- Crisis on Infinite Earths # 4, almost forgotten figures such as Lord Volt and Lady Quark come today .
- Earth-S
This earth was the home of the characters from Fawcett Comics , including Captain Marvel and the entire Marvel family.
- Earth-X
An earth on which the National Socialists won the Second World War. This is where the characters from the former Quality Comics publishing house lived . B. Uncle Sam .
- Earth Prime
In 1968, Flash got in US- The Flash # 179 from his earth (Earth-1) to our "real" earth (Earth-Prime) and there is an encounter with employees from DC, such as B. the editor Julius Schwartz or later the author Cary Bates . From this earth came Superboy-Prime , the only super being in the world.
The End
After the multitude of universes confused the readers more and more and was made partly responsible for falling sales figures, it was decided in the 1980s to put an end to the DC multiverse in its existing form and to merge all universes into one. This happened in 1985/1986 in Marv Wolfman's miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths ( Eng . Crisis of the Parallel Earths ). The title was a direct reference to US JLA # 21, # 22 and # 29 from the 1960s. The first of the named earths that was destroyed in the course of the parallel earth crisis was Earth-3, Earth-6 and Earth-Prime also experienced the same fate. The remaining five parallel earths were merged into a single new earth, which from this point in time until the Infinite Crisis (2005/2006) was to exist in the DC Universe .
Rebirths
Elseworlds and Hypertime
The origin of the so-called Elseworlds stories, which are comparable to the What If ...? -Concept of Marvel Comics , can be traced back to the 1960s when Imaginary Stories were published in which Superman persisted (often caused by kryptonite ) e.g. B. loses its strength or is shrunk. In retrospect, it was mostly reported that the stories didn't actually take place or were completely reversed. One last story of this kind is Superman: Whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (1986, German Superman: What became of the man of tomorrow? ) By Alan Moore , who adopted the original Superman (from Earth-2).
In the modern age , so-called graphic novels appeared in the 1980s . H. Comics more for older readers. One of the most famous of these was The Dark Knight Returns (1986, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns ), which showed a future for heroes and thus did not play in the familiar "present" of comics. Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (1989) was the first comic to feature the Elseworlds logo. In addition, the three-part series Batman / Dracula (1991-1999), Kingdom Come (1996/1997) and many more appeared. The latter series was continued in 1999 with The Kingdom . Here, all the realities mentioned in Elseworlds stories up to now were declared to be variations of the course of the story of the "normal" DC universe (according to the motto What if ...? ). All stories are connected to each other via hypertime , so they are parallel worlds.
The hypertime concept could not prevail at DC Comics and at the beginning of the 21st century the last comics with the Elseworlds logo appeared. In German-speaking countries, v. a. Panini Comics some of the editions. The publications always appeared with a saying that sums up the idea of the Elseworlds stories:
“ In Elseworlds, heroes are moved from their familiar surroundings to strange places and times - those who existed or cannot, could or should. In this way, characters that are as familiar as yesterday are fresh again as tomorrow. "
Infinite Crisis
The last survivors of the earths destroyed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths ( Alexander Luthor , son of the hero Lex Luthor of Earth-3, and Superboy of Earth-Prime), as well as those who no longer saw their place on the New Earth ( Superman and Lois Lane of Earth-2) allied to restore their ancient homeworlds under the leadership of Earth-3-Luthor. They also tried to win Power Girl , who also came from Erde-2, for their cause. As a result, 52 parallel earths emerged. One of them (Earth-50) also hosted the WildStorm heroes, who were thus included in DC historiography.
Like the Elseworlds, these 52 parallel earths hardly played a role in the DC Universe and were rarely mentioned in the comics.
Flashpoint , The New 52, and The Multiversity
After Barry Allen (Flash II) found out that Eobard Thawne (Reverse Flash) was his mother's murderer, he traveled back in time to prevent this crime. In doing so, however, he changed the world so much that it was unrecognizable:
“ Everything we knew changed in an instant. The greatest heroes in the world no longer exist. In their place have come the worst threats to humanity. How has history changed? And what does that mean for the future? Welcome to Flashpoint! "
When the earth was on the brink of destruction as a result of the rivalry between Aquaman and Wonder Woman , Flash was able to reverse the changes by re-entering the time stream and preventing himself from preventing his mother's death. He discovered that there were three different parallel worlds (in addition to the known earth, two more on which the Vertigo and WildStorm stories took place) that were now united.
The new DC universe began with the New 52 (2011), the restart of 52 comic series that appeared in several waves of releases. Action Comics and Detective Comics also received a new count after more than 70 years. One of the series from the second wave of releases was Earth-2 , which shows an alternate version of the familiar Earth. The series Worlds' Finest , started at the same time, is also about characters ( Huntress and Power Girl ) from Earth-2. The existence of Earth-3 was shown as the beginning of Forever Evil , the first comic book event in the new DC Universe .
In 2014/2015 the nine-part story The Multiversity was published , with which the total number of 52 earths (# 0 to # 51) was also introduced in the new DC universe.
See also
literature
Primary literature
- DC Archive Edition # 1: JLA Volume 1, Dino Verlag , Stuttgart 1998, by Gardner Fox , Mike Sekowsky , Bernhard Sachs
- DC Archive Edition # 4: JLA Volume 2, Dino Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, Bernhard Sachs
- DC Archive Edition # 8: Flash Volume 1, Dino Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, by Joe Kubert , Robert Kanigher , Carmine Infantino
- DC Archive Edition # 13: JLA Volume 3, Panini Comics , Nettetal-Kaldenkirchen 2003, by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, Bernhard Sachs
- DC Archive Edition # 14: JLA Volume 4, Panini Comics, Nettetal-Kaldenkirchen 2003, by Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, Bernhard Sachs
- DC Museum Edition # 10: US- The Flash # 123, Panini Comics, Nettetal-Kaldenkirchen 2002, by Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella
- Justice League of America: Crisis # 1: 1963-1966, Panini Comics, Stuttgart 2013
- Justice League of America: Crisis # 2: 1967-1970, Panini Comics, Stuttgart 2013
- Justice League of America: Crisis # 3: 1971–1974, Panini Comics, Stuttgart 2014
- Justice League of America: Crisis # 4: 1975–1977, Panini Comics, Stuttgart 2014
- Justice League of America: Crisis # 5: 1978–1980, Panini Comics, Stuttgart 2015
- Justice League of America: Crisis # 6: 1981–1982, Panini Comics, Stuttgart 2015
- Justice League of America: Crisis # 7: 1983–1985, Panini Comics, Stuttgart 2017
Individual evidence
- ^ Foreword by Paul Gambaccini to DC Archive Edition # 1, JLA Volume 1, Dino Verlag, Stuttgart 1998
- ^ Foreword by Marv Wolfman to DC Archive Edition # 14, JLA Volume 4, Panini Comics, Nettetal-Kaldenkirchen 2003
- ^ Afterword by Robert Greenberger to DC Museum Edition # 10: US- The Flash # 123, Panini Comics, Nettetal-Kaldenkirchen 2002
- ^ US- The Flash # 123, DC Comics 1961
- ^ Foreword to JLA special volume # 12, Dino Verlag, Stuttgart 1999
- ^ The Annotated Crisis on Infinite Earths. www.prismnet.com, accessed May 20, 2014 (English).
- ↑ See e.g. B. DC Premium # 1: Batman - Shadows over Gotham, Panini Comics, Nettetal-Kaldenkirchen 2001
- ↑ Panini Preview # 19: Wizard Exklusiv - The final countdown (PDF; 11.7 MB), Panini Comics, Nettetal-Kaldenkirchen 2008, pp. 6 - 7, accessed on June 26, 2011
- ↑ See e.g. B. Flashpoint # 3, Panini Comics, Stuttgart 2012
- ↑ Flashpoint # 5, Panini Comics, Stuttgart 2012
- ↑ Krismann Jörg: May makes a lot of new things ... in DC-Universum , Comixene # 113, JNK-Verlag , Berlin 2012, pp. 6-14
- ↑ DC Comics in 2012 - Introducing the "Second Wave" of DC Comics-The New 52. (No longer available online.) Josh Kushins, January 12, 2012, archived from the original on January 14, 2012 ; accessed on March 29, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Justice League # 23, Panini Comics, Stuttgart 2014
- ↑ Multiversity # 1 and # 2, Panini Comics, Stuttgart 2015
