Multiverse (DC Comics)

The Multiverse, within DC Comics publications, is a "cosmic construct" collecting many of the fictional universes in which the published stories take place. The worlds in this multiverse share a space and fate in common and its structure has changed several times in the history of DC Comics.^[1]

History

Golden Age

The concept of a universe and a multiverse in which the fictional stories take place was loosely established during the Golden Age. With the publication of All-Star Comics #3 in 1940, the first crossover between characters occurred with the creation of the Justice Society of America which presented the first super hero team with characters appearing in other publications (comic strips and anthology titles) to bring attention to less known characters. This established the first shared "universe" as all these heroes now "lived" in the same world. Prior to this publication, characters from the different comic books seemingly existed in different worlds.

Later, Wonder Woman #59 (May 1953) presented DC Comics' first story depicting a parallel "mirror" world. Wonder Woman is transported to a twin Earth where she meets Tara Terruna who is exactly like her. Tara Terruna means "Wonder Woman" in the native language of that world. Wonder Woman describes this world as being a twin world existing alongside Earth with duplicates of everyone but with a different development. The concept of different versions of the world and its heroes was revisited in the pages of Wonder Woman a few times later.

Silver Age

Led by editor Julius Schwartz and writer Gardner Fox, DC Comics' super heroes were given a "reboot" with the publication of Showcase #4 in 1956 where a new version of The Flash made its first appearance. The success of this new Flash led the creation of new incarnations of the Golden Age characters who only shared the names and powers but had different secret identities, origins and stories. Later, new versions of other heroes, namely, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, were also restarted by retelling their origins but keeping their secret identities. Gardner Fox, who worked before in the creation of the JSA, where other heroes met for the first time, created the story "Flash of Two Worlds" in The Flash #123, where Barry Allen, the new Flash, is transported to the Earth where the original Flash, Jay Garrick, existed. To Allen, Jay Garrick's world was a work of fiction as it was in the real world. This story not only presented the encounter of two worlds and the existence of the Multiverse for the first time, it also presented key features of the Multiverse: All the universes vibrate at a specific frequency which keeps them separated; these "barriers" could by trespassed by "tuning" to that vibration. Because people could also "tune-in" these worlds in dreams, some people wrote comic books with the stories from those worlds they dreamed, which explained why Barry Allen knew about Jay Garrick as a fictional character.

The success of this story led to the first team crossover between the new Justice League of America and the Golden Age JSA, in the stories Crisis on Earth-One (Justice League of America #21) and Crisis on Earth-Two (Justice League of America #22). This story arc started a tradition of a yearly crossover between the JLA and the JSA and established firmly the concept of a Multiverse and the designation of names, being Earth-One the JLA reality and Earth-Two the JSA reality. The success of these crossovers spawned publications telling the further stories of the Golden Age heroes in the present day parting from many of the stories told, thus, establishing a more defined continuity for every Universe.

This concept of parallel Earths with differences in locations, persons and historical events became a very important ingredient within DC Comics' publications. It helped (among other things) to explain continuity errors, retell and retcon stories and incorporate foreign elements that could actively interact with everything else and allowing them to have an "existence". Continuity flaws between the established Earth-Two and several stories from the Golden Age, were given separate earths. "Imaginary" stories and some time divergences of Earth-One were given also separate realities (such as Earth-B and Earth-A). In addition to the stories appearing mainly in the pages of JLA that created new Earths, the acquisition of other comic book companies and characters by DC Comics, incorporated these new properties as Earths in the Multiverse which would interact several times with the "main" Earths, One and Two; being some of the most notable Earth-S for the Fawcett Comics characters, and Earth-X, for Quality Comics. By the 1970s, everything that was published or related officially to DC Comics' titles could become part of the Multiverse, although much of it remained largely uncatalogued.

The names of the worlds were usually in the format Earth, hyphen, spelled numeral/letter/name. In the case of worlds with numerals, the "rule" of spelling the number was not always followed, even within the pages of the same issue.

Crisis on Infinite Earths

As the 50th anniversary of DC Comics was close, major events were proposed for the celebration: an encyclopedia (Who's Who) and a crossover throughout the ages, characters and worlds appearing in DC Comics. As told in the letter section of Crisis On Infinite Earths #1, as the research started in the late 1970s, it became evident that there were many flaws in continuity. The way used to circumvent some of these errors was the "Multiple Earths" which also showed a chaotic nature that brought even more continuity problems that were not easily explained or were simply left unexplained. Examples of this included: 1) Black Canary of Earth-One being the daughter of the original Black Canary of WWII even though the original Black Canary was a resident of Earth-Two, and 2) the existence of Golden Age comic books on Earth-One and the people not noticing that some of the characters in those comic books existed in "real-life". In addition, many universes had multiple alternate timelines, such as Kamandi and the Legion of Super-Heroes, both being from Earth-One.

Writer Marv Wolfman took this crossover event as an opportunity to reform all the fictional universe of DC Comics to avoid further continuity errors and update the DC characters to modern times. The whole Multiverse is destroyed except for 5 Earths (Silver Age Earth-One, Golden Age Earth-Two, Fawcett Comics Earth S, Quality Comics' Freedom Fighters Earth X and Charlton Comics Earth 4). Later, the universe is recreated as one single universe from those five.

Modern Age

DC Comics

After the conclusion of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the concept of a single Universe containing most elements of the "surviving Earths" was established and heavily enforced to avoid the continuity problems of the Multiverse. However, alternate realities that affected the new DC Universe appeared very quickly. In Superman Vol. 2 #8, a Universe inside the Universe was revealed to have been created to preserve the Legion of Super Heroes' 30th century in New Earth. This world was used to allow crossovers with certain characters of the Legion of Super-Heroes and recreate characters that otherwise couldn't exist in the new continuity (such as Kryptonians, as in the New Earth Superman was the only survivor of Krypton). Alternate timelines were also used, the most notable event being Armageddon 2001 in 1991. An Antimatter Universe existed as well, which had some "reversed" events in a similar way as the former Earth-Three. The Earth within this Universe was called "Earth 2". In addition, there was a Limbo, where some heroes and characters that could not be brought back to "existence" after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, lived outside the Universe.

An important rule in the new DC Universe was that there could only be one timeline, so any change caused by time travelers caused the destruction of their timelines of origin. Changes in the past were often "fixed" or have to comply with the present to prevent continuity errors.

Nonetheless, continuity errors appeared. The retold origin of Hawkman presented errors regarding the existence of the Golden Age version (Carter Hall) and the Silver Age version (Katar Hol) in the same continuity without a good explanation. The interaction of "possible timelines" also created continuity holes. This led to a new crisis to address the problem: The Zero-Hour. The resulting universe had a slightly re-written story with no continuity errors even though it was acknowledged that reality-shattering events did happen (including Crisis on Infinite Earths). This Universe kept the concept of one universe, one timeline. Such timeline was "mapped" from beginning to present (1994) at the back cover of Zero Hour #0, that also included certain key dates in the future.

The need to publish stories outside the strict DC Universe continuity led to the creation of certain DC imprints. Stories that set DC characters in different situations after the Crisis On Infinite Earths, were published by DC Comics under the Elseworlds imprint. None of these stories were ever to be included in the "real" continuity of the DC Universe.

Certain characters were reinvented in a mature context and were published under the Vertigo imprint. Most of the times, the characters depicted within the Vertigo imprint had no relation to the original DC Universe's versions, nor did the events have influence over the new Universe.

Later, under a special publishing deal with Milestone Media, DC Comics published a new series of comic books that told the stories of the heroes living in Dakota City, formed mostly by African-American super heroes and other minorities. These characters lived in a universe separated from the DC Universe (known as the Dakotaverse or Milestone Universe). The event Worlds Collide presented one of the first modern intercompany crossovers within the established continuity of the Universes instead of being "imaginary" and showed that there could be other Universes or even Multiverses outside the new DC Universe.

In a similar way to Worlds Collide, the crossover event DC VERSUS Marvel Comics/Marvel Comics VERSUS DC showed another in-continuity crossover with another reality completely separated from the DC Universe and that has a Multiverse of its own: Earth-616 of the Marvel Multiverse.

The universes were rarely referred to with specific names within the stories but were named in the "Real World" (both officially and unofficially) using the name of the editorial, imprint or even an element in particular. While in the comic books the concept of a "real" Multiverse was avoided, the Multiverse played an important role in cartoon series and live-action shows (see Other versions).

In summary, from 1986 to 1999, everything not happening in the "mainstream" continuity appearing in DC Comics, was either an "apocryphal" story or happened in a completely different and separated reality/Universe/Multiverse that could not be easily crossed-over.

In 1999, the unexpected and overwhelming success of Elseworlds's Kingdom Come and other stories, led to the creation of the concept known as Hypertime in order to publish crossovers with those characters and the mainstream continuity. This structure gave "existence" to alternate timelines, stories in Elseworlds, appearances in other media and any other appearance of DC characters in the past. The main timeline or "Central Timeline" was like a river and all of the alternate stories were branches of it. Hypertime was similar to the former Multiverse as it allowed each and every reality ever published to co-exist and interact as most branches tend to return to the original stream (explaining some retcons as well as crossovers). However, all realities existed within only one Universe.

WildStorm

Originally, the stories appearing in WildStorm Productions' comic books occurred in a Universe that was part of the Image Universe along with other characters appearing in Image publications. It was separated from it during the event Shattered Image consolidating the separate WildStorm Universe which had its own Multiversal structure. After the purchase of WildStorm by DC Comics, crossovers occurred with the new DC Universe which were still separated just like Milestone and Marvel.

21st Century

52

In 2005, a new universal crisis story arc was published as a way to update once more the super heroes of DC Comics, bring together other "realities" (namely, Milestone and Wildstorm) and bring back the Multiverse, this time with a limited number of Earths instead of infinite.

During the event Infinite Crisis, the Universe was "splintered" and the original Multiverse was restored briefly, showing that the entire Hypertime and many other appearances of the DC characters, were part of the original Multiverse, including Tangent Comics which were published 12 years after the Multiverse was no more. In the end of Infinite Crisis, the multiverse is merged back as a New Earth with a new continuity with many stories re-written and many others from the Modern Age still happening.
In parallel, Captain Atom: Armageddon tells the story of how Captain Atom of the DC Universe causes the recreation of the Wildstorm Universe upon its destruction (and possibly its Multiverse as well). The recreated universe became part of the newly recreated DC Universe.
The aftermath of Infinite Crisis and Captain Atom: Armageddon (52, 'Countdown and Final Crisis) showed that a new Multiverse was created. The new Multiverse consisted of 52 positive matter universes, an Antimatter Universe and a Limbo. The main continuity still occurred in New Earth (also called Earth-0), Earths 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 resembled Earths One, Two, Three, Four, S, and X of the original Multiverse respectively. Earths 13 and 50 were Vertigo and the rebooted Wildstorm Universe, while Earth-17 became the world of a revived post-apocalypse Atomic Knights after a mid-eighties World War III once more. Many important stories from the Elseworld imprint were later also given their own alternate Earths within this new Multiverse.

In the miniseries, Milestone Forever, in a similar fashion as Captain Atom: Armageddon, the events that led to the end of the Dakotaverse and its integration to the new DC continuity are revealed. Most of the stories that were told in Milestone Comics publications now occurred in New Earth and the Dakotaverse ceased to exist as a separated Universe.

A naming convention was established and followed this time in the format Earth, hyphen, numeral, from Earth-0 to Earth-51.
Even with a new Multiverse, not every published or related work had an "Earth" within the 52 and there were no in-continuity intercompany crossovers.

Taking advantage of the fact that many of these universes were mostly unchronicled or merely glimpsed and that Final Crisis also changed the Multiverse slightly, many stories featuring alternate worlds and their interactions were published, which led certain inconsistencies and retcons to appear, such as Earth-1 being originally a "mirror" of Earth-One and later being the reality of J. Michael Straczynski's Superman: Earth One or Earth-16 being the home of an alternate Superman/Christopher Kent, the home of the Super-Sons, and later the reality of the Young Justice TV series. Also, some Universes appearing in the new continuity were never given a proper place within the 52 Universe, such as Prime-Earth.

The New 52

The new restored universe with only 52 worlds opened myriad possibilities for new stories and crossovers with different versions of heroes interacting with the main versions of heroes as well as the stories resulting from the new integrated characters from Milestone and Wildstorm. However, it became chaotic in just 5 years. Many stories and situations of other Universes were not followed well. The number designations could be completely disregarded from story to story and some universes were recreated over and over. In addition, as most of the history of the Modern Age was still being the main continuity, younger readers could not follow the stories of the mainstream versions of the DC Heroes, just as had happened prior to the original Crisis on Infinite Earths.

In order to overcome these new problems, a new event was created to restart the DC Comics' Universe. In the Flashpoint miniseries (May–September 2011), The Flash alters the timeline of Earth-0 creating a ripple effect that affected several past events, Earth-13 (Vertigo Universe) and Earth-50 (new Wildstorm Universe).^[2] Similar to the end result of Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new mainstream Earth is created from the former three, with a whole new history.^[3] Most of the stories have been retold anew but certain events of New Earth remain (such as Batgirl being crippled by The Joker). Since it was established after Infinite Crisis that if something ever happened to the main Universe, the whole Multiverse could be affected as well, a new Multiverse of 52 worlds was also recreated. This new Multiverse is called The New 52.

This time, not all universes were revealed right away, only a couple were revealed in the first two years of The New 52. In addition, in a similar fashion as the Elseworlds logo would appear in comics that did not occur in the "real" continuity, the logo THE NEW 52! would only appear in publications with stories occurring in the new continuity, while those taking place outside of this new continuity (such as Smallville: Season 11 or Batman Beyond Universe) would not bear this distinction. At first it seemed that there was not going to be a naming convention for the Earths as it happened with the 52. The mainstream continuity was known as Prime Earth, although it was not a similar world to the real world as Earth-Prime was. J. Michael Straczynski's re-envisioning of classic Batman and Superman stories was released as part of a series called Earth One. In Grant Morrison's The Multiversity (2014–2015), the Earths are named in the same format as in the former 52 Multiverse (Earth-6, Earth-7, Earth-8 etc.) Morrison intended for The Multiversity to reveal remaining universes of The New 52 multiverse, and the underlying structure for the multiverse was revealed in a detailed map in the back of several comic books, for which an interactive online version is being maintained and updated on the DC Comics website. In addition, the sixth issue of Multiversity constituted a 'guidebook' to the worlds of the current DC multiverse and was published in January 2015^[4]

Convergence

On October 2, 2011, Dan DiDio posted on his Facebook page that in The New 52, the three previous "crises" did not occur in this new continuity, but other events such as Zero Hour still happened, without ending in a crisis/reboot.^[5] However, writers continued to make references to the crises, and the full history of the structure of the DC Multiverse, detailing previous crisis events, was given in Grant Morrison's The Multiversity (2014–2015) limited series.

The Convergence (2015) crossover event later explored this concept within the DCU. This miniseries brought back several heroes from the ages of DC Comics that were obliterated by the crisis events. They were trapped by a godlike incarnation of Brainiac outside of time (or Vanishing Point as this "place" is called). At the end of the crossover, Brainiac sent these heroes back to their own timelines, and also successfully sent Zero Hour Hal Jordan, pre-Flashpoint Superman and other heroes back to the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths so that the collapse of the Multiverse could be averted.

From July 2015 onwards, The New 52 marking ended with the continuation of several publications and new others that not necessarily take place within "The New 52" multiverse. Advertised as DC YOU (a pun from DCU or DC Universe and the phrase "it's about you, the fans" appearing in the advertisements), DC now has an "open doors" policy to continuity, granting writers greater freedom to explore stories set outside the established New 52 Multiverse continuity, as well as to revisit other characters and concepts from DC's history as the conclusion of Convergence suggested that although the core 52 universe that now exists is the evolution of the multiverse, all the worlds still exist in some form. This was confirmed by Convergence writer Jeff King, as he stated that the reconstituted DC Multiverse is now infinite and there might be more than one Multiverse.^[6]

Fictional history, structure and worlds of the DC Multiverse

See also: List of DC Multiverse worlds

Infinite Multiverse

As told in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, the DC Universe was a single positive matter Universe until a scientist named Krona from the planet Oa, altered the very moment of the creation of the Universe, causing it to split into countless similar universes and an antimatter universe. Oa, however, had no duplicates in the Multiverse but did have a twin in the antimatter universe: Qward. A satellite on each of these planets was created in the cataclysm and it was there where the embodiments of the Multiverse were born: The Monitor and the Anti-Monitor. The two battled to a standstill and eventually rendered one another comatose.
The Multiverse had countless^[7] duplicates of planet Earth. Every Earth had a different history from one another but they always developed heroes and inspired heroic ages (which, according to Harbinger, it somehow made them a focal point among all the worlds in every universe). Some of the heroes of Earth knew about other Earths and their own counterparts and fought side by side in many occasions.

Later, a scientist from one universe named Kell Mossa (known initially only as Pariah) created another device that would allow him to attempt the same thing Krona had attempted before. His actions accidentally awakened the Anti-Monitor, who then devoured Pariah's entire universe (aside from Pariah himself) and began to do the same to other universes (Pariah originally believes that the opposite is true; that his experiment destroyed the universes, which awakened the Anti-Monitor, until the truth is revealed to him). The time period of Earth when this take place or the name of the Earth are never revealed.

The Monitor is awakened by the destruction of the positive matter universes and starts a plan to save the Multiverse but his efforts and later those of his protégé, Harbinger, with the help of the heroes of the Multiverse, only manage to save 5 universes. In a desperate effort to save all existence, heroes and villains unite in order to stop Krona from splitting the Universe and stop the Anti-Monitor from altering the moment of creation and make the Antimatter Universe the only one. They succeed in saving all existence but in the process, the Multiverse, its countless duplicate worlds and its history ceased to exist.

All the Universes existed within the same space but had a unique vibration that kept them separated. Only by "tunning" to the specific frequency of a Universe, a person could leap to another Earth, as Barry Allen discovered as he tried to perform disappearing act by vibrating his molecules at super speed (Flash #123). The "speedster" later developed a machine called "Cosmic Treadmill", which when it was used by people who controlled the Speed Force, it allowed the users to trespass the "vibrational barriers". Magic and cosmic incidents also made many people to travel to other universes.
Every Universe could have its own dimensions, such as the fifth dimension (where Mr. Mxyztplk (Earth-Two), Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite (Earth-One) came from), alternate timelines (Kamandi and the 30th Century of Earth-One) and realms (Hell, Heaven, Gemworld, etc.). In addition to the unique Antimatter Universe, the dimension of the New Gods (Fourth World) was also believed unique, although there's evidence that there could have been alternate versions of them (as those appearing in Earth-17 and Earth-Crossover).

Even though the interaction between multiple Earths was common in the 20th Century with relative safety and ease, most of the population of Earth was unaware of the Multiverse until Crisis on Infinite Earths.

The following is a short list of the most notable universes in the Multiverse.

Original Multiverse
Name	First Appearance	Description
Earth-One	More Fun Comics #101 (January 1945)	Main continuity during the DC Comics' Silver Age. Homeworld of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman of the Justice League of America, The Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), among others. This world's heroic age began with the debut of Superboy, a youthful Clark Kent; most of his contemporaries, however, didn't debut until after Clark reached adulthood and became Superman. First described as a distinct Earth in Flash (vol. 1) #123 (September 1961), first named in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #21 (August 1963)
Earth-Two	New Fun Comics #1 (February 1935)	Continuity in which characters and many stories from DC Comics' Golden Age and Quality Comics' heroes were retroactively put together in the Silver Age. Homeworld of the original Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman who started careers in the 1930s and later fought in World War II along with The Flash (Jay Garrick), Green Lantern (Alan Scott), Hawkman (Carter Hall), forming the Justice Society of America. Their descendants in the modern day formed Infinity, inc. Origin of Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters. First described as a distinct Earth in Flash (vol. 1) #123 (September 1961), first named in Justice League of America #21 (August 1963).
Earth-Three	Justice League of America (vol. 1) #29 (August 1964)	History was "backwards": American Christopher Columbus discovered Europe; Britain won its independence from the United States; and all superheroes are supervillains. Ironically, only one supervillain is a superhero. Reality of the Crime Syndicate of America, villainous versions of the Earth-One heroes (Ultraman, Superwoman, Owlman, Power Ring, Johnny Quick); the only superhero is Alexander Luthor who is married to Lois Lane. Origin of Alexander Luthor, Jr., the sole survivor of this Earth after the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Earth-Four	Yellowjacket #1 (1944)	Charlton Comics' heroes setting Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, Nightshade, Peacemaker, The Question, Thunderbolt (Peter Cannon), and Judomaster Named in Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 (Apr. 1985), where it was revealed to be part of the Multiverse.
Earth-S	Whiz Comics #2 (February 1940)	Fawcett Comics publications and its revival under DC Comics in the 1970s took place in this reality. Homeworld of the Marvel Family, the Crime Crusader Club, and the Squadron of Justice. The main team of supervillains were the Monster Society of Evil. Named in Shazam! #1 (February 1973)
Earth-X	The Comics Magazine #1 (1936)	Reality of many stories appearing in Quality Comics publications. World War II went on for 30 years more than in the Real World. The Freedom Fighters from Earth-Two accidentally traveled there and fought in it. After its end (with the help of the JLA and JSA), they settled in this Earth to help in its rebuild. Freedom Fighters: Uncle Sam, the Human Bomb, Miss America, The Ray, Black Condor, Doll Man, Phantom Lady, and Firebrand Named in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #107 (October 1973) There are many retcons and inconsistencies regarding these characters after the acquisition by DC Comics. It is said that there was an Earth-Quality which followed more closely the stories in the original Quality publications.
Earth-96^1	Kingdom Come #1 (May 1996)	Setting of Alex Ross' Kingdom Come, where an aged Superman reforms the Justice League in order to deal with a new, often lawless generation of heroes. Named in Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths (2006)
Earth-97^1	Tangent Comics: The Atom #1 (1997)	Reality where heroes shared names with DC Comics' heroes but had different lives and powers. The history is affected by the actions of the heroes actively, making great differences such as the Cuban Missile Crisis becoming a nuclear conflict or its technology being more advanced in 1997. It is also known as Tangent Universe. Homeworld of atomic-powered The Atom, The Flash, Lia Nelson, who is made of light, the antihero The Joker and the soldier elite, Metal Men. Named in Infinite Crisis #6 (May 2006)
Earth-A	Justice League of America (vol. 1) #37 (August 1965)	The Lawless League: alternate, evil versions of Superman, Batman, the Flash, Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter "A" stood for "alternate", since it was an alternate timeline of Earth-One.
Earth-B		Suggested to exist in a letters column by DC editor/writer Bob Rozakis as a possible explanation for certain non-continuity stories involving characters from Earth-One and Earth-Two who apparently co-existed.
Earth-C	New Teen Titans #16 (February 1982)	This world is populated with anthropomorphic animals. Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew: Captain Carrot, Alley-Kat-Abra, Fastback, Little Cheese, Pig-Iron, Rubberduck, and Yankee Poodle Other characters known to exist are: The Dodo and the Frog, Peter Porkchops, the Terrific Whatzit, the 17th century's the Three Mouseketeers, and ancient Rome's Nero Fox (from Leading Comics).
Earth-C-Minus	Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #14 (April 1983)	An anthropomorphic-animal version of Earth-One. Events and characters on Earth-C-Minus were considered fictional on Earth-C (with Captain Carrot's alter-ego employed as the cartoonist of the Just'a Lotta Animals comic book series). In turn, Earth-C's Terrific Whatzit was considered a fictional character on Earth-C-Minus. JLA/Just'a Lotta Animals: Super-Squirrel, Wonder Wabbit, the Batmouse, Green Lambkin, Aquaduck, and the Crash.
Earth-D^2	Legends of the DC Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths (February 1999)	Ethnically diverse versions of several Earth-One heroes, such as a Japanese Flash, a Superman with an African-American appearance (who arrived on Earth as an adult with his wife), a Native American Green Arrow and a Brazilian Green Lantern. They formed the Justice Alliance of America.
Earth-Prime	Flash (vol. 1) #179 (May 1968)	Originally the designation of the Real World in the Multiverse. It mirrored the Real World and all comics were considered fictional, but it did had one superhero (Superboy) and was the origin of Ultraa who emigrated to Earth-One. DC Comics' writers in this world knew that the multiverse was real and that they could control events in it. It also had contact with heroes from other Earths.
Earth-Crossover	Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man (January 1976)	Reality where DC and Marvel crossovers of the 1970s and 1980s occurred. In essence, a combination of Earth-One and Marvel Universe (Earth-616). Listed in The Official Crisis on Infinite Earths Index and Official Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover Index.
(unnamed)	Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #59 (May 1953)	The first parallel Earth to be featured in DC Comics where Wonder Woman from Earth-Two met and fought along with Tara Terruna (Wonder Woman's counterpart) against Duke Dazam. This Earth appeared to be technologically less advanced than Earth-2. "Tara Terruna" translates from that Earth's language to mean "Wonder Woman".
The Fourth World		A dimension that exists between Hell and the Universe. Although it's not considered a Universe in itself, it contains several worlds, being the most important Apokolips and New Genesis. The only means of transportation from this dimension to the Multiverse is the Boom Tube. Homeworld of Darkseid and The New Gods.
Antimatter Universe	Green Lantern (vol. 2) #2 (October 1960)	This universe was described as a "universe of evil". Its society seems to be dominated by a philosophy of selfishness and greed. It was often referred to as Qward. Qward was Oa's counterpart. Base of Anti-Monitor, Weaponers of Qward, the Thunderers and origin of Sinestro's Yellow Power Ring.
^1 Retconned by Infinite Crisis (2006). ^2 Retconned by Legends of the DC Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths (1999).

DC Universe and Megaverse

15 billion years ago, a single universe with a single timestream was created. 4.4 billion years ago, Krona, the renegade Maltusian (a race of highly evolved beings) creates the Antimatter Universe and releases entropy in the universe by linking the beginning and the end of the timeline in his attempts to reveal the secrets of the creation of the universe.

In this single universe, the timeline was destroyed in the early 1990s by Hal Jordan (possessed by Parallax) and created a slightly changed timeline (Zero Hour, 1994). It was later revealed that this Central Timeline was like a river with branches. These branches were like different realities, the history of Earth was different in every branch and everything could be possible in them. They could affect the Central Timeline as they return to the mainstream and the heroes could encounter with different versions of themselves. However, they were somewhat ephemeral as the Central Timeline is the only one that could prevail (The Kingdom, 1999).

After Crisis on Infinite Earths, there was no place for alternate realities, although they could exist in the form of ephemeral timelines (Hypertime), dimensions (such as the fifth dimension or the Fourth World) or universes inside the Universe (Legion of Super-Heroes' Pocket Universe, Amalgam Universe).

However, there was contact with realities that existed outside the Universe such as those from Marvel, Milestone and Wildstorm. The collection of universes, multiverses and others that are unrelated, is most of the time called the Megaverse. Some also call it the Omniverse but tend to include the Real World when using this denomination.

The contact of these worlds usually brought cataclysms, being the most common, the amalgamation. Traveling between these realities was extremely hard, only two characters were capable of doing so with natural abilities: Rift, who existed in both the DC and Milestone Universes, and Access, who had the task of keeping DC and Marvel separated to prevent amalgamation.

Most of the time, these events were either forgotten (as shown in the Unlimited Access miniseries as Access has the power to annul or restore the memories of heroes) or believed to be "dreams" (as shown in DC/Milestone: Worlds Collide and DC/Wildstorm: Dreamwar), which in the end left few traces of the events in the respective continuities.

The Wilstorm Universe was part of a larger multiverse but was separated after a multiversal cataclysm, forming a multiverse of its own (Shattered Image). Organizations known as Planetary and The Authority were capable of traveling across the Multiverse and were also able to map it. Its structure was described as a web of 196,833 universes arranged in a pattern resembling a snowflake, each universe separated from its neighbors by a medium called the Bleed. The Bleed prevented the Universes from colliding and was inhabited by "fauna" that despised all different Earths.

Modern Age Megaverse
Name	First appearance	Description
DC Universe	Crisis on Infinite Earths #11 (February 1986)	Continuity for the mainstream DC Comics' publications from 1986 to 2011. Everything was rewritten to comprise most elements from the former Earths One, Two, Four, S and X, which now coexisted in this reality and shared the same history. Its history was slightly changed after the Zero Hour in 1994. Homeworld of the 1940s JSA and Freedom Fighters, the 1980s JLA, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Blue Beetle and the 1990s Marvel Family. Other heroes included The Flash (Wally West), Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner), Spectre (Hal Jordan), The Huntress (Helena Bertinelli), Power Girl (daughter of the Atlantean mage Arion) Its future was mostly unchronicled but it was known that Booster Gold came from the 25th Century, and the 1994 incarnation of the Legion of Super-Heroes existed in the 30th Century. It was known as New Earth and Earth Zero/Earth-0 (the latter after the Zero Hour event).
Pocket Universe	Superman Vol.2 #8	A Universe inside the Universe created by the Time Trapper to allow the existence of the 1986 Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th Century of New Earth. It was a redux version of Earth-One. It was destroyed along with the "first" Modern-Age Legion of Super-Heroes during the Zero Hour. Reality of origin of Modern-Age General Zod and the shape-shifting being known as Matrix who donned the identity of Supergirl.
Antimatter Universe Earth 2	JLA: Earth 2 (January 2000)	A twin universe composed mostly by Antimatter with a somewhat reversed morality and history. It was known for its world of Qward, Oa's "evil" counterpart, where Sinestro's Yellow Ring was created. Later, the existence of another Earth was known as well where the heroes' counterparts were villains and vice versa. Reality of the Crime Syndicate of Amerika (Ultraman, Superwoman, Owlman, Power Ring, Johnny Quick) and Justice Underground (Alexander Luthor, Sir Solomon Grundy, General Grodd, Q-Ranger, Lady Sonar, Star Sapphire, and the Quizmaster) Lex Luthor of this Earth named this reality Earth 1 and the DC Universe, Earth 2.
The Fourth World		A dimension that exists between Hell and Earth where the worlds of Apokolips and New Genesis exist where Darkseid and The New Gods live. It was stated that this dimension was protected by Darkseid during Crisis on Infinite Earths and was not affected.
Vertigo Universe		Unofficial name of the continuity of characters from the DCU as they appeared in the Vertigo Imprint. Animal Man, John Constantine, Madame Xanadu, Shade the Changing Man, Swamp Thing.
Hypertime	The Kingdom #1	Structure of the time stream of the DC Universe. All retcons, "imaginary stories", alternate timelines, Elseworlds, appearances in other media and even worlds of the former multiverse are branches of the main stream. Like in a river, these branches usually returned to the main stream and affected it, which explained retcons and certain interactions with the main timeline.
Limbo	Animal Man (vol. 1) #25 (July 1990)	Dimension where the "forgotten" heroes and those who could not return after the Crisis on Infinite Earths "lived" outside the DC Universe.
(unknown)	Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 (March 1986)	Known as the "paradise dimension", place were Alexander Luthor Jr. of Earth-Three, Superboy of Earth-Prime and Superman and Lois Lane of Earth-Two were exiled as they no longer had a place in the Universe. Unreachable and inescapable.
Milestone Universe/ Dakotaverse	Hardware #1 (April 1993)	Homeworld of Icon, Static, Hardware, the Blood Syndicate and Dharma and the Shadow Cabinet. Most of the metahumans were part of ethnic minorities and DC Comics were a work of fiction. Most of it occurs in Dakota City after the gang-related incident known as The Big Bang which granted super powers to many people.
Wildstorm Universe		Homeworld of Wild C.A.T.S., DV8 and Gen 13. It was known to be part of a Multiverse with alternate versions, such as Alternative 838 that had a reversed gender version of The Authority (The Meritocracy).
Marvel Universe (Earth-616)	Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1 (1939)	Homeworld of the mainstream versions of Spider-Man, Captain America, X-Men. It merged briefly with the DC Universe forming the Amalgam Universe. In the Unlimited Access miniseries, Access calls this world The Marvels' Universe and Barry Allen calls it an Earth-2 A pocket universe inside it (Heroes Reborn) collided and merged briefly with the Wildstorm Universe (in the World War III miniseries).
Amalgam Universe	Marvel VERSUS DC#3 (1996)	Homeworld of the DC and Marvel amalgamated heroes: Super Soldier, Spider-Boy, JLX, Iron Lantern, etc. A recreation of the resulting universe of the merging of DC and Marvel Universes. It exists as a pocket universe inside Axel Asher/Access.

52

Alexander Luthor Jr. of Earth-Three, and Superboy of Earth-Prime grew tired of their exile. After successfully escaping their prison, they seek to restore their worlds and search for a perfect new world as they believe the happenings at New Earth after the Crisis make it a flawed reality. The whole Multiverse is restored but with great instability that could cause the end of all existence (Infinite Crisis). In parallel to this events, Captain Atom arrives in a different Multiverse, jeopardizing the very existence of it, in the end, Void destroys the now corrupted universe in order to recreate it (Captain Atom: Armageddon).
The heroes of Earth manage to merge back the Multiverse into a single universe but it could not hold so much energy. 52 identical worlds are created to liberate such energy. Mister Mind, finally in his ultimate form, has the power to devour parts of the time continuum, literally eating parts of the Earths' history creating major differences between each other(52^[8]) ^[9]
In the Universe where the city of Dakota existed, a man known as Dharma, foresaw the final demise of Earth and searched for a way to avert it. His very efforts were responsible for that apocalypse he tried to prevent. He managed to salvage the remains of his Earth by merging them to the main Earth of the new Multiverse that was reformed after the death of the New Gods (Milestone Forever, Final Crisis).

This Multiverse consisted of only 52 worlds, 51 resting upon Earth. According to Rip Hunter in 52 #52, every universe occupied the same space, each on a different vibrational plane (as it was in the original Multiverse). However, it was stated later that the universes were also separated by a fluid known as the Bleed (just like in the former Wildstorm Universe). The Bleed is interconnected to the Source Wall (which separates existence from the force that created it or "The Source") and the Multiversal Nexus, where the 52 Monitors watched over the Multiverse and had the task of avoiding contacts between the universes that could cause cataclysms. If the main Earth should be destroyed, it would cause a chain reaction, destroying the rest of the 51 universes and leaving the opposite Antimatter Universe in existence. Each of the alternate universes have their own parallel dimensions, divergent timelines, microverses, etc., branching off them.^[10] The Monitors originated in a world called Nil and were a sort of descendants of the original Monitor, who was created by Overvoid, a limitless intelligence who investigated the Multiverse at the beginning of time. Nix Uotan, the Monitor of Earth-51 erased the Monitors as they self-proclaimed the judges of what happened in the worlds of the Multiverse.

The 52
Name	First Appearance	Description
Earth-0		Continuity of the mainstream DC Comics publications after Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis. Basically, continuation of New Earth of the Modern Age DC Universe with many events and situations changed. Most events in the Dakotaverse became part of this continuity after Milestone Forever and Final Crisis. Originally named Earth-1 in 52 #52.
Earth-1	Trinity #52 (May, 2009) Superman: Earth One (December 2010)	It has been presented in two forms: Reality where The Trinity (Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman) of Earth-0 became gods, taking the place of extant deities. After the heroes returned to their home universe, the deities remade this universe "as it was meant to be". New take on the flagship DC heroes created by J. Michael Straczynski, most of the times compared to Marvel´s Ultimate Universe.
Earth-2	52 #52 (May, 2007)	Based upon Earth-Two. The descendants of the WWII JSA (which included Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman) formed the Justice Society Infinity in the present day.
Earth-3	52 #52 (May, 2007)	Based upon Earth-Three. Reality of the Crime Society, criminal versions of Earth-2 JSA and JSI.
Earth-4	52 #52 (May, 2007)	Based upon Earth-Four, formed by Charlton Comics characters in a Watchmen-like setting. Blue Beetle, The Question, Captain Atom, Nightshade, Judomaster
Earth-5	52 #52 (May, 2007)	Based upon Earth-S, formed by Fawcett Comics characters in a more classic and "kinder" context. Marvel Family (Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr) and an alternate Hal Jordan/Green Lantern.
Earth-6	Countdown: Arena #1	Reality where an alternate Atom/Ray Palmer acquires light-control powers, becoming The Ray. As seen in Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #1, it seems many of its heroes are a parody/homage of Marvel Comics' heroes.
Earth-7	Countdown: Arena #1 (February, 2008)	Origin of Courtney Whitmore who wielded the Star Rod, becoming Starwoman.
Earth-8	Countdown #29 (October, 2007)	Based upon the Marvel Universe. Americommando, Lord Havok and The Extremists, The Zen Men. Earth is known as Angor and a Metahuman Act was passed a few years ago.
Earth-9	Tangent: Superman's Reign #1 (2008)	Based upon Tangent Universe. It resembles most of Earth-97 but part of its history is different and has even more characters with names from Earth-0.
Earth-10	52 #52 (May, 2007)	Based upon Earth-X World War II was won by the Axis. Uncle Sam and The Freedom Fighters fight against Die Gerechtigkeitsliga, Nazi counterparts of the core JLA (also known as JL-Axis).
Earth-11	Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Superwoman/Batwoman #1 (February, 2008)	Reverse-gender version of Earth-0 Superwoman, Wonder Man, Batwoman, Aquawoman, Maxine Lord, Superlad.
Earth-12	52 #52 (May, 2007)	Based upon Batman Beyond animated series. Batman (Terry McGinnis), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan II). Not to be confused with the 'Batman Beyond Universe' which is a continuation to the original DCAU.
Earth-13	Countdown: Arena #1 (February, 2008)	Dark and arcane versions of heroes. Origin of Brigadier Atom and Eve of Shadows, alternate Captain Atom and Nightshade. Keith Champagne claimed this Earth was based upon Vertigo publications with DC characters (John Constantine, Swamp Thing).
Earth-14		Unknown
Earth-15^a	Countdown #30 (October, 2007)|	Heroes' protégés and sidekicks assumed the roles of the original heroes. Batman (Jason Todd), Wonder Woman (Donna Troy), Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner), Superman (Zod), Aquaman (Garth) The planet Earth of this Universe was destroyed by Superboy-Prime.
Earth-16^b^c	Countdown: Arena	Origin of Cristopher Kent/Superman.
Earth-17	52 #52 (May, 2007)	Based upon the Kamandi timeline of Earth-One. A post-apocalyptic Earth where intelligent animals have enslaved the Human race. Atomic Knights, Kamandi, a gorilla Starman, Superdemon.
Earth-18		Based upon Elseworlds: Justice Riders. Wild West version of the Justice League.
Earth-19	Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Gotham by Gaslight #1	Based upon Elseworlds: Gotham by Gaslight/Earth-1889. A Victorian-themed/Steampunk world apparently stuck in the Industrial Revolution. Batman, Blue Beetle (Daniel Garret)
Earth-20	Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #1 (October, 2008)	A Dieselpunk reality. A world with many aspects of the 1930s and 40s such as art and technology. Homeworld of the Society of Super-Heroes (Doc Fate, Lady Blackhawk, Immortal Man, Green Lantern (Abin Sur), the Mighty Atom, and the Bat-Man.
Earth-21	Countdown: Arena #1 (February, 2008)	Based upon DC: The New Frontier. Stories are focused in the 1950s as the heroes of the Golden Age witness the rising of the Silver Age heroes and form the second generation team of heroes, The Justice League of America.
Earth-22		Based upon Elseworlds: Kingdom Come/Earth-96. Magog, The Bat Family (Batman, Red Robin (Dick Grayson), Ibn al Xu'ffasch, Nightstar (Mar'i Grayson))
Earth-23		Unknown
Earth-24		Unknown
Earth-25		Unknown
Earth-26	Captain Carrot and the Final Ark #1 (December, 2007)|	Continuation of Earth-C instead of a reboot. Although it was presented as part of Hypertime, it was stated that it was (together with Earth-C Minus) an alternate dimension, allowing it to survive the Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Zoo Crew, Captain Carrot, The Scarab, The Fox and the Crow. Its dimension of Earth-C Minus is the home to the Just'a Lotta Animals.
Earth-27		Unknown
Earth-28		Unknown
Earth-29		Unknown
Earth-30		Based upon Superman: Red Son. Kal-L arrives in Ukraine instead of Kansas in the 1950s.
Earth-31	Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #1 (February, 1986)	Reality where Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One and All-Star Batman were retroactively comprised together in a single continuity.
Earth-32	Countdown: Arena	Based upon Elseworlds: Batman In Darkest Knight Bruce Wayne is given the Power Ring by Abin Sur. Clark Kent, Princess Diana and Barry Allen receive rings as well,
Earth-33	Countdown to Adventure #3 (December, 2007)	A universe where magic has a major role in the development of civilizations than science. League of Shamans (Bat-Mage, Lady Flash, Super-Mage)
Earth-34	Wonder Woman: Amazonia (1998)	Wonder Woman arrives in Britain in the 19th Century to fight the oppression of King Jack who is actually Jack the Ripper. Earth designation established by Dan DiDio in DC Nation editorial #89.
Earth-35		Unknown
Earth-36		Unknown
Earth-37^d	Countdown: Arena #1 (February, 2008) (Mentioned)	Ronnie Raymond merged with Nathaniel Adam becoming Quantum-Storm.
Earth-38	Countdown: Arena #1 (February, 2008)	Captain Atom leads the Atomic Knights
Earth-39	Countdown: Arena #2 (February, 2008) (mentioned)	A teenage Daniel Garret is bonded to his scarab as Jaime Reyes was in New Earth.
Earth-40	Countdown: Arena #1 (mentioned)	Homeworld of The Bat who is forced to fight against the Monitors by Monarch in "Arena". The Bat is The Batman as he appears in the graphic novel JSA: The Liberty File #1, suggesting this world is based upon that story.
Earth-41		Unknown
Earth-42		Unknown
Earth-43	Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Red Rain #1 (January, 2008)	The Batman acquires vampiric powers after his showdown with Dracula. Based upon the graphic novel "Batman and Dracula: Red Rain" (1991).
Earth-44	Final Crisis #7 (March, 2009)	Doc Tornado (a human version of Red Tornado) builds the Metal Men, robot versions of the JLA.
Earth-45		Unknown
Earth-46		Unknown
Earth-47		Unknown
Earth-48	Countdown to Adventure #1 (2007)	This Earth was declared to be War World by a council of planets so conflicts between planets could be settled here to avoid innocent casualties since most of the Earth's life was lost as a result of their own interplanetary wars. Homeworld of the Forerunners. Originally referred to as Earth-34 in Countdown #43
Earth-49		Unknown
Earth-50	52 #52	Reality where the restarted Wildstorm Universe took place.
Earth-51	Countdown to Final Crisis #19 (December, 2007) (First form)	This Earth was rebuilt a few times: Batman goes on a global crusade against crime after "the Killing Joke", which started a utopian age. This Universe was nearly destroyed by Monarch in the events of "Arena". It was later rebuilt by the Monitor Nix Uotan, then it was made part of Limbo by the Monitors and later restored by the spy agency "Checkmate" from New Earth. In both incarnations, it ended in becoming the world of Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth.
Earth-Prime^e	Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #5 (September, 2009)	Homeworld of Superboy who started Infinite Crisis. Everybody in this Earth is horrified and fearful of Superboy since they've read what he's done in DC Comics publications in Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis. It was unknown under what circumstances this world was recreated and if it was part of the 52 multiverse. It never had a number designation.
Fourth World		Dimension where the stories of The New Gods take place. Darkseid, Kalibak, Desaad, High Father, Orion, Metron.
Limbo		A dimension where forgotten heroes and characters exist. They've forgotten most of their lives. A book exist within this dimension and it contains all of the history of the Multiverse, although it is unreadable. If this book is destroyed, all of the Multiverse will be as well.
Antimatter Universe		A twin universe composed mostly by Antimatter with a somewhat reversed morality and history. Within this universe the worlds of Qward and the Antimatter Earth of the Crime Syndicate of Amerika exist.
^a Promotional material for Countdown: Arena stated this was the reality of Cristopher Kent. ^b In the editorial column DC Nation #89, it was said that this was the reality of the Super-Sons. ^c At ComicCon 2010, the Young Justice TV series was revealed to take place on Earth-16. ^d The Batman: Thrillkiller graphic novel has been stated to take place on Earth-37. ^e Retconned by The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (2015) as Earth-33.

The New 52

The Flash wakes up in an altered timeline. As he tries to find the cause, he discovers that he was responsible for the alteration and attempts to fix it. In doing so, it is revealed that the timelines of Earth-0, Earth-13 and Earth-50 were originally one, but were splintered. The result is a new timeline formed by those three and along with it came a new history for the other 52 worlds within the Multiverse (Flashpoint, 2011).
Years later, The Harbinger Program at the House of Heroes gathers several heroes of the "Orrery" to fight against a force known as the "Gentry" who have already decimated Earth-7 and threaten the rest of the worlds of the Multiverse. As the story unfolds, Earths within the Orrery are visited and reveal the new nature of them after the Flashpoint event. Also, mysterious comic books published by DC and Major Comics appear and are believed to be cursed or to be messages from parallel earths (The Multiversity, 2014).

Several stories and even the structure of the entire Multiverse have been retold after the events of Flashpoint. As it has been revealed so far, most of the 52 worlds suffered drastic changes such as Earth-2 which is now a reboot in the present day of the heroes that formed the Justice Society or Earth-3 which reverted to be the opposite of the main Earth (Earth-0 in this case), instead of the opposite of Earth-2. Others retain most of what they were in the 52 multiverse such as Earth-5, Earth-10, or Earth-23. In addition, several Earths remain undisclosed in composition or purpose, other than their creation by the Monitors for unknown reasons- Earths 14, 24, 25, 27, 28, 46, and 49.

The Monitors are now described as a race of countless members and only 52 remained after the CRISIS event, suggesting that there were Monitors for every world in the original Multiverse instead of just one. Several elements that have appeared across the history to what now is DC Comics have also been actively incorporated in the new structure, such as The Source (The New Gods), The Bleed (Wildstorm's The Authority), the Speed Force and the vibrational barriers (The Flash) and the Rock of Eternity (SHAZAM!).

This new Multiverse has a sphere-like structure with several levels (or Vibrational Realms) as described in the map:^[11]

• The Source Wall: the limit of existence, beyond lies the Source and the Unknowable. The Overvoid is shown in the map to exist outside it as well.
• Monitor Sphere: origin of the Monitor race who preserve and study the universes.
• Limbo: "where matter and memory break down". Place where the lost and forgotten go.
• Sphere of the Gods: within it, the realms of old and new gods, demons and even dreams exist.
• Speed Force Wall: also known as the Speed of Light and is the limit to matter. Within it is the Orrery of Worlds and certain worlds exist in it (such as Krakkl's world).
• Orrery of Worlds: realm where the 52 universes exist in the same space, vibrating at different frequencies, within the Bleed. In the center of it are the Rock of Eternity and the House of Heroes.

The New 52
Name	First Appearance	Description
Orrery of Worlds
Earth-0[12]	Flashpoint #5 (August 2011)	New mainstream continuity of DC Comics. Most stories, characters and situations have been completely rebooted. It contains many elements of the Modern Age DC Universe, Dakotaverse, the so-called Vertigo Universe and the Wildstorm Universe. Justice League (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Cyborg), Teen Titans (Red Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy, Wonder Girl, Beast Boy, Raven), Justice League Dark (John Constantine, Madame Xanadu, Deadman, Swamp Thing), Shazam, Static, Grifter, among many others. Also known as New Earth[12] and Prime Earth
Earth-1[12]	Superman: Earth One (December 2010) The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015) (The New 52)	Described as a young universe where the careers of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Teen Titans are just beginning, their stories are yet to be told and anything can happen. Universe where the Earth One graphic novel series take place.
Earth-2	Earth 2 #1 (July 2012)[12]	Alternate versions of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman (known as Wonders of the World) fought in an invasion led by the Steppenwolf and died in the Apokolips War. Five years after their sacrifices, younger heroes arise. Characters are derived from the Golden Age JSA, who existed on Earth-Two. Flash (Jay Garrick), Doctor Fate (Khalid Ben-Hassin), Hawkgirl (Kendra Munoz-Saunders), Atom (Al Pratt) and Green Lantern (Alan Scott). Homeworld of Power Girl (Kara Zor-El) and the Huntress (Helena Wayne/Bertinelli) who were stranded on Earth-0 for several years. It was destroyed by Darkseid after a deal between him and Highfather of the New Gods. At the conclusion of Convergence, the world where the heroes and their cities were trapped now has taken the place of Earth 2 as a gift from Telos so its survivors can restore their society.[13]
Earth-3[12]	Justice League #23 (October 2013) (mentioned) Justice League #23.4 (November 2013)	An "evil" universe with villainous versions of the heroes from Earth-0, similar to the original Earth-Three and the antimatter Earth from JLA: Earth 2. It was destroyed by the Anti-Monitor but some members of the Crime Syndicate survived. Crime Syndicate: Ultraman, Superwoman, Owlman, Johnny Quick, Power Ring, Atomica, Deathstorm, Grid, Sea King.
Earth-4	The Multiversity: Pax Americana #1 (December 2014)[12]	Homeworld of the Pax Americana, a group of costumed heroes/vigilantes gathered by the U.S. Government in 2008 to counterattack the threats of the world after this Earth's 9/11 attacks. Led by Captain Atom, the only superpowered hero, and formed by Blue Beetle, Judomaster, Peacemaker, Nightshade and The Question. Essentially, a world with an ethos similar to that of Watchmen but taking place in the 21st Century and directly featuring the former Charlton Comics heroes. These versions borrow many character traits from the Watchmen characters.
Earth-5[14]	The Multiversity: Thunderworld #1 (December 2014)	A world protected by the champions of the wizard Shazam: The Marvel Family. It is also known as "Thunderworld". A classic take on the Fawcett Comics characters. Although it takes place in the 21st Century, life is not as complicated or "grim and gritty" as other worlds in the Multiverse. The Marvel Family (Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr.), Lieutenant Marvels (which include Tawky Tawny and Uncle Marvel), Doctor Sivana and the Sivana Family (Sivana Jr, Georgia and Magnificus) and The Monster Society of Evil. Unlike in the current mainstream DC Universe, they all retained the "Marvel" moniker. Mary Marvel, however, wears her 1990s/2000s white uniform instead of her classic red one.
Earth-6[12]	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	Heroes with familiar names but very different origins, such as Superman who is a stranded Kryptonian policeman or Wonder Woman whose powers are of Inca origin. The heroes of this world fight against the villain Reverend Darrk. The DC heroes as retold by Stan Lee for the series Just Imagine...,
Earth-7	The Multiversity #1 (August 2014)[15]	Similar to Earth-8 in history and heroes with subtle differences. An Australian Aboriginal hero named Thunderer is the last survivor of this Earth after it fell to "the Gentry". Other heroes included Crusader, Golem, Walküre, "Doc" Future, Devilfist and Microbot. This world was a pastiche of Marvel Comics characters (believed to be the Ultimate versions in particular) and some other independent characters such as Hellboy. This was taken as a base for The Gentry in its quest to destroy the Multiverse.
Earth-8	The Multiversity #1 (August 2014)[16]	A Universe where its large population of heroes spend more time fighting each other than fighting villains and are not very trusted by the general population. The Retaliators (American Crusader, Wundajin, Behemoth, Machinehead), Future Family, G-Men, Lord Havok. A pastiche of the Marvel Universe as an "analogue" of it in The New 52 Multiverse. Within The New 52, comics featuring these characters are published by Major Comics, an "equivalent" to the Real World Marvel Comics.
Earth-9	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	Reality of the Tangent Comics superheroes (see the Infinite Multiverse and The 52 entries above).
Earth-10	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015) Multiversity: Mastermen (February 2015)	The arrival of Kal-L and the Kryptonian technology in his rocket in Sudetenland, allowed the Third Reich to secure its victory over the allies in WWII. Overman (Kal-L's name as given by Hitler himself) is the leader of the New Reichsmen (counterparts of the Justice League) in the present day. They defend Germania from its threats such as The Luthor League and The Freedom Fighters.[17] Also known as Earth-X,[17] is a radical new take on the Silver Age Freedom Fighters world, where the Freedom Fighters are presented as what could be considered a terrorist group due to their methods in their fight against the "Reich".
Earth-11[18]	The Multiversity #1 (August 2014)	A reversed-gender version of Earth-0. Heroes, politicians and even entertainers have a reversed-gender version on this matriarchal Earth. Superwoman, Batwoman, Aquawoman, Wondrous Man, Jesse Quick, Power Man, Star Sapphire and Zatara are members of the Justice Guild.
Earth-12	The Multiversity Guidebook (January, 2015)	This world has a slightly advanced alternate future timeline, where the successor of Batman and the Justice League Beyond protect this near-future world. Batman (Terry McGinnis), Justice League Beyond (Superman, Green Lantern, Warhawk, Aquagirl, Big Barda, Micron). This version resembles more closely the future presented in the Batman Beyond TV series.
Earth-13	The Multiversity Guidebook (January, 2015) Multiversity #2 (April 2015)(scheduled)	Described as world with a "permanent magical twilight", this world is the home to Etrigan The Demon from the planet Kamelot who fights evil as Superdemon, along with members of the League of Shadows. Superdemon, Hellblazer, Annataz, Witchboy, Swampman, Fate, Deadman.[19] The characters of this Earth are alternate versions of characters from Earth-0 with magical and supernatural traits, but here, they have a more orthodox superhero representation.
Earth-14	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015) (described)	The first of the 7 Unknown Worlds yet to be revealed. The Guidebook states that these were created by 7 Monitor Magi for a mysterious purpose.[17]
Earth-15	Countdown #30 (October, 2007)	The so-called perfect Universe where heroes had achieved universal peace and perfection and their protégés assumed their roles. It was destroyed by Superboy-Prime of Earth-33. The only remaining fragment of it is known as the Cosmic Grail (apparently a Green Lantern battery) that is said to be hidden in the Multiverse.[17]
Earth-16	The Multiversity: The Just #1 [20]	A world where the heroes won the war against evil and their children don't have much to do. They often gather to reenact battles out of boredom and enjoy a celebrity-like life. Chris Kent, Kon-El, Batman II (Damian Wayne), Offspring, Arrowette, Megamorpho (daughter of Metamorpho), Kyle Rayner/Green Lantern, Duela Dent/Joker's Daughter, Alexis Luthor, Bloodwynd, Doctor Mid-Nite II, Impulse, Miss Martian and Donna Troy. Nicknamed Earth-Me.
Earth-17	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	This world experienced a nuclear war in 1963. Captain Adam Strange leads the Atomic Knights of Justice in a quest to rebuild their world and searching for Earth-15's lost remnant, The Cosmic Grail. Their base of operations is Novamerika in the 21st Century. The Atomic Knights of Justice consists of alternate versions of Earth-0 characters, such as Batman, Wonder Woman, the Martian Manhunter and the Challengers of the Unknown.
Earth-18	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	Homeworld of the "Justice Riders", an alternate version of the Justice League in a world where technology and culture were "frozen" in the late 19th Century by the Time Trapper. Although it is the 21st Century, the world looks like the Old West, although its technology is equivalent in other ways such a telegraph-based "Internet" and air travel. Saganowana, the Superchief, Bat-Lash, Madame .44, Strongbow, El Diablo, Cinnamon, The Trigger Twins, Firehair, Tomahawkman, Johnny Thunder and Pow-Wow Smith.
Earth-19	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	In this world, super-humans have arrived in the British Empire as King Edward VII rules a 20th-century empire where electric technologies are emerging and society is changing fast. The Bat Man Wonder Woman, Accelerated Man (The Flash) and The Shrinking Man (The Atom) An amalgam of Wonder Woman: Amazonia and Batman: Gotham By Gaslight.
Earth-20[21]	The Multiversity: The Society of Super-Heroes: Conquerors of the Counter-World #1 (September 2014)	A binary universe that collides every 100,000 years with Earth-40. The Society of Super Criminals from that Earth are currently invading Earth-20 Homeworld of The Society of Superheroes, pulp versions of DC heroes (Doc Fate, Immortal Man, Abin Sur/Green Lantern, Lady Blackhawk, and the Atom). This world looks like the 1940s post-WWII world.
Earth-21	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	In this world, President John F. Kennedy was never assassinated, the United States is optimistic about its future and the newly formed Justice League of America protect their ideals. An idealized version of the early sixties world and its heroes resemble the way that they were in the early Silver Age. Similar to that of DC: The New Frontier, also including John Henry Irons.
Earth-22	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	This world was on the brink of apocalypse until the return of Superman after the destruction of Kansas. Older and bitter versions of the Modern Age Justice League protect the world. Similar to that of Kingdom Come. Atom-Smasher, Bat-Knight, Batman, Deadman, Flash, Green Lantern, Power Woman, Red Hood, Red Robin, Starman, Superman and Wonder Woman.
Earth-23[22]	Action Comics (vol. 2) #9 (July 2012)	Kalel, a Kryptonian who is in appearance an African-American, is Calvin Ellis, President of the United States, and is also Superman, who has inspired a generation of black super heroes. Superman/Calvin Ellis, Nubia the Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Vixen, Cyborg, Red Tornado, Black Lightning and Steel. Batman, Guardian and Zatara are caucasian, however.
Earth-24	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015) (described)	Second of the 7 Unknown Worlds.
Earth-25	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015) (described)	Third of the 7 Unknown Worlds.
Earth-26[23]	The Multiversity #1 (August 2014)(Captain Carrot appears)	A world inhabited by intelligent anthropomorphic animals whose particular (cartoon) physics have saved it from prior destruction during the Crisis events. Homeworld of Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew: Alley-Kat-Abra, Fastback, Little Cheese, American Eagle, Pig-Iron, Yankee Poodle and Rubberduck.
Earth-27	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015) (described)	Fourth of the 7 Unknown Worlds.
Earth-28	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015) (described)	Fifth of the 7 Unknown Worlds.
Earth-29	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	A Bizarro Universe where the Unjustice League of Unamerica have pointless and futile adventures on planet Htrae, which has a cubic shape and a surrounding ring. It has other alternate bizarro versions of Earth 0 universe characters and worlds: Adam Familiar from Nnar; the Sramian Snitch from the overpopulated Sram; a flightless Bizarro Manhawk from Raganaht; The Dismissers of the Universe from Ao; etc., etc.[17]
Earth-30	Superman: Red Son (2003) The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015) (The New 52)	Home of a Soviet Superman who landed in a Russian collective farm instead of Kansas and helped the USSR to prosper and win the Cold War. After the alleged death of Superman, the consequent united world prospered under the Luthor family.[17] Universe where Superman: Red Son takes place.
Earth-31	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	This Earth nearly drowned because of accelerated climate change and runaway rising sea levels. Captain Leatherwing and the crew of the Flying Fox protect the Seven Seas. A pirate-themed version of the Justice League: Leatherwing (Batman), Felina (Catwoman), Robin Redblade and alternate versions of Aquaman, Cyborg, Green Lantern, the Teen Titans and Superman.
Earth-32	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	The heroes of this world are "amalgams" of heroes from Earth-0. The Justice Titans (Bat-Lantern, Black Arrow, Wonderhawk, Aquaflash, Super-Martian).
Earth-33	The Multiversity #1 (August 2014)(Comic Books appear) The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015) (world described) Multiversity: Ultra Comics: (March 2015)	A world without super heroes. Ideas created by ordinary human minds (namely, comic book writers) become reality in other worlds of the Multiverse. A mirror of the Real World. It has, however, one superhuman known as Ultra Comics, an artificial being created upon the very essence of comic books, he is described as a "cybernetic living comic book".[17] Also known as Earth-Prime.[17]
Earth-34	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	Savior, the last survivor of the ancient super-civilization of Mu, was sent into the future to escape a doomed past. He inaugurated the Light Brigade in the city of Cosmoville.[17] The Light Brigade (Savior, Herculina, Radman, Formula-I, Ghostman, Goodfellow, Stingray, Master Motley, Cutie.) A pastiche of Astro City as its "analogue" in The New 52.
Earth-35	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	Described as an artificial universe constructed by Monitor "ideominers". Its heroes are known as the Super-Americans, an "artificial" alternate version of the Justice League. Supremo, Olympian, Owl, Starcop, Mercury-Man, Miss X, Morphin' Man and Majesty: Queen of Venus. A pastiche of Rob Liefeld and Alan Moore's Awesome Comics as its "analogue" in The New 52. Earths 34 and 35 have been called "copies of copies" because their characters are homages to characters that were in turn pastiches of DC Comics superheroes.
Earth-36[24]	Action Comics (vol. 2) #9 (July 2012)	The heroes of this world, known as Justice 9, are alternate universe versions of the Justice League with similar characteristics but very different names. As revealed by Red Racer, both DC and Major Comics are well known on this world. Justice 9: Optiman, Red Racer, Iron Knight, War-Woman, Mer-Man, Blackbird, Bowboy, Cyberion and Flashlight. Optiman was apparently killed by Earth-45's Superdoomsday.
Earth-37	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	In this world, technology has steadily accelerated beyond that of the real world since the 1960s. By 2015, Earth already has colonies on Mars and Jupiter's satellite, Europa, as well as interstellar travel. Its heroes are described as lawless and cynical. Tommy Tomorrow, Manhunter 2015 and the Space Rangers. There were alternate versions of Batgirl, Robin and the Joker in this world in its sixties. Earth-37 seems to have been based on the Batman: Thrillkiller graphic novel and Howard Chaykin's revisionist take on DC's future heroes, Twilight.
Earth-38	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	In this world, Batman and Superman started their careers in the 1930s. They aged normally and their children, grandchildren and other descendants have taken the heroic baton. Based on the original Bob Kane Batman and Siegel and Schuster's Superman and the Superman & Batman: Generations Elseworlds series. There are also descendants of members of the JSA and JLA on this world. Superman, Joel Kent, Supergirl, Batman I, Batman II, Superman II/Knightwing.
Earth-39	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	Home of the Agents of W.O.N.D.E.R., an organization of UN super-spies with technology-based superpowers designed by child genius, Happy DaVinci. The use of these technologies, however, adversely affects their health and lifespan. Cyclotron, Doctor Nemo, Corvus, Accelerator and Psi-Man. Homage to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents
Earth-40[25]	The Multiversity: The Society of Super-Heroes: Conquerors of the Counter-World #1 (September 2014)	A darker alternate opposite to Earth-20 where super villains had emerged and organized first instead of heroes. Home to the nemeses of the heroes of Earth-20, led by Vandal Savage. Society of Super-Criminals: Vandal Savage, Doc Faust, Lady Shiva, Blockbuster, Parallax, Count Sinestro
Earth-41	The Multiversity #1 (August 2014) (Dino-Cop appears)[26]	Described as a dark and violent world which heroes live a very independent life from each other although they share the same world. A parody of Image Comics characters. Dino-Cop, Spore, Nimrod Squad (Fletch, Vague, Flintstein). Dino-Cop and Spore were among the first to appear at the House of Heroes, immediately after The Thunderer from Earth-7
Earth-42	The Multiversity #1 (August 2014) (Tiny Wonder Woman appears)[27]	A world populated by tiny (also referred as chibi) versions of DC Comics characters. They were revealed to be artificial beings at the service of The Gentry who tried to destroy the Multiverse.[17] Their lives are most of the times childish except when they encounter with their Multiverse neighbors, which has already caused the apparent death of their Superman. Little League: Batman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Martian Manhunter, Steel.
Earth-43	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	This world is ruled by super-vampires.[17] The Blood League, alternate vampire versions of Batman and Robin, Superman/Ultraman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash and Cyborg.
Earth-44	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	A world without super heroes where bipolar Doc Will Tornado built the heroes of the Metal League (an "amalgam" of the Justice League and The Metal Men). Gold Superman, Iron Batman, Platinum Wonder Woman, Mercury Flash, Nth Metal Hawkman, Tin Elongated Man and Lead Green Lantern.[17]
Earth-45	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	Home to an artificial Superman created by Clark Kent, Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane. After Overcorp turned it into Superdoomsday, he ran amok and killed countless individuals on alternate Earths, including Optiman of Earth-33 and Tiny Superman of Earth-42.
Earth-46	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015) (described)	Sixth of the 7 Unknown Worlds.
Earth-47	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015) (described)	A psychedelic world where the champions of the Love Syndicate of Dreamworld are the main super-heroic team and are financed by the immortal teenaged president Prez Rickard. This world has a late 1960s/early 1970s American pop culture aesthetic. Sunshine Superman, The Shooting Star, Speed Freak, Magic Lantern, Shooting Star and Brother Power, the Geek.[17]
Earth-48	The Multiversity #1 (August 2014)(Lord Volt appears) The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015) (world described)	Benevolent aliens have turned this once war-torn Earth (formerly known as Warworld) into a factory to breed a race of super beings (known as Forerunners) to become the ultimate protectors of the Multiverse against the forces of Lord Darkseid. Every inhabitant of Earth has super powers, including animals and bacteria. The Royal family includes Lady Quark, Lord Volt and Liana, their daughter. Others listed include Antarctic Monkey, Brother Eyes, Danger Dog and Kid Vicious.[17] A combination of two worlds that were glimpsed during Crisis on Infinite Earths and Countdown. It incorporates the royal family of Earth Six and the Forerunners Warworld of Earth-48.
Earth-49	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015) (described)	Seventh of the 7 Unknown Worlds.
Earth-50	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	President Lex Luthor murdered the Flash. In retaliation, Superman killed Luthor with heat vision and then instituted a global police force maintained by the now tyrannical former heroes.[17] Justice Lords: Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Hawkwoman, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman Identical to the characters and setting appearing in the DCAU Justice League episode "A Better World". Although this and Earth-12 are apparently identical to the DC animated universe, further details that clarify if these are those of the DCAU have not yet been revealed.
Earth-51	The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January, 2015)	A world whose civilization was destroyed by the "Great Disaster," whose causes remain a mystery. Animals acquired human-like intelligence and humanity was decimated. The New Gods have shown an interest in this world as they are concerned about the impending threat of the resurrection of Darkseid. Homeworld of Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, Prince Tuftan of the Tiger-Men and Ben Boxer/biOMAC. Characters are based on those originally created by Jack Kirby in the seventies.
Speed Force Wall
Wonderworld		Homeworld of the archetypal superhero team known as Theocracy.
Blood Moon	The New 52: Futures End Convergence #0(2015)	Appears opposite to Wonderworld. A giant artificial planet created by the Brainiac God to traverse the Bleed, but it will become the place where the artificial intelligence named Telos will be born. Made of various cities from various realities altered or destroyed in the wake of the various Crisis events.
KWYZZ		Described as "The Radio Universe". It has been contacted using radio equipment. Homeworld of KRAKKL The Defender.
Sphere of the Gods
Dream		Realm of Morpheus the Dream-King where the Courts of Faerie and Gemworld exist. Oberon, Titania, Amethyst, Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny.
Nightmare		Shadow side of the realm of Morpheus where the Goblin Market exists. Home to the Bogeyman, haunt of Witches and Bad Dreams.
Heaven		Home to the Spectre and the Host of Pax Dei, among others.
Hell		Home to the Demon Etrigan, Djinns, fallen Angels and the Haters of Humanity.
Skyland		Home of the Old Gods. Asgard, Olympus, the Loa, the Elohim and many others who were worshipped in ancient times.
Underworld		Opposite to the world of the Old Gods. Neterworlds of ancient cultures such as Hades or Annwn. Also known as The Phantom Zone, It was used for Kryptonians as a prison for criminals (General Zod, Xadum the Phantom King).
New Genesis		Homeworld to the New Gods and the Forever People. Highfather, Orion, Lightray, Metron, Scott Free.
Apokolips		The domains of Darkseid and his acolytes: Dessad, Granny Goodness, Kalibak, etc.
Monitor Sphere
Nil		World of origin of the race of Monitors.
(unknown)		Shown in the map as a bubble opposite to Nil.

Multi-Multiverse

An infinitely powerful and god-like version of Brainiac abducted multiple superheroes and their core cities from various alternate Earths and eras of the Multiverse and pitted them against one another. Because of the heroes efforts for the survival of reality during this event, the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths and Zero Hour were averted and there is once more an infinite Multiverse beyond the core 52 universes which have made up the local Multiverse since Infinite Crisis and Flashpoint. The original Multiverse coexists along with the collapsed Earth, the core 52 worlds, and other versions of the universe that had ever existed.^[28]

Print collections

Contact between the universes (or stories set on the other Earths) have been reprinted in the following graphic novels.

Title	Material collected
Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups
Volume 1	The Flash #123, 129, 137, 151 Showcase #55-56 Green Lantern vol. 2, #40 The Brave and the Bold #61 The Spectre #7
Volume 2	The Atom #29, 36 The Brave and the Bold #62 The Flash #170, 173 Green Lantern vol. 2, #45, 52 The Spectre #3[29]
Crisis on Multiple Earths
Volume 1	Justice League of America #21-22, 29-30, 37-38, 46-47
Volume 2	Justice League of America #55-56, 64-65, 73-74, 82-82
Volume 3	Justice League of America #91-92, 100-102, 107-108, 113
Volume 4	Justice League of America #123-124, 135-137, 147-148
Volume 5	Justice League of America #159-160, 171-172, 183-185
Justice Society
Volume 1	All Star Comics #58-67 DC Special #29
Volume 2	All Star Comics #68-74 Adventure Comics #461-466
Miniseries
Crisis on Infinite Earths	Issues #1-12
Infinite Crisis	Issues #1-7
Lord Havok and the Extremists	Issues #1-6
Countdown: Arena	Issues #1-4
One-shots
Power Girl	Showcase #97-99 Secret Origins #11 JSA Classified #1-4 (contains a few plot-related pages from JSA #32 and #39)
Showcase Presents: Shazam	Shazam #1-20, 26-29, 33 (stories are set on Earth-S)
Huntress: Dark Knight Daughter	DC Comics Super Stars #11 Batman Family #18-20 Wonder Woman #271-287, 289-290, 294-295
Weekly
52	Issues #1-52
Countdown to Final Crisis	Issues #51-1

Other versions

Super Friends

In the animated television series Super Friends, the superhero team has encounters with other universes, including the world of Qward. In the episode "Universe of Evil", a freak accident causes Superman to switch places with his evil counterpart.

DC animated universe

The DC animated universe (DCAU) has depicted the Multiverse many times. Several characters from the main DCAU have visited parallel universes that were similar to the DCAU.

• In the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Brave New Metropolis", Lois Lane fell into a parallel Earth where Superman and Lex Luthor had taken over Metropolis, turning it into a fascist police-state.
• In the Justice League episode "Legends", several members of the League were accidentally sent to a parallel universe where John Stewart's comic book idols, a pastiche of the Justice Society of America named the Justice Guild of America, live. One member of the Justice Guild hypothesized that there are an infinite number of parallel dimensions.
• In the Justice League episode "A Better World", the Justice League were held captive by their authoritarian counterparts from another universe, the "Justice Lords". In this universe, Lex Luthor had risen to the U.S. Presidency and had started a war which had killed the Flash, sparking the Lords' takeover of the world. Later in the series, the regular Lex Luthor ran for President solely to enrage Superman.
• In the Justice League Unlimited episode "Question Authority", the Question is surfing through Cadmus's files on a computer. One of the files is titled "Multiverse" and another file shows footage from the episode "A Better World" where the alternate Superman murders Lex Luthor. Ironically, after viewing files on the Justice Lords, he initially believes that instead of looking at an alternate universe, he is looking at the future of the universe in which the League lives. The exact means by how Cadmus came into possession of footage from the death of President Luthor seen in "A Better World" remains unknown.

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

In Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, the show's primary protagonists, Lois Lane and Clark Kent, encountered an alternative version Clark Kent from a parallel universe in the episodes "Tempus, Anyone?" and "Lois & Clarks". In the episode "Tempus, Anyone?", the dimension included these differences:

• Clark Kent had not assumed the identity of Superman and was engaged to Lana Lang (prior to the events of "Tempus, Anyone?").
• Lois Lane had been lost on assignment in the Congo and presumed dead since 1993 (prior to the events of "Tempus, Anyone?" and "Lois & Clarks").
• Jonathan and Martha Kent died when Clark was a child.
• Jimmy Olsen owns the Daily Planet and is also Perry White's campaign manager for his mayoral election.
• Both Elvis Presley and Charlton Heston were elected as President of the United States of America (not to mention Elvis being alive and well).

The primary version of Lois, who was abducted by the villain Tempus and taken to this dimension, helped the alternate Clark become Superman, only to have Tempus expose his secret identity to the world on television. Despite Clark's alien origin, the world embraces him as their champion.

Later, in the episode "Lois & Clarks", the alternate Clark visits the primary L&C dimension to aid Lois in stopping Tempus while the Clark Kent of her world is trapped in a time vortex. After Tempus's defeat, it is implied that the alternate Clark would travel to the past with H.G. Wells and take his reality's Lois Lane to his own time thus, under a predestination paradox, explaining her disappearance.

Amalgam Comics

• Some issues in the series (such as Spider-Boy Team-Up #1) state that a Crisis event known as Secret Crisis of the Infinity Hour, occurred and was related to alternate realities and timelines. The event is an amalgamation of four DC and Marvel major crossover events (Secret Wars, Crisis on Infinite Earths, The Infinity Gauntlet, and Zero Hour).
• In Challengers of the Fantastic #1, Reed "Prof" Richards is seen watching the parallel Universe-Two. It is hinted that this world is an amalgam of DC's Earth-Two and Marvel's New Universe.
• Unlimited Access #4 shows glimpses of many amalgamated universes.
• The fictional letter sections in the issues of first volume hint to an Amalgam Prime Earth, were the editor Stan Schwartz (amalgam of Stan Lee and Julie Schwartz) and the film company Fox Bros. (amalgam of 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros.) exist.

Planetary

The WildStorm comic book series Planetary also introduced the concept of a multiverse, drawing upon the mathematical concept known as the Monster group for inspiration.^[30] The multiverse is described as "a theoretical snowflake existing in 196,833 dimensional space",^[31] a reference to the visualization method used by some mathematicians when describing the Monster group.

Smallville

The live-action television series Smallville also featured the Multiverse concept. In the season 5 episode "Lexmas", Lex Luthor visits an alternate timeline where Lionel cuts Lex out of the family fortune while Lex is married to Lana and has a son named Alexander. Clark Kent is a reporter with the Daily Planet, Chloe is publishing a book exposing LuthorCorp with Lex's help, and Jonathan Kent is a state senator.

In the season 7 episode "Apocalypse," Clark is taken to an alternate timeline where his counterpart had not arrived in Smallville and is killed by Brainiac. In that dimension, Clark Kent encounters another version of himself who is a human biological son of Martha and Jonathan and never met Lana Lang (who is a cheerleader with a different group of friends). Also in this dimension, Chloe Sullivan is engaged, Lana Lang is a married woman living in Paris, Sheriff Nancy Adams left Smallville and works as a member of the government, and Lex Luthor became president of the United States. While this dimension's Earth is destroyed by President Luthor, Clark travels back in time and sends his infant self to Earth, thus restoring his timeline.

In the season 10 episode "Luthor", Clark Kent travels to an alternate universe dubbed Earth-2 with the help of a Kryptonian mirror box. There, Lionel Luthor is his adopted father instead of Jonathan Kent. Clark is a blood-thirsty tyrant whose persona is Ultraman. He has a relationship with his step-sister, Tess. Clark Luthor killed his brother Lex. When Clark Kent travels to the alternate earth, his counterpart, Clark Luthor, travels to his. Lois Lane is engaged to Oliver Queen, who bought land in Smallville for its kryptonite. Lionel lures Clark into Oliver's kryponite trap and beats him. With the help of Oliver (who closes the kryponite portal), Clark uses the mirror box and returns to his world. Unbeknownst to him, Lionel comes with him.

Earth-2 is featured again later in the season in the episode "Kent", as Clark Luthor returns to his counterpart's world once more, and Clark Kent meets Earth-2's Jonathan Kent. After Clark Kent interacts with his deceased adoptive father's counterpart, he returns to his own world and lures Clark Luthor to the Fortress of Solitude, where he sends his counterpart back to his world.

In the fourth issue of the television series' comic book continuation Smallville Season 11, an alternative version of Chloe Sullivan from Earth-2 arrives to Clark Kent's world and reveals that her universe is destroyed before her death.^[32] In issue #11, it is reveals that the Monitors are responsible for Earth-2's destruction.^[33]

Across this multiverse, there are other Earths featured in the series including:

• Earth-9

  This Earth was destroyed when it was torn asunder by collision with Earth-37, toppling into one another, because of a Bleed quake caused by a Monitor who did not follow the protocol.

  Earth-13

  This Earth was a parallel universe that co-existed as one with the Earth of the main Smallville universe. Not much is known about this universe as it was never shown, only merely mentioned. Its main feature was that its version of Clark Kent was a normal human and a wannabe hero, rather than a Kryptonian with super powers, and Bruce Wayne instead of being a superhero is actually a psychopathic killer. Like many other universes, this Earth was also decimated. Earth-13 was destroyed when Earth-9 and 37 were torn asunder by collision, toppling into one another and shattering reality on Earth-13, because of a Bleed quake caused by a Monitor who did not follow the protocol. Its version of Clark managed to travel to the main Earth of Smallville. Unfortunately, he was followed by Bruce and he was killed by him there. Bruce Wayne remains the last survivor of his Earth, as he is held prisoner on Mars.

  Earth-37

  This Earth was destroyed when it was torn asunder by collision with Earth-9, toppling into one another, because of a Bleed quake caused by a Monitor who did not follow the protocol.

  Earth-Majestic

  This Earth is a parallel universe that co-exists as one with the Earth of the main Smallville universe. It is referred to as Earth-Majestic and its designation is unknown. It derives this name from its greatest superhero Mister Majestic, the alternate version of Superman. This Earth is the latest target of the Monitors, as they have already started the process to decimate it. It was later destroyed like the other Earths before it with the consciousness of Jor-El being the last survivor of this universe.

  Earth-Omega

  This Earth is a parallel universe that co-exists as one with the Earth of the main Smallville universe. It is referred to as Earth "Omega" and its designation is unknown. It derives this name from the Omega symbol, which is used by Darkseid. This Earth was attacked and seized by Apokolips and the two planets have collided with each other. Among the ruins are several fallen ships that belonged to the Monitors, wrecked Manhunters and skeletons of dead people. This Earth hasn't been destroyed entirely yet because when the Monitors arrived there, Darkseid had already conquered that world. A catastrophic battle followed between the two parts, destroying almost everything around them. However the Monitors, who even though suffered many casualties, succeeded to break Darkseid. After Superman made a deal with Darkseid, he gave him the crystal shard that contains the presence of Jor-El from Earth-Majestic. Darkseid threw the shard into the distance and a fortress of solitude formed, with Darkseid saying it could be a new beginning, a "New Genesis."

Batman: The Brave and the Bold

In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, a kind of "multiverse" is referenced in the episodes "Deep Cover for Batman!" and "Game Over for Owlman!", which feature several references to alternate incarnations of DC Comics heroes and villains, including Batman and Owlman. The Multiverse is briefly revisited in "Night of the Batmen!", with a large group of Batman gathered from across various Earths coming together to help an injured Bruce Wayne protect Gotham. The army of Multiverse Batmen contained various iterations of Batman from different media adaptions, such as from The Batman, the DC Animated Universe, the 60's Batman TV series, and Batman Beyond.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

The direct-to-video feature Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths deals with the Multiverse as part of its story. The main story deals with a good Lex Luthor from his Earth (based on the pre-Crisis Earth-Three) coming to the Earth where the Justice League are located to help fight their counterparts, the Crime Syndicate. While the two Earths inhabited by the Justice League and Crime Syndicate are not named, names of other Earths are mentioned. These names are not from the official pre-Crisis nor post-Infinite Crisis Multiverse, but are nods to a degree. Examples include: "Gamma F-1", "Theta-Alpha", "Zeta-Pi", which are all Greek numbers. Earth-Prime is featured in the film, but is not the same Earth-Prime from the comics where it was "our" Earth. In the film, Earth-Prime is shown to be the cornerstone of all reality, and that decisions made by humankind on this world caused alternate Earths where the opposite decision was made to come into being. This world is shown to be a desolate barren wasteland of a planet, with ruins as far as the eye can see. It is unknown what exactly caused its desolation, though Owlman reasons that it was mankind who destroyed itself.

DC Universe Online

In the video game DC Universe Online, Brainiac decides to conquer New Earth in order to know the secret of the multiverse. After he was defeated, the heroes have to face the Council of Luthors, who wants to take control of the Nexus of Reality and rule existence through the achievement of ultimate power. But the Council of Batmen wishes to stop the Luthors and undo the damage that has been done.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series

Injustice: Gods Among Us

The storyline of Injustice: Gods Among Us features an alternate reality where the Joker has tricked Superman into killing Lois Lane and their unborn son and destroying Metropolis with a nuclear explosion. This tragedy completely ruins Superman's moral compass to a point of no return and the Kryptonian murders the Joker in retaliation. As time passes, he establishes a new world order as the High Councilor. Soon enough, Superman's iron-fisted rule triggers a war between the Regime and those allied with Batman's Insurgency. Five years into the war, the Insurgency discovers an alternate universe where the Joker's plan did not succeed and transports several of its super heroes (Wonder Woman, Batman, Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Green Lantern) to their world in order to help them defeat the Regime. Also in this universe, Lex Luthor never becomes a criminal and instead he is a selfless business man, best friend of this world's Superman and cares for the people of Metropolis.

The Injustice universe is featured at the beginning of Convergence as one of the many realities affected by Telos' Blood Moon.

Infinite Crisis (video game)

The video game Infinite Crisis (which is unrelated to the comic book of the same name) features a multiverse with 52 different worlds. This multiverse is threatened by a sudden assault and all realities stand on the brink of annihilation. Now, the last hope for Earth lies in the powers of the DC legends.

During the events of the tie-in comic book Infinite Crisis: Fight for the Multiverse, it's said that the Monitors were a race of beings native to the world of Nil that resided outside all realities in the Overvoid. Their existence came following the creation of the Multiverse and the Bleed where they watched the infinite Earth's and sought to protect the infinite strands of creation. It was claimed that they were a people that cared little about the existence of the inhabitants of these universes and more for the preservation of their grand order. Such was their existence until one of their kind turned against the others and became the Anti-Monitor. A Crisis emerged as a result whereby many universes were destroyed but the Anti-Monitor was defeated but at the cost of almost the entire Monitor race. From this Crisis, there existed only 52 universes left in the Multiverse that were kept in perfect balance. The only survivor of their race was Nix Uotan who detected a new Crisis emerging from an unknown menace who made use of corrupted Monitor technology and struck at Earth-48. Nix Uotan returned to his peoples homeworld in order to reactivate the machinery to help contain the damage from the Crisis. As a result, he began to seek out champion's and even villains to help combat this menace from across the Multiverse. These individuals would be charged with recovering artifacts from across the many Earth's that were being taken by the mysterious enemy to aid in their assault. Among his agents was a human female from Earth-48 who went by the name of Harbinger.

The featured alternate Earths are those of the New 52 DC Multiverse. Prime Earth is Earth-0, DC's core alternate universe. "Arcane" Earth is Earth-13, "Atomic" Earth is the post-apocalyptic Earth-17, "Gaslight" Earth is the Edwardian analogue steampunk Earth-19, "Nightmare" Earth is the vampiric metahuman-dominated Earth-43 and "Mecha" Earth is Earth-44, on which robotics scientists created the Metal/Mecha League, analogues of Prime Earth superheroes. Superman, Supergirl, Poison Ivy, The Joker, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Batman and Robin are featured as player possibilities, each with alternate versions amongst the six featured alternate Earth scenarios.

In this reality, the Monitors had access to energy constructs that were able to record messages and transmit communiques across the Multiverse. They also forged orbs that glowed with light and served as a guide across the alternate universes as well as serve as a communicator with the Monitors. On their homeworld of Nil, there were spatial engines that could be used to help prevent large scale universal breaches that would damage the Multiverse.

Arrowverse and DC Extended Universe

In July 2014, DC CCO Geoff Johns confirmed that the universe present in the publisher's television series, Arrow and The Flash, is separate from the one being built in their films with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. In October 2014, Johns explained DC's difference in approach to Marvel, saying "We look at it as the multiverse. We have our TV universe and our film universe, but they all co-exist. For us, creatively, it’s about allowing everyone to make the best possible product, to tell the best story, to do the best world. Everyone has a vision and you really want to let the visions shine through... It’s just a different approach."

The Multiverse concept is explored during the second season of The Flash, which is pivotal to the conflicts between Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and an enigmatic speedster named Zoom (voiced by Tony Todd). The access points to the Multiverse are portals that were created as a result of an exploding singularity over Central City during the season 2 premiere "The Man Who Saved Central City". In the episode "Enter Zoom", it is revealed that Earth-2's version of Green Arrow is Robert Queen (Jamey Sheridan) instead of his son Oliver (Stephen Amell), who presumably died on the boat accident.

The television series Supergirl exists as another alternate universe separate from the main Arrowverse continuity.^[34] This is confirmed in the Supergirl episode "Worlds Finest", when the Flash appears on Supergirl's universe and names heroes from his world (Green Arrow, Black Canary, Atom, Firestorm) that Supergirl doesn't recognize. In addition, the Flash's allies Dr. Harrison Wells, Caitlin Snow, and Cisco Ramon do not exist in Supergirl's universe, and S.T.A.R. Labs was not founded due to Wells’ absence.

Teen Titans!

Issue #48 introduces its own multiverse. Each world pays references to various incarnation of the Teen Titans. The worlds shown are:

• The majority of the story is set on a world which is menaced by the Teen Tyrants (evil Teen Titans), and is defended by the Brotherhood of Justice (heroic versions of the Brotherhood of Evil). Similar to Earth-3.
• Malchior's (from the Teen Titans episode "Spellbound") homeworld.
• A world similar to the past from the Teen Titans episode "Cyborg the Barbarian".
• A world containing the teen Lobo.
• A world consisting of the animalistic Teen Titans (from the Teen Titans episode "Bunny Raven").
• Another future timeline with Nightwing (from the Teen Titans episode "How Long Is Forever").
• A world consisting of the Chibi Titans.
• A world in which the Teen Titans (as depicted in the Silver Age comics) consist of Robin, Speedy, Wonder Girl, Aqualad, and Kid Flash.
• The home of Larry the Titan.
• A futuristic world where the Teen Titans consist of Nightwing (a vampirish version, based on Dagon of the Team Titans), Battalion (who resembles Cyborg), Mirage (who resembles Raven), and Killowat.

Justice League: Gods and Monsters

Parodies

• Bongo Comics published a comic book series featuring characters from The Simpsons and Futurama titled Futurama/Simpsons 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.
• IDW's Super Secret Crisis War!, parodies DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths and Marvel's Secret Wars in their logo as this is a major crossover event featuring several characters and their worlds from their Cartoon Network-based publications.

See also

• Multiverse (Marvel Comics)

References

1. Wallace, Dan (2008). "Alternate Earths". In Dougall, Alastair. The DC Comics Encyclopedia. London: Dorling Kindersley. pp. 20–21. ISBN 0-7566-4119-5.
2. http://ifanboy.com/articles/features/the-definitive-guide-to-the-dc-comics-reboot/
3. The New 52 FAQ: Answering Your Questions about the Relaunched DC Universe
4. Multiversity Guidebook (January 2015)
5. Lichman, John (October 4, 2011) "DC New 52 Timeline So Far". UGO Team.
6. http://comicbook.com/2015/05/27/decoding-convergence-with-jeff-king-the-finale/
7. Marv Wolfman, the writer of Crisis on Infinite Earths, estimated that the original Multiverse had consisted of about 3000 universes.
8. Wizard Entertainment: '52' Roundup Week 52 (archived)
9. "WW: Chicago '07: Dan DiDio on 'Countdown: Arena'". Newsarama. Retrieved February 4, 2011.
10. "Baltimore Comic-Con '07: DC Nation Panel Report". Newsarama. Retrieved February 4, 2011.
11. http://media.dcentertainment.com/sites/default/files/Multiversity_Map_2400_53ee6b4c22d9a9.11031355.jpg
12. http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2014/08/18/the-map-of-the-multiverse
13. Convergence 8 (May 2015)
14. http://www.dccomics.com/characters/earth-5
15. "Earth-7". DC Comics. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
16. "Earth-8". DC Comics. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
17. The Multiversity Guidebook #1 (January 2015)
18. http://www.dccomics.com/characters/earth-11
19. http://www.dccomics.com/characters/earth-13
20. http://www.dccomics.com/characters/earth-16
21. http://www.dccomics.com/characters/earth-20
22. http://www.dccomics.com/characters/earth-23
23. http://www.dccomics.com/characters/earth-26
24. http://www.dccomics.com/characters/earth-36
25. http://www.dccomics.com/characters/earth-40
26. http://www.dccomics.com/characters/earth-41
27. http://www.dccomics.com/characters/earth-42
28. Convergence 8 (May 2015): DC Comics: New York
29. "DC Comics Solicitations for Product Shipping February, 2007". Comic Book Resources. November 13, 2006.
30. Warren Ellis (2005-03-27). "Mar. 27th, 2005". Warren Ellis' Live Journal. Retrieved 2006-11-10.
31. Warren Ellis (w), John Cassaday (a). Planetary 2 (April, 1999), DC Comics
32. Smallville Season 11 vol. 1 #4 (August 2012)
33. Smallville Season 11 vol. 1 #10 (February 2013)
34. Lincoln, Ross A. (February 3, 2016). "Crossover Confirmed: ‘The Flash’ To Meet ‘Supergirl’ In March Episode". Retrieved February 3, 2016.

External links

• THE MAP OF THE MULTIVERSE
• DC Multiverse - Considering Counterparts in Pre-Crisis DC
• Multiverse on DC Database, an external wiki, a DC Comics wiki
• The Annotated Crisis on Infinite Earths (includes the Infinite Atlas)
• Earth-Words
• Too Many Earths? A MoviePoopShoot Article on DC Multiverse
• And Then There Was One Part 2 of the MoviePoopShoot Article on DC Multiverse