Earth 1 of 52 in the DCnU

The old DC Universe had an infinite amount of Earths. Now, it didn't start out that way. But DC enjoyed fantasy and what-if stories that took place in different realities and different dimensions. I think one of the reasons Flash was the big casualty in Crisis on Infinite Earths was because he was a major cause of creating crazy continuity for DC. So in Crisis on Infinite Earths, all but one Earth was destroyed. This was supposed to clear up everything and make history easier.

Except it didn't. The history of so many characters were tied inextricably to people from other Earths, especially in the case of Earth-1 and Earth-2. Practically the entirety of Infinity, Inc. became a giant, confusing thorn in the side of the new DC Continuity since they were all sons and daughters of Golden Age heroes from Earth-2. Unless it was Earth-1.

Fuck, I don't know! It was a giant mess and crisis didn't actually solve much of anything. But it did allow Blue Beetle and Captain Atom and Captain Marvel to join the DC ranks!

So now there was only one Earth. But I'm pretty sure The Flash got up to his old tricks again and started screwing up continuity. Unless it was someone else. I'm sure there's a Wikipedia page somewhere that explains all of this with actual facts instead of my half-remembered fictions.

So many years after Crisis, along comes 52 to mess with DC's universe again. 52 created 52 different Earths because of some kind of aftershock from Crisis. The merging of all the worlds contained too much energy for one Earth so it split into 52 new, identical Earths.

But Mister Mind, some worm thing that may or may not have been a goofy villain of Captain Marvel's, was trying to feed off of these worlds. In the final battle to defeat Mister Mind, Rip Hunter, Booster Gold and Red Tornado's head went from one Earth to another trying to keep Mister Mind from consuming any one Earth completely. As they did this, the Earth's were changed as Mister Mind ate different historical events from each Earth.

So instead of 52 identical Earths, DC now had 52 crazy different Earths. But similar enough because they were all based on one Earth at one point.

So DC has:


Earth 17


Earth 3


Earth 10


Earth 50


Earth 5


Earth 22


Earth 2


and Earth 4.

I'm not giving this vague history to show how lazy I am or how incapable I am of using the internet to prove how much I know. I'm pointing out what an average DC Comic book fan might know about the history of the DC Universe. This is how I perceive it. These are the things I've picked up from reading the various titles I read over about a 17 year period starting with Crisis. I missed out on the last 7 or 8 years, so I don't know anything about Infinity Crisis or Blackest Night or the Death of Batman.

The history I do have allows me to understand some of the Earths shown above. Earth 2 is the Earth of the Justice Society and Infinity, Inc, all of the heroes tied to the Golden Age of DC Comics. It looks like Earth-50 was, possibly, going to be the Wildstorm Earth since it looks like Grifter is in there. But Grifter is part of the first wave of The New 52 and, I think, all of those stories take place on New Earth. Or Earth 1. I'm not sure about that designation. Earth 5 is the Marvel Earth where the Marvel family can battle it out with all of their goofy villains and nothing has to get too grim. Earth 4 seems very familiar, with The Question and a bunch of heroes I seem to know but can't quite place. And, inevitably, an Earth where heroes get to fight Nazis until the end of time.

So Earth 1 in the new DCnU currently has 52 titles happening upon it. This might be an assumption on my part but I think it's been stated by DC that these titles are all in the same world. The fact that each of the #1 issues has that glowing purple red girl appear in one panel is strong evidence this is true. A few titles happen out of time, like Justice League is 5 years in the past. I'm sure Legion of Super-heroes is a thousand years in the future, or whatever time frame that has always been. And I believe All-Star Western and Demon Knights takes place in the past as well.

Reading all 52 titles, I'll be able to really see how this Earth evolves. Or, more likely, see how it should be evolving while DC's editorship screws it up in innumerable ways! I began thinking about this because the next title I'm going to read, Mister Terrific, has already been cancelled. It'll have it's last issue with Issue #8 and I already have 5 issues. When it is cancelled (along with 5 other titles, most of them minorities!), at least one of the titles replacing it will take place on a different Earth.

It'll be interesting to see if DC eventually does a comic which takes place on each of the different Earths, whether it's an ongoing title or just a mini-series. I hope there's an Earth where a galactic ending cross-over crisis summer annual happens every single month!

So that's what I know. Just thought I'd put it out there. And now you're filled with all of the same incorrect, made-up knowledge that I am!