Graphic By: Tim Tuley

In writing the Infinite Crisis articles, my goal was to give a sense of how epic this series is, and I felt that providing an explanation for terms like "Earth-2" would be a good idea, so that is what I'm going to do in the final part of this series. I'm going to split this article up into three parts:

1) A "real world" explanation of DC's old multi-verse system; I will examine the editorial policies that led to its creation.

2) The "comic book" explanation of why the multi-verse existed.

3) An overview of The Crisis on Infinite Earths, which eliminated the multi-verse.

In 1938, the company that would become DC Comics published the first issue of a new comic called Action Comics, which featured the debut of Superman and the concept of the superhero. It caught on like wildfire, and the following year Batman debuted. From there DC introduced characters named Hawkman, The Sandman (Wesley Dodds), The Flash (Jay Garrick), Green Lantern (Alan Scott) and The Atom (Al Pratt), among others. Many of these characters would come together to form the Justice Society of America.

Other companies got into the act, such as Quality Comics, publishing the exploits of characters such as Uncle Sam, The Ray, The Phantom Lady and The Human Bomb, and Fawcett, who published Captain Marvel. By the late-'40s, superhero comics had fallen out of favor with the comic reading public, and a majority of superhero titles were cancelled.

In 1956, DC editor Julius Schwartz was placed in charge of an anthology title called Showcase, the purpose of which was to debut new concepts. In issue 4 of the series, Schwartz revived The Flash, although he gave him a new identity (Barry Allen), a new costume and a new origin. The character caught on, and before long, a new wave of superheroes was appearing, many of them revamps of characters from the '40s, such as Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Hawkman (Katar Hol) and The Atom (Ray Palmer). In time they came together to form the Justice League of America.

A few years later, it was decided that the current Flash (Barry Allen) was to meet the original Flash (Jay Garrick). One problem: Jay Garrick, from Barry's point of view, existed only in comics, so how could the two of them interact? Answer: the adventures of Jay Garrick took place on a different Earth, in an alternate universe in which he was a real person. Barry accidentally broke the barrier between Earths and had several adventures with Garrick. Barry's Earth was designated Earth-1 and Jay's was Earth-2. Before long, the two Earths began crossing over on a regular basis.

From there, DC introduced a multi-verse, each with its own Earth with its own distinct identity. Three of the Earths were comprised of characters obtained from Quality, Fawcett and Charlton. After a while, the whole system became cumbersome, and the powers that be decided to streamline it all. Thus was born the Crisis on Infinite Earths, which we'll return to shortly.

Within the bounds of the DC Universe, the multi-verse came about because of the actions of one man. A renegade Oan scientist, Krona, invented a machine that would allow him to look back through time to the point of creation. Despite warnings of doom that would occur if the creation point was seen, he pressed on with his plans, and as a result, what was one universe became a multi-verse, as well as the creation of an anti-matter universe. Here's a list of the Earths seen before the Crisis:

Earth-1: This was the home of the "Silver Age" characters, such as Barry Allen, Hal Jordan and Ray Palmer. It also had its own indigenous characters, such as Adam Strange, Firestorm and Swamp Thing, among others. The primary super-team on this Earth was the Justice League of America, along with The Legion of Super Heroes. This Earth also had Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. A general rule of thumb is most everything DC published after 1956 took place on Earth-1.

Earth-2: This was the home of the "Golden Age" heroes, such as Jay Garrick, Allen Scott and Al Pratt. Indigenous characters included Johnny Thunder, Dr. Fate and the Spectre. The Justice Society of America was the main super-team on Earth-2, along with The Seven Soldiers of Victory. Later, the sons and daughters of the JSA formed Infinity, Inc. Complicating matters was that this Earth had a Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, much like Earth-1.

Earth-3: A twisted version of our own Earth, the super-powered population of Earth-3 were villains and came together to form the Crime Syndicate of America. Although Earth-3 was destroyed in the Crisis, a new version of the Syndicate has since appeared in continuity.

Earth-4: In the early '80s, DC acquired the rights to the Charlton Comics heroes, such as Captain Atom, Blue Beetle and my personal favorite, The Question. The adventures of these heroes occurred on Earth-4.

Earth-C: An Earth in which animals were the intelligent inhabitants. Largely based on the funny animal genre, this Earth boasted Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew. This Earth was not affected by the Crisis, as it was revealed to exist in an alternate dimension.

Earth-S: In the early '50s, DC purchased the rights to the Fawcett characters, such as Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr. and Bulletman, among others, and they were said to have existed on this Earth.

Earth-X: Home of the characters obtained from Quality Comics. Unlike the other Earths, World War II never ended, and Uncle Sam, The Ray, The Phantom Lady and others fought the Axis powers as The Freedom Fighters.

Earth-Prime: This was supposed to be "our" Earth. It contained no super-heroes for a long time, until its own version of Superboy appeared. Earth-Prime was destroyed in the Crisis, but Superboy survived.

As I mentioned earlier, Krona's experiment created the multi-verse and an anti- matter universe. Two beings were born in those realms--the Monitor in the positive-matter world, and the Anti-Monitor in the anti-matter universe. The Anti-Monitor began a crusade to destroy all positive-matter universes and replace them with his own. He was successful, destroying all the Earths save for 1, 2, S, X and 4. The Monitor rallied the heroes and villains of the five Earths against the Anti-Monitor, resulting in an explosive battle at the dawn of time which changed the fabric of existence: the five remaining Earths were merged into one.

Whereas previously the Justice League, the Justice Society, Captain Marvel, The Freedom Fighters and Captain Atom had existed on separate Earths with their own history, they now existed on one, with a shared history. What I have just described is referred to as The Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Crisis concluded with the Earth-2 Superman and Lois Lane, the Earth-Prime Superboy and Alex Luthor, all of whom found themselves erased from existence as a result of the merger, leaving our reality, where they remained until Infinite Crisis #1.

The merger of the Earths allowed every character a fresh start, and creators took advantage of this. Within a year of Crisis' conclusion, Superman was given an updated origin in John Byrne's Man of Steel. Batman's story was tweaked by Frank Miller in the highly acclaimed Batman: Year One, and Wonder Woman was given a new beginning by artist George Perez. Similarly, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Captain Marvel, Captain Atom and many others were given new origins and stories. Unfortunately, there was little to no editorial control at the time, and some of these revamps, particularly Hawkman's, contradicted stories that had gone before. As a result, many creators found themselves bending over backwards to find rationalizations for what happened, resulting in a mess. An attempt was made to iron out some of the problems the Crisis caused, titled Zero Hour, but in some cases it only made the problem worse.

The Crisis on Infinite Earths is one of the very few comic book mega- epics to have a truly lasting impact. We feel it every time we pick up a DC comic and read about the heroes adventures on the one, single Earth. The trick for Infinite Crisis is to live up to its predecessor's nature and revitalize the DCU much in the same way The Crisis on Infinite Earths did before it.