I’ve never been happy about what the Crisis on Infinite Earths did to DC continuity, believing that it did away with many characters and concepts that still had a lot of untapped potential. I’ll admit to being especially unhappy about the removal of the Golden Age Superman from continuity, he being a particular favorite of mine, and I thinking it especially important that Superman should be the first super-hero in the DC Universe.
I’ve thought about this for a while, and here is what I think that they should have done instead, which to my mind would have enabled DC to launch a new, revised “Universe”, whilst preserving the older “universes”.
I would still have them do a big “crisis” where they would be brought down to the following nine “universes”, echoing the “Nine Worlds” of Norse mythology.
- Earth-One: Home of the Silver and Bronze Age characters
- Earth-Two: Home of the Golden Age Characters
- Earth-Three: Home of the Crime Syndicate
- Earth-Four: Home of the original versions of the Charlton characters
- Earth-C: Home of the Zoo Crew and pals
- Earth-S: Home of the Fawcett characters
- Earth-X: Home of the Freedom Fighters and pals
- Earth-Prime: Our Earth. (I always thought that it was a mistake creating a super-hero for Earth-Prime.)
- Earth-Zero: This would be the new, revised DC Universe going forward.
How I would end it would be that Earth-Zero would be cut off (at least temporarily) from the other eight universes. This would allow DC to focus solely on the new Earth-Zero universe to establish it as the new “main” DC Universe, while still allowing the other “old” universes to still exist out there, to someday be revisited. In fact, at the end of the story I would have characters from the old universes remark that in time they might be able to meet their new friends again. (I’d also have someone ask if there are really only nine universes left, and someone answer that maybe there were others out there, but that they couldn’t reach them at the moment.)
I would have waited at least five years before doing any stories of the old “universes” (with the possible exception of Earth-C, which wouldn’t affect the main super-hero characters much), so as to allow the Earth-Zero versions of the characters to establish themselves. In fact, I’d hold off on any crossovers between Earth-Zero and the old universes for at least ten years after the “crisis”.
If in time - hopefully not until sometime after the turn of the century – DC wanted to do a new revision of their continuity, they could introduce an Earth-Z or Earth-Alpha or Earth-Skibidi or whatever.
I realize that a lot of this is what they ended up doing in the end anyway, but I think that things could have gone a lot more smoothly if they had done something like this at the start.
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Your plan would have suited me fine, Bob. I believe down to my toes that the Charlton, Fawcett and Quality characters should have stayed on their own earths, rather than be watered down for ours. Captain Marvel can't be the World's Mightiest Mortal on a world with Superman, so he shouldn't be on a world with Superman.
Though it would mean the end of Infinity Inc., I would have had the Earth-One heroes meet the Earth-Two heroes but it would always be the 1940s on Earth-Two. There would always be that time difference and the E-1 gang would have to be careful not to reveal what they know about E-2's possible future.
If Earth-Two had superheroes during World War II, and Earth-One didn't, would a warning even be needed? I'd think their history would probably proceed quite differently than Earth-One's, enough that a warning wouldn't be needed. Or would it? That would be a great story we'll never see.
I always thought that there were lots of potential stories about the differences between the Earths that never got told.
I've always thought that would make for interesting crossovers as well-- or, at best, it would be the early post-war era on Earth-2.
Been thinking about this and, with no corroborating evidence whatsoever, I've come up with a scenario I think might have some truth to it.
First, let me say that I absolutely agree that the Charlton heroes and Fawcett heroes should have stayed on their on respective "Earths."
So why didn't they?
Second, I think it started with the Charton heroes. DC had recently acquired them, and Dick Giodano wanted to use them in the main DCU.
But how to account for them?
Third, I have never bought DC's "official" explanation, that multiple Earths were too "confusing" to readers.
I wasn't confused. Were you confused? If that were the case, all it would have taken was an editorial edit to lay off the "confusing" characters.
So it all comes back to "How to account for them?" It's easy enough to concoct some sort of cosmic "crisis" to bring the Charlton characters into the DCU. Bur what about the Fawcett characters? Might as well bring them in, too. But wait a minute, wouldn't we also have to merge Earths 2, 3 and X? And the ball has started rolling...
I never thought that Earth-X was viable in the long term. A world where the Nazis won World War II is interesting for a story or two. Heck, the first story there in Justice League of America #107-108 ended with the war finally over then Freedom Fighters #1 opened with the fact that Earth-X is a boring place now!
Plus, it starts with its biggest names Plastic Man and Blackhawk already "dead" and gone and Kid Eternity not even mentioned!
There are so many other Quality heroes that could be used that Earth-X should be replaced by Earth-Q!
Another similar situation with Charlton was the Archie/MLJ characters licensed twice by DC. The first time in 1991, they were in their own continuity within Impact Comics, separate from the DCU.
However, in the second phase of 2009, there was artwork and editorials claiming that the classic Archie heroes would be fully integrated into the DCU (excluding the Fly who is owned by the estate of Joe Simon) yet did the Shield join the JLA? No. Did Batman meet the Black Hood? No.
IIRC, their only "major" crossover was with Magog, of all people!
I think that a post-war Earth-X could be very interesting if the stories were told properly. The idea of a world reconstructoing itself after decades of Nazi rule has a lot of story potential. It coul;d be that such stories might have been too "political" for DC.
I wasn't confused. Were you confused? If that were the case, all it would have taken was an editorial edit to lay off the "confusing" characters.
Exactly. The "confusing" argument didn't convince me for a second.
Here's a story I have told before, but it's pertinent: I had a buddy growing up who wasn't interested in comics at all, but of course absorbed some things from me. He occasionally came along on some of my comics-hunting trips. One day I had my latest purchases spread out, which included a Brave and Bold with a Batman/Wilcat team-up. He said casually, "Isn't Wildcat an Earth-Two character? Why's he with Batman?" This is a guy who had never read a JLA/JSA crossover or, as far as I knew, a Wildcat story. But just being on the periphery of comics fandom (i.e., me) he absorbed enough that he understood the multiverse. "Confusing"? I don't think so.
You know what does convince me? The couple of interviews I read before Crisis of writers complaining about having to explain Earth-Two every time they used an Earth-Two character. I don't think we were confused as much as they were tired of writing "What Is Earth-Two?" panels.
But, as you say, if they really thought Earth-Two was too confusing, the editors could have instituted a mandate that there will be no more Earth-Two stories. They'd only been doing them for 20 years without a problem, but sure, now it's suddenly a problem, so don't use popular gimmicks like JLA/JSA and Flash-Flash team-ups. Just let the characters go fallow.
But NOOOOOOO [/John Belushi]! You have to burn it all down and render my 20 years of comic boxes moot! DC has done this many times since, but my anger about the first one still rages with the heat of thousand, thousand suns.
And amid the many, many, many unintended consequences of Crisis on Infinite Earths:
I always thought that there were lots of potential stories about the differences between the Earths that never got told.
Unlike Phillip's excellent idea of keeping Earth-Two forever in World War II, DC decided to keep their history going. "Flash of Two Worlds" happened, I assume, on the same calendar day on both Earths. So what WAS Earth-Two's history after World War II?
So many questions ... that will never be answered.
It's easy enough to concoct some sort of cosmic "crisis" to bring the Charlton characters into the DCU. Bur what about the Fawcett characters? Might as well bring them in, too. But wait a minute, wouldn't we also have to merge Earths 2, 3 and X? And the ball has started rolling...
This seems so likely that I can't think of a better imaginary story.
I never thought that Earth-X was viable in the long term.
Agreed. Especially, as you say, with the most popular Quality Comics characters killed off. The only way fans would accept an ongoing Earth-X would be for it to have its history re-written to be more in line with ours, and the original Quality Comics lineup restored. Seriously, so much would have to change for the Nazis to win WWII, and then occupy the U.S. (which was chockablock with superheroes) it wouldn't be compatible with our history even before 1945.
And what a great lineup it is, especially if updated for the 21st century -- and not overshadowed by being on a world with the Justice League.
You have to burn it all down and render my 20 years of comic boxes moot!
When Superboy was removed from post-Crisis continuity I threw away all my Adventure Comics featuring him.
When Crisis on Infinite Earths re-introduced Wonder Woman in the modern era I burned all my Wonder Woman comics and JLA issues featuring her.
When Hawkworld removed the silver age Hawkman from continuity, I tore up all my comics with Hawkman in them.
Boy, was my face red when all thos things were eventually overturned!
Did those things really happen? No (not to my comics, anyway; the stories "happened"). My point it, a comic book story doesn't have the power to remder another moot. That can never happen. All those story still exist, tucked away safely in my longboxes to be read whenever the mood strikes.