Multiverse Primer III: Rebirth of the Multiverse

Being a nostalgia buff, the JSA has always been my favorite super hero team. I love the 1940s connection and I did love the connection to the Golden Age Batman. In the 70s and 80s I was pleased to see Robin and Huntress of the Batman Family fighting alongside the JSA. But following Crisis on Infinite Earths the JSA was gone, the multiverse was gone, and the Golden Age Batman Family was retconned out of existence.

Comics no longer held the same appeal to me, so I quit reading. I rarely picked up a comic throughout the 90s and I've been told that I didn't miss much. I did enjoy an occasional Elseworlds story with some variations of a Golden Age Batman.

But I returned to comics when the JSA returned to comics in 1999. I followed them through the JSA title and I'm now an avid reader of Justice Society of America.

Things got really interesting when DC Comics observed the 20th anniversary of the Crisis on Infinite Earths with another limited series called Infinite Crisis. I had high hopes that the multiverse would return. My hopes were higher when the Golden Age Superman appeared on the last page of the first issue. He would play a vital role in the series. It would also be revealed that Power Girl was indeed the original Superman's Kryptonian cousin, her newer origin having been bogus.

By the end of Infinite Crisis the Golden Age (Earth-Two) Superman and Lois were dead. Power Girl was the sole survivor of the original multiverse (unless you want to count Superboy of Earth Prime). She was also sole survivor of Earth-Two and of the Krypton of Earth-Two's universe. Her Earth-Two memories even returned.

By the end of Infinite Crisis I was disappointed by the death of the Golden Age Superman, DC's first super hero--in fact, the first super hero ever. I was disappointed that the multiverse came so close to returning, but had not. Yet I had hope because its former existence had at least been acknowledged, and even remembered, by Power Girl.

Then came 52. The series was a disappointment in some respects (just my opinion), but the last issue was a masterpiece. Here it was revealed that the events of Infinite Crisis had spawned the birth of a new multiverse, with no less than fifty-two earths! Cool!

Although the JSA and JLA do still inhabit the same earth, one panel glimpses of several earths in the new multiverse revealed that some of them bear striking resemblances to earths of the former multiverse. Earth-10 looks a lot like the Earth-X of the former multiverse. Earth-5 looks a lot like Earth S. Earth-4 looks lot like, well, Earth-4.

And the new Earth-2 bears a striking resemblance to the original Earth-Two, complete with a JSA whose membership roster includes Robin and the Huntress. I'm excited!

Now I'm reading Countdown (and chronically behind on my reading) as the secrets of the multiverse are slowly being revealed. I hear that Countdown: Arena is also good for navigating the new multiverse, but Hey!--the regular Countdown is a weekly comic and I'm not made of money so I can't read everything.

But an interesting twist is that each universe of the new multiverse is inhabited by a Monitor whose job it is to correct any anomalies in this multiverse. No universe hopping allowed. But I knew from the beginning that this couldn't last. Universe hopping is what makes the multiverse fun! I love it when heroes meet their dopplegangers or other versions of folks they know on their own earth.

Since the return of the multiverse, I began to ponder what kinds of earths I would like to see. I don't know how much of this has a chance of coming to pass since many of the 52 universes have already been cataloged. But it's fun to dream. So here is what I would like to see:

1) An earth on which Helena Wayne is the Huntress and daughter of the Batman.

2) An earth on which the current JSA membership includes the same roster as that of the 70s and 80s stories published in All Star Comics, Adventure Comics, and Infinity Inc. The roster would include Superman, Wonder Woman, Robin, and the Huntress. And who says a Golden Age Batman would have to be deceased in such a universe? It might be fun to see him fight crime alongside his grown daughter, the Huntress.

3) An earth on which Batman and Superman were members of the JSA during the World War II era.

As an addendum to this Multiverse Primer, I'll provide this link which catalogs the new multiverse as revealed thus far. I'm indebted to Shelly's Comic Book Shelf for sharing this link with the blogosphere (or is it the blogoverse?).

Comments

[Tim]

Great series! I was a little reluctant after 52, but I think I'll check Countdown out.

[Dr. Retro]

Tim,

It's so great to have a comment! Thanks!

I'm still suspending my judgment on Countdown since I'm about 10 issues behind on my reading. Once I'm caught up, I'll let everyone know what I think.