The DC Multiverse is a term used for the collective of realities, alternate timelines, and alternate futures found in DC Superhero Comics, and adaptations of them. Persistent alternate timelines are often labelled with 'Earth' names, like Earth-1, Earth-C, and so on.
Useful To Know[]
This is a complex subject because:
- DC Comics has developed a tendency to use multiverse alteration and reality changing as plot events, for publicity and sales, ever since the 1985-1986 event Crisis on Infinite Earths.
- Adaptations from comics to other media (like TV, Movies, or Animations) often feature multiverses that have no overlap with the ones in comics.
- The comics have, in turn, included 'Earths' based on animation or TV into various multiverses.
- Reality concepts can made repeated cameos with different names/numbers and modifications in various multiverse revisions.
- The same name is often reused for different (but often similar) realities in different multiverses.
- More recently, the comics have been using the concepts of 'local multiverse' versus a larger 'Multi-Multiverse', 'Omniverse', or 'Infinite Frontier'. This is turned into a sort of cosmology that get more elaborate as time goes on.
A persistent theme has been a single Antimatter Universe, that is usually treated as being Evil in some way, and one or more 'Positive Matter Earths' forming most of the multiverse. 'Future Timelines' that may or may not be temporary also usually exist. Recently, a Dark Matter Multiverse has been introduced.
Comic Book Multiverses[]
For any given time period, there is typically one particular reality (the 'DC Universe') where a large majority of DC Superhero comics are said to be set, and a primary multiverse.
Pre-Crisis DC Multiverse (1935? to 1986)[]
In DC Comics, the Multiverse was invented in 1961 as a way to allow the Flash (Barry Allen) to crossover with the 1940's Flash (Jay Garrick), despite Barry Allen's origin story specifying that Flash Comics were what inspired his costumed identity after he gained superspeed. The previous Golden Age was called Earth-Two, and the then-current age was called Earth-One. Crossovers between these two realities occurred on a regular basis. A 1985-1986 story, Crisis on Infinite Earths, destroyed this multiverse, leaving a single rebooted Earth.
Main Article: Pre-Crisis DC Multiverse.
Post-Crisis DC Multiverse (1986 to 2006)[]
Officially, there was no Multiverse after the Crisis. However, various alternate realities still showed up, and future timelines that behaved like alternate Earths never went away. The invention of Hypertime in 1999 made persistent alternate realities official, but these were never numbered in story. However, various compendiums would assign numbers more systematically, to everything.
Main Article: Post Crisis DC Multiverse
The 52 DC Multiverse (2006 to 2011)[]
A 2005 to 2006 multiversal crisis crossover, Infinite Crisis, was meant to be a sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths. Some leftovers turned villains from that Crisis attempted to destroy the DC Universe and replace it with the 'Perfect Earth'. A temporary sort of multiverse appeared during that Crisis, but it did not last. However, the weekly series 52 revealed (in mid-2007) that a new multiverse had appeared in the aftermath of Infinite Crisis.
Main Article: 52 DC Multiverse
The Multiversity DC Multiverse (2011 to 2020)[]
In late 2011, DC rebooted their entire superhero comic book line (the New 52). This was supposedly triggered at the end of the altered timeline event Flashpoint, where the mysterious Pandora meddled when the Flash (Barry Allen) was time travelling to try and fix things. This was later retconned to meddling by Doctor Manhattan. This seemingly altered the Multiverse as well.
This multiverse was most fully detailed in the 2014-2015 Multiversity stories. In mid 2016, the main DC Universe (Prime-Earth) started to go major continuity changes, but the other Earths were not affected much, although a larger variety of Earths began to appear in stories.
In 2017, a new Dark Multiverse was first shown, invading the DC Universe (Earth-0).
The multiversal crisis crossover Dark Nights: Death Metal (2020-2021) destroyed this multiverse.
Main Article: Multiversity Multiverse (DC Comics)
The Post Death Metal Multiverse (2021-2023)[]
A the end of the Dark Nights: Death Metal crisis, cosmic beings (The Hands), restored the destroyed Multiverse with only minor changes (except for Earth-3). DC immediately started building up the the next multiversal crisis. Dark Crisis officially ran from mid-2022 to early-2023. The net result of it was to augment the existing finite multiverse with an 'infinite' set of additional Earths.
Main Article: Post Death Metal Multiverse (DC Comics)