Multiverse (DC)
The Multiverse is a place that features in DC Comics.
Contents |
History
Pre-Crisis
The Multiverse was a collection of universes that existed within the wider Omniverse.
On Earth-3, a group of superpowered criminals came to band together and formed the Crime Syndicate of America. With their powers, they effortlessly managed to overcome the authorities and steal as much as they desired in the world. However, the constant victories meant no challenge to its members and they began to feel that their edge had been dulled as a result. During one robbery, Ultraman consumed some Kryptonite which empowered him on this world and his super-vision could pierce into other realities within the Multiverse. This allowed him to see into Earth-1 where he saw a world of heroes that were counterparts to him and the Syndicate with these being the Justice League of America. He brought this information to the rest of the Crime Syndicate who felt that this was the challenge they had long desired to alleviate their boredom with them agreeing to invade Earth-1. (Justice League of America v1 #29)
In 1973, members of the Justice League of America from Earth-One and the Justice Society of America from Earth-Two arrived on Earth-X by way of a Transmatter Cube accident. They teamed up with various members of the Freedom Fighters and helped them fight the Nazi threat. (Justice League of America v1 #107)
Post-Crisis
Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.
The Overmonitor had previously sent a probe into the Multiverse that resulted in the emergence of a race of hyper-gods known as the Monitors that were descended directly from the first immense unknowable Monitor. (Final Crisis: Superman Beyond v1 #1)
Around 17,000,000,000 years ago, in the Second World emerged a race of humanoids who attained godhood where they became the Old Gods of GodWorld. (New Gods Secret Files and Origins v1 #1)
The resultant Godwave that emerged from the destroyed Third World then radiated outwards into the universe where it came to create the various cosmic forces including the Speed Force, the quantum field and the Emotional Spectrum. It also seeded various planets with divinity leading to the emergence of gods among them along with giving some beings the ability to develop superpowers. (Genesis v1 #2)
Ten billion years ago, life came to emerge on the planet Maltus. (Green Lantern v2 #81)
Within the other-dimensional paradise, the four un-aging survivors of the old universe had nothing to do but watch events unfold in the new universe for many years. However, Alexander Luthor, Jr. came to find that this dimension was anything but a paradise where they were forced to see their past constantly. In time, Alex Luthor came to resent the events that forced him trapped in this life. He came to find that his compatriots were content with this life as they could change their surroundings according to their thoughts. This time also saw Alexander becoming jealous of the others for having full lives and looked to cultivate their own hatred of their fate. In this time, Kal-L began to find that his Lois Lane was dying of old age despite all efforts in revitalising her in this world. Meanwhile, Alex began to make Superboy-Prime angry at this world as well and in that moment he came to witness the young Superboy punch reality itself causing a change the main reality as a result. This led to Luthor believing that there was a means of escaping this dimension and confessed to Superboy-Prime that prior to coming to this realm that he was presented two other realms where one seemed like heaven and another was hell. However, he came to learn that this was actually Apokolips and that they had an option of escaping this dimension and change New Earth according to fulfil their own desires. (Infinite Crisis Secret Files and Origins v1 #1)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.
As time went on, the reservoir of the Emotional Spectrum continued to deplete leading to the rise of Light Pirates that attacked the Convertors and other light users in order to siphon their power. This period saw the light becoming a scarce resource leading to an event known as the Dimming whereby the various light wielders began to battle one another over its power. As such, the War of the Dwindling Light emerged among the Lightsmiths whilst their universe was slowly dying. (Green Lantern: The Lost Army v1 #3)
At the very end of his experiment, Doctor Manhattan discovered that the Prime Universe was a sentient universe, he referred to as the Metaverse, which shapes itself each time Superman appears on Earth: reality shifts forward, preserving every era of Superman by creating a 'copy' of the universe, so that a Superman will always appear on Earth until the end of the Time. Manhattan then returned to his universe, where he gave his life to create his 'successor' who he named Clark in Superman's honor, but not before trying to fix the various cracks in the Multiverse with his Connective Energy. Not long after his disappearance, Wally West absorbed his remaining power from the Mobius Chair, becoming an almighty entity like Doctor Manhattan and deciding to finish his 'predecessor's job. (Doomsday Clock v1 #12)
In the wake of the Justice League's defeat against Perpetua's army, the Quintessence granted the heroes another chance, making them harness Doctor Manhattan's last remnants of energy to empower themselves enough to defeat the evil hand. Now aided by the Batman who Laughs, who convinced her to erase Lex Luthor's Apex powers after the Dark Batman made her aware of the incoming last stand and proposed her to be enhanced by Crisis Energies from the Dark Multiverse worlds, Perpetua confronted the heroes and finally defeated them, allowing Earth 0 to be invaded by Dark Multiverse forces and beginning the destruction of the Multiverse in order to recreate it according to her belief. (Dark Nights: Death Metal v1 #1)
Barry Allen and other speedsters ran away with Wally West, which was imbued with Doctor Manhattan's powers, to hide him from the Darkest Knight who wanted to absorb that power and get the Mobius Chair in order to possess enough power to fullfill his secret plan to overthrow Perpetua's dominion. Backed by the Lightning Knights, the Dark Batman chased the heroes who, in the end, escaped from him and reached the Mobius Chair. (Dark Nights: Death Metal Speed Metal v1 #1)
According to Hawkgirl, the other Orrery's realities were restored to existence and, as Hypertime was also healed along with every alternate timeline, Earth 0's residents are now aware of the Multiverse and are believed to experience remembering events from other times. Mister Terrific also discovered that Earth 0 was no more the center of the Multiverse which now had two new centers: one dubbed the Elseworld and the other dubbed Earth Omega. Lex Luthor stated that the Dark Multiverse was still existing under the shadow of the Multiverse which was now composed by new realities. Furthermore, he affirmed that, along with the current Multiverse, each past iteration of the Multiverse was brought back to create a web of multiverses, a little-scaled omniverse of their own into the greater Omniverse, which Wally West also referred to as the Infinite Frontier. (Dark Nights: Death Metal v1 #7)
In the wake of Perpetua's defeat, as the Multiverse was reshaped to be in its original Pre-Crisis state, the World Forger returned in the dark realm while Mobius also accused his brother Mar Novu of having made him and his universe useless, as it was not anymore the boundary between the Multiverse and the Omniverse. Despite the Monitor's replies, the Anti-Monitor promised him to eventually annihilate his Orrery of Worlds, setting in motion the chain of events that led to the first Crisis. (Justice League v4 #22)
It was revealed that the Omega Lantern was just a fragment of the Great Darkness' power that many Multiversal power players, including the Empty Hand, the Upside-Down Man, Eclipso and Darkseid himself, seek to control. Meanwhile, Barry Allen accidentally ended up on the Multiverse-2 where the Pre-Crisis Pariah was hiding: after telling Barry that he was now aware of how to save the Multiverse, Pariah imprisoned Flash into a brand new universe, Earth-Flash.1, where the Scarlet Speedster began living a perfect life. (Infinite Frontier v1 #6)
Overview
Locations within the Multiverse included:
- Fairylands :
- Magiclands :
- Dreaming :
- Sphere of the Gods :
- Microverse :
- Atom World : a microscopic world ruled over by Queen Atomia who commanded an empire that sought to conquer other worlds. (Wonder Woman v1 #21)
- Nortuii : the Golden Atom was a microscopic world that orbited a nuclei with it being one of 79 planets where it came to be home to an ancient people. The humanoid inhabitants that excelled in both study and sports where they came to be an advanced civilisation. (Action Comics v1 #479)
- Anti-Matter Universe :
- Seed Planet :
- Meta :
- The Bleed : a multiversal conduit between realities across the Multiverse that contained hyperdimensional data. (Titans v3 #34) It was described as being similar to an ocean and a river with it being a place between places. (Ion v1 #10)
- Mirror World :
- 4th Dimension :
- 5th Dimension :
- 6th Dimension :
- 7th Dimension :
- Wonderworld :
- Blood Moon :
- Camelot :
- Kamelot :
- Oblivion Bar :
- House of Secrets :
- House of Mystery :
- House of Strangers : a fortress located in the remotest mountains of Tibet with only those with the magic had the gifts of the gods needed to seek it out with trespassers suffering severe penalties. It was considered the world's oldest parliament and a congress for an enclave meeting among the magical community. The purpose of it was to serve as the last line of defense for the world against the horrors that lay beyond the White Gate who were creatures that predated the concept of good and evil. (Secret Six v4 #7)
- Silver City :
- Hell :
- Spirit World :
- Kwyzz :
- Land of Non : a limbo existence that was in-between Heaven, Hell, Earth and Sky where a soul could be reduced to consciousness alone and be left trapped there. (The Phantom Stranger v4 #8)
- Limbo : it was said to be a mystical kingdom beyond the very stream of time itself with no past, present or future existing within it leading to anyone living in an eternal now. (The Flash v1 #284)
- Vanishing Point :
- House of Heroes :
- Archive of Worlds :
Among the different realities included:
- Earth-1 :
- Earth-2 :
- Earth-3 :
- Earth-4 :
- Earth-5 :
- Earth-6 :
- Earth-7 :
- Earth-8 :
- Earth-9 :
- Earth-10 :
- Earth-11 : This universe saw a divide on the planet Oa between the Zamarons and their male counterparts. Ultimately, the Zamarons formed the Star Sapphire Sorority that sought to spread the law of love across space whilst the male immortals were patrons for the Green Lantern Patrolmen that chosen champions to espouse their masters outdated ideals. The planet Gaea's Greco-Amazonian culture later managed to make first contact with the Zamaron civilization of Oa. (The Green Lantern: Season Two v1 #9)
- Earth-12 :
- Earth-13 :
- Earth-14 :
- Earth-15 :
- Earth-16 :
- Earth-17 :
- Earth-18 :
- Earth-19 :
- Earth-20 :
- Earth-21 :
- Earth-22 :
- Earth-23 :
- Earth-24 :
- Earth-25 :
- Earth-26 :
- Earth-27 :
- Earth-28 :
- Earth-29 :
- Earth-30 :
- Earth-Omega :
Vibratory shields were said to separate different versions of Earth from one another. (The Flash v1 #123)
Upon Earth rested 51 more parallel Earths and 51 parallel universes. If Earth was ever annihilated, it would start a chain reaction that would destroy the others. This would cause the collapse of the Multiverse which would leave only its opposite the antimatter universe in existence. (Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special v1 #1)
There were various cosmic forces and objects of power tied to the universe with these including:
- The Source :
- Anti-Life Equation :
- Life Equation :
- Firestorm Matrix : According to one account, the Matrix was actually the ‘spark’ that preceded the universe and was the fire that resulted in the Big Bang. (Brightest Day v1 #10) It alongside the other elemental forces of Earth were said to be aspects of the Life Equation which was an antithesis to the Anti-Life Equation. (Firestorm v3 #34)
- Speed Force :
- Hypertime : consisted of an infinite number of realities that continually diverged and converged where they overlapped and circled back to connect to each other. Thus, everything and anything that could be imaged existed. (Superboy v4 #60)
- Godwave : an energy that was released from the destruction of the Third World where it resulted in the creation of various universal forces such as the Speed Force and quantum field with it also leading to the emergence of gods on many worlds. (Genesis v1 #2)
- Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum :
- Quantum Field :
- The Green :
- The Red :
- The Rot :
- Worlogog :
- Cosmic Grail :
Races that inhabited the Multiverse included:
- Monitors :
- Fuginauts : a race cosmic beings charged with preserving the boundaries between the dimensions of the Multiverse. (Sideways v1 #2) Their kind was said to had been successors to the Monitors where they curbed unchecked movement between realities. (The Unexpected v3 #6)
- Shadow Demons :
- Old Gods :
- New Gods :
- Forerunners :
- Apex Predators :
- 5th Dimensional Imps :
There were a variety of organizations and teams that inhabited the Multiverse which included:
- Justice Society of America :
- Crime Syndicate :
- Freedom Fighters :
- Marvel Family :
- Extremists :
- Unjustice League of Unamerica :
- Love Syndicate :
- Retaliators :
- Blood League :
- League of Shadows :
- Agents of W.O.N.D.E.R. :
- Overcorp :
- Legion of Sivanas :
- Dreadfuls :
- Justice League Incarnate :
- Empire of Shadows :
Inhabitants
- Chronicler :
- Perpetua :
- Kismet :
- Monitor :
- Anti-Monitor :
- World Forger :
- Auteur.io : a mechanical being created by the World Forger to serve as a God of Tales where he commanded the Archive of Worlds. (Batman/Superman v2 #19)
- Mandrakk :
- Dax Novu :
- Great Darkness :
- Gog :
- S'ivaa :
- Darkseid :
- Imperiex :
- Overmaster :
- Lord of Limbo : a humanoid being who claimed to be the master of the mystical kingdom of Limbo that was a land beyond all others and beyond the very stream of time itself. He was shown to enslave those that became stranded in this realm where he used his powers to make them his subjects. (The Flash v1 #284)
- Umbrax : a sentient black sun located in a phantom galaxy who served as the heart of the Invisible Emotional Spectrum that sought out worlds that were in the grips of self-destructive forces whereupon it animated them with its energies before drawing them into itself. (Justice League v4 #3)
- Relic :
- Tempus Fuginaut :
- Dominus :
- Brainiac :
- Telos :
- Paradox : Chris was a male human scientist who was obsessed with proving the existence of the Multiverse where one day he was caught in the release of multiversal energy from a fight between the Flash and the Turtle which sent the man outside the Multiverse. Trapped there, he was transformed into a being capable of manipulating time where he became known as Paradox. (The Flash v5 #88)
- Sin-Eater : formerly a white haired male named Phillip Stark who was in the process of killing his family but was condemned to the Land of Non by the Phantom Stranger who masqueraded as him. (The Phantom Stranger v4 #8)
- Pariah :
- Doctor Manhattan :
- Positive Man :
- Sunshine Superman :
- Magic Lantern :
- Naomi McDuffie :
- Queen Atomia : a red-haired female who ruled as a brutal monarch of Atom World where she commanded her armies to conquer other planets and bring them under her dominion. (Wonder Woman v1 #21)
- Roga : a gold-skinned male who was an inhabitant of the sub-microscopia world of Nortuii where in an effort to prove himself where he embarked on a study of atomic structure and conducted an experiment in spectrum neutrino-bombardment of living organisms which accidentally resulted in him being exposed to it. This resulted in him being enlarged to the point that he grew beyond his world and was forced to drift through atomic space until he emerged on Earth. By this point, he possessed abilities similar to Superman where he began draining spectrum-electricity from relay stations in order to attain enough power to return to his world. However, these thefts caused explosions thus bringing him into conflict with the Man of Steel. (Action Comics v1 #479)
Notes
- The Multiverse was created by Julius Schwartz and Gardner Fox where it made its first appearance in The Flash v1 #123 (September, 1961).
- It was based on the concept of the Multiverse.
Alternate Versions
- In Justice League Infinity v1 #2 (2021), the Multiverse featured in the comic continuation of the DC Animated Universe. It was revealed that there existed a place called the Mirrored Room that allowed one to see the various realities of the Multiverse.
In other media
Television
- In Justice League Unlimited, the Multiverse appeared in the setting of the animated television series set in the DC Animated Universe. In the episode "Brave New World", an alternate reality was shown that was dominated by the Justice Lords who were versions of Earth's heroes that decided to enforce their version of peace and order regardless of the cost.
- In The Flash, the Multiverse appeared in the setting of the live-action television series set in the Arrowverse.
- In Superman & Lois, the Multiverse appeared in the setting of the live-action television series.
Films
- In Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the Multiverse appeared in the setting of the animated film.
Video games
- In DC Universe Online, the Multiverse appeared in the setting of the MMORPG video game.
- In Infinite Crisis, the Multiverse featured in the setting of the MOBA video game.
- In Injustice: Gods Among Us, the Multiverse featured in the setting of the fighting video game.
Appearances
- The Flash v1: (1961)
- Justice League of America v1:
- Crisis on Infinite Earths v1:
- JLA: Earth-2:
- JLA v1:
- Infinite Crisis v1:
- Final Crisis: Superman Beyond v1:
- The Phantom Stranger v4:
- Multiversity v1:
- The Green Lantern: Season Two v1: (2020)
- Flashpoint Beyond v1: (2022)
External Links
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