The original Multiverse
Catalogued
Originally, there was no consistency regarding "numbered" Earths—they would be either spelled out as words or use numbers, even within the same story. For example, "Crisis on Earth-Three!" (''Justice League of America'' #29 (August 1964)) uses "Earth-3" and "Earth-Three" interchangeably. However, a tradition of spelling out the numbers emerged in "The Most Dangerous Earth" (''Justice League of America'' #30 (September 1964)). This convention was disregarded in ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'', and it became common practice to refer to the various Earths with numerals instead. ''Infinite Crisis'' used both, but ''Crisis on Infinite Earths: Absolute Edition'' and everything after '' 52'' have referred to the alternate universes with numerals. Because ''52'' introduced another set of Earths, ''The Flash: Flashpoint'' changed the nature of many of those Earths. '' The New 52'' and '' Convergence'' restored the Pre-''Crisis'' Multiverse; all Pre-''Crisis'' Earths below 52 are spelled out (i.e., Earth-Three), realities from the ''52'' Multiverse use a hyphen (Earth-3), and realities from the ''New 52'' Multiverse use a space (i.e., Earth 3). This helps, as ''The New 52'' introduced a Dark Multiverse that uses negative numbers (i.e., Earth -3). Also, Earths that were "revealed as a distinct parallel Earth in ''The Kingdom'' #2", i.e., part of Hypertime, are marked with an asterisk. Variations of some of these worlds appeared in the ''52'' and ''New 52'' Multiverses, which are also Hypertime realities. Note that Wonder Woman met a duplicate version of herself coming from an unnamed twin Earth in "Wonder Woman's Invisible Twin", (''Wonder Woman'' #59 (May–June 1953)). It was the first appearance of an alternate Earth in DC Comics.Unclassified
Before the formal creation of its Multiverse, DC would use the "imaginary story" label to denote stories that did not fit and never were intended to fit into its canon—a tradition it would continue even after the creation of the Multiverse. Alan Moore's "What Ever happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" (''Action Comics'' #583 and ''Superman'' #423) in 1986 was the last Pre-''Crisis'' story to use the label. By contrast, other stories were clearly intended to be canonical, but various details were wrong or there were stories told in other media that were never said not to be canonical. As a result, fans and editors would create other Earths to explain things like the '' Super Friends'' comic (set on what writers referred to as Earth-B). Also there were many "one-shot" Earths (such as the Earth shown in "Superman, You're Dead, Dead, Dead" in ''Action Comics'' #399), for which few details were provided and would not be named until ''Crisis on Infinite Earth: Absolute Edition'' (November 2005) was published. Finally, not all alternate reality stories were assigned a name. These included (but were not limited to) the two-page "How Superman Would Win the War" (1940), the ancient Greece/ancient Israel mash-up world from ''Action Comics'' #308 (January 1964), the Earth where "The Super-Panhandler of Metropolis" and "The Secret of the Wheel-Chair Superman!" (''Action Comics'' #396-397) take place, and some of the Earths seen in ''Superboy'' (vol. 4) #61-62. DC's one universe, one timeline idea was silently killed off with the creation of the pocket universe (which was to explain why the Legion of Super-Heroes still remembered a Superboy when none existed in the Post-''Crisis'' reality). ''The Official Crisis on Infinite Earths Index'' (March 1986) and ''The Official Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover Index'' (July 1986) formally canonized the "Crossover Earth" where the Marvel and DC characters co-existed, making multiverse-changing events problematic at best. Then, you had parallel universes (like that of the Extremists) where the counterpart of Earth had a different name, as well as the realities of the '' Darkstars'' and ''Justice League'' series. ''Crisis on Infinite Earth: Absolute Edition'' (November 2005) formally canonized and named many imaginary tales, the ''Tangent Comics'' universe and some Elseworlds as part of the Pre-''Crisis'' Multiverse, even though some (such as the pocket universe) had clearly existed ''after'' the Crisis. In the "With A Vengeance!" storyline in ''Superman/Batman'', the Multiverse is visited by Bizarro and Batzarro. The Joker and Mr. Mxyzptlk summon Batmen and Supermen from various realities, both previously established worlds as well as unexplored ones.''Superman/Batman'' #20-24 (December 2005 - April 2006) '' Convergence'' retroactively prevented the destruction of the original DC Multiverse, so all the Pre-''Crisis'' earths exist but in an "evolved" form, though all characters in continuity or canon can be used by writers.The ''52'' Multiverse
A new Multiverse was revealed at the end of the '' 52'' weekly maxiseries. Unlike the original Multiverse, which was composed of an infinite number of alternate universes, this Multiverse is composed of a predetermined number of alternate universes, which were originally referred to as New Earth and Earths 1 through 51, although erroneously in ''Tangent: Superman's Reign'' #1, New Earth is referred to as Earth-1; however, in ''Final Crisis: Superman Beyond'' #1, New Earth is instead designated Earth-0. Dan Didio has since explicitly denied that New Earth is Earth-1. The alternate universes were originally identical to New Earth and contained the same history and people until Mister Mind "devoured" portions of each Earth's history, creating new, distinct Earths with their own histories and people, such as the Nazi-themed version of the Justice League that exists in Earth-10. Each of the alternate universes have their own parallel dimensions, divergent timelines, microverses, etc., branching off of them. TheThe Multi-Multiverse
The New 52 and DC Rebirth
The '' Flashpoint'' story arc ended with a massive change to the Multiverse; to what extent it is entirely new, and to what extent it is as it was formed in the wake of ''52'', has not fully been established. Some worlds, like Earth-1 and Earth-23, appear to be entirely untouched, while others, like Earth-0, Earth-2, and Earth-16, have changed drastically. A number of worlds from the previous Multiverse were also reassigned; for example, Earth-31, originally the alternate Earth where Frank Miller's '' The Dark Knight Returns'' and ''The Multiverse-2
As it was mentioned in '' The Multiversity'', this multiverse was destroyed by the Empty Hand. In '' Infinite Frontier'', it is identified as the remnants of the pre-Crisis Multiverse. Pariah uses it to trap various members of the Justice League in private realities that supposedly represent their ideal worlds, as a sort of "honey trap". The only worlds listed here are Pariah's "prison worlds"; for all other Multiverse 2 worlds, see the original Multiverse.The Dark Multiverse
The Dark Multiverse made its debut on DC's '' Dark Nights: Metal'' banner. Characters within this storyline are stated as originating from beyond the core ''New 52'' Multiverse that has been depicted until now and contains Dark Knight Batman analogues of the Flash, Doomsday, Aquawoman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Cyborg and the Joker. Many of these Earths appear to be highly unstable and pre-apocalyptic, akin to the depiction of the Earths that were consumed during '' Crisis on Infinite Earths''. Worlds in the Dark Multiverse are designated with negative numbers.Animated properties
The following list is for the Multiverse Earths that appear in the DC animated universe, the DC Universe Animated Original Movies and other animated propertiesTelevision series
''Smallville''
Following the conclusion of ''Smallville'', the series' story was continued in comic book form under the banner ''Smallville: Season 11''. The series ran from 2012 to 2015.Arrowverse
Pre-Crisis
The CW television series ''Post-Crisis
At the end of "Crisis on Infinite Earths", a new multiverse was created, notably merging Earth-1, Earth-38, the Earth of ''Black Lightning'', and the original Earth-2 into the new Earth-Prime as well as creating a new Earth-2. Guggenheim also confirmed the characters from ''Smallville'' who existed on the previous Earth-167 survived. Guggenheim had wanted there to only be the single, new Earth-Prime that remained at the end of the crossover, but had that happened, the crossover would not have been able to visit the worlds of other DC properties. A compromise was done, where these properties were put back to various Earths in the multiverse, and the Arrowverse series were combined to a single Earth.DC Studios
Video games
''Injustice''
''Infinite Crisis''
A convergence of Multiverses
The end of the '' Convergence'' series resulted in the retroactive saving of the Pre-''Crisis'' DC Multiverse. In an interview Jeff King stated, "The battle to save not one, but two multiverses in ''Convergence'' provides it", and later states "In ''Convergence'' #8 we reference Multiversity and show you some of the Post-Convergence worlds that make up the reconstituted DC Multiverse. In many ways, the number of Worlds is now infinite. There may even be more than one Multiverse.", as well as "Post-Convergence, every character that ever existed, in either Continuity or Canon, is now available to us as storytellers.". This leaves open the question of how (or even if) the Pre-''Crisis'', Hypertime, '' 52'' and post-'' Flashpoint'' Multiverses interact.References
{{DEFAULTSORT:DC Multiverse worlds