Elseworlds and the Multiverse

[Qolt QuaZar]

How does the Elseworlds stories fit in? Did the Multiverse ever really end? Alexander Luthor had mentioned that he had studied this universe and all others for countless years...I kinda got the impression that meant that he was watching the animated series, or reading Red Son, etc.

[XPac]

How does the Elseworlds stories fit in? Did the Multiverse ever really end? Alexander Luthor had mentioned that he had studied this universe and all others for countless years...I kinda got the impression that meant that he was watching the animated series, or reading Red Son, etc.

The introduction of Hypertime in DC basically makes all Elseworlds cannon in a weird sort of way. ANd it basically made the whole concept of the Crisis redundent... but maybe DC is now backpedaling on the whole Hypertime concept since it does take away the impact of the crisis.

[Paul Newell]

How does the Elseworlds stories fit in? Did the Multiverse ever really end? Alexander Luthor had mentioned that he had studied this universe and all others for countless years...I kinda got the impression that meant that he was watching the animated series, or reading Red Son, etc.
When Mark Waid updated the Crisis indexes for the Absolute edition he also included, (named as well), all the Elseworlds as separate Earths.

For example, Kingdom Come happened on "Earth-96".

Buried Alien noticed, however, that Dark Knight Returns wasn't included....My theory is that as "Whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow" is listed as a separate Earth, (Earth-423), that that paves the way for DKR & DKSA to have happened on Earth-1 in its future. :)

[Buried Alien]

Buried Alien noticed, however, that Dark Knight Returns wasn't included....My theory is that as "Whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow" is listed as a separate Earth, (Earth-423), that that paves the way for DKR & DKSA to have happened on Earth-1 in its future. :)

It's a plausible theory. When THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS was released, Earth-One basically *was* DCU Earth since many of the major reboots hadn't occurred yet. I don't know if MAN OF STEEL was underway yet, but BATMAN: YEAR ONE wasn't published until after THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and Perez's WONDER WOMAN wouldn't start up until later still.

Only after the Big Three had been rebooted was the transition from Earth-One to Earth-DCU truly complete.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Paul Newell]

It's a plausible theory. When THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS was released, Earth-One basically *was* DCU Earth since many of the major reboots hadn't occurred yet. I don't know if MAN OF STEEL was underway yet, but BATMAN: YEAR ONE wasn't published until after THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and Perez's WONDER WOMAN wouldn't start up until later still.

Only after the Big Three had been rebooted was the transition from Earth-One to Earth-DCU truly complete.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)
Man of Steel was after DKR. 1987, I think.

The only thing that could blow a hole in my theory is if either of the mini's violated Earth 1 history....I no longer have copies of either so I can't really check. But I think all other "futures" for the characters were cleared out of the way by Waid's list.

[Superboy Sr]

Hypertime was created because of the Crisis of Infinite Earths, when DC "merged" their universe what was going happen to when someone wanted to do say a Batman story set in the 60's?
They could not because of the continuity so that's when DC made Elseworlds, stories that take characters out of their regular settings to places you never would have thought. Elseworlds give writers carte blanche to do anything they want with characters thus you get interesting stories that don't effect the character in the regular DCU.

[Gingold]

Man of Steel was after DKR. 1987, I think.

The only thing that could blow a hole in my theory is if either of the mini's violated Earth 1 history....I no longer have copies of either so I can't really check. But I think all other "futures" for the characters were cleared out of the way by Waid's list.

I think DKR works out okay as an Earth1 story, but Miller's inclusion of the Question and Plastic Man in DKSA makes things a bit more difficult...

[Paul Newell]

Good point about the Question. Plastic Man is OK as it was established that he was on Earth 1 back in the 70's.

[Shellhead]

In a recent issue of JSA, we saw glimpses of scenes from both Kingdom Come and the Nail, during that battle with Mordru.