Crisis on Infinite Earths FAQ

[ke99]

How come we dont see more than one batman in the ordeal. We see more than one wonder woman, etc., but whule there is definitely more than one batman, we dont see him. Also, why was there only a Superboy represented from Earth Prime, who had an extremely short existence prior? What about the original Superboy? Lastly, how does one tell in Pre-COIE stories if one is reading about Batman or Superman from Earth 1, 2 etc.? And shouldnt the Superman from Earth 1 have no knowledge of Supergirl until COIE? She ostensably only appeared in the original superman continuity.

[Paul Newell]

How come we dont see more than one batman in the ordeal. We see more than one wonder woman, etc., but whule there is definitely more than one batman, we dont see him.

The Batman of Earth-2 was dead at the time of COIE. At one point he appears in a view screen in the background, along with other characters who were dead at the time.

Also, why was there only a Superboy represented from Earth Prime, who had an extremely short existence prior? What about the original Superboy?

Well the original Superboy was the Earth-1 Superman. I presume they thought that introducing the Earth-Prime Superboy was a way of including the character of Superboy without having a time paradox.

Lastly, how does one tell in Pre-COIE stories if one is reading about Batman or Superman from Earth 1, 2 etc.?

They usually were pretty clearly marked when stories happened on Earth-2.

And shouldnt the Superman from Earth 1 have no knowledge of Supergirl until COIE? She ostensably only appeared in the original superman continuity.

She appeared in the Earth-1 continuity, not the original Earth-2 continuity.

[Lorendiac]

Lastly, how does one tell in Pre-COIE stories if one is reading about Batman or Superman from Earth 1, 2 etc.?

They usually were pretty clearly marked when stories happened on Earth-2.

I just want to elaborate on that a bit with some rules of thumb:

1. If the story you are reading was originally published before the late 1950s, then it's usually safe to assume it was set in the world of the "original" Golden Age versions of DC's heroes, meaning the Earth-2 continuity.

2. If it was published just about any time from 1956 onward (the year of the first appearance of Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash), and particularly if it was published after the story "Flash of Two Worlds" in 1961 that first formally introduced the concepts of Earth-1 and Earth-2, then it was usually safe to assume it was set, by default, in the Earth-1 continuity where the "Silver Age" superheroes were the first heroes running around in fancy costumes and attracting public attention.

3. Once Earth-1 had been established as the "default" modern setting for comic books of the 60s, 70s, and early 80s, it was DC's responsibility to specifically warn us in the text if a particular story was actually set on Earth-2, or any other parallel Earth, instead of the "usual" place: Earth-1.

Now, having said that, I have to admit it wasn't always that simple! One of the reasons that COIE seemed like a good idea at the time was that there were all sorts of weird little exceptions and possible contradictions to confuse the issue. For instance, stories about "Superboy" started being published in the late 1940s, but were much later retroactively declared to have all happened on Earth-1. We were told there had never been a costumed crimefighter called "Superboy" in Earth-2 continuity. And some of the stories from the Earth-2 Batman's Golden Age continuity were later referred to as having apparently also happened in the past to the Earth-1 Batman, exactly the same way they happened to his "predecessor" a generation earlier, by sheer coincidence. Greg Saunders, the cowboy-themed hero called the Vigilante in the original Seven Soldiers of Victory in the Golden Age comics, logically should have been born, and raised, and eventually became a WWII-era superhero, on Earth-2. But in a story published in 1980 the Earth-1 Batman met a young superhero called the Swashbuckler (real name: Michael Carter) who claimed to be Greg's nephew. If Greg was born and raised on Earth-2, why was his nephew living in Houston, Texas, on Earth-1? No explanation was offered at the time. (Maybe the writer had forgotten that Greg's nephew would logically only exist on Earth-2, or maybe he just plain didn't care.)

[Paul Newell]

Just to let you know, there was an Earth-1 Vigilante. Off the top of my head, I remember seeing him appear in Justice League of America #144.

[ke99]

thanks a ton for the help everyone, I am trying to get all of this striaght in my head before moving on to reading Infinite crisis start to finish (gulp).
[Edit] I just realized a great deal of my confusion stemmed from my post- crisis continuity understanding.

[InvinciBill]

Eventually I plan on reading COIE, but I have a question. Only using TPBs, would this be the best way to go:

The History of the DC Universe
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 1
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 2
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 3
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 4
Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups Vol. 1
Crisis on Infinite Earths

Are these in the correct order? Are there any TPBs that I'm missing that I should include in this list?

[Paul Newell]

Eventually I plan on reading COIE, but I have a question. Only using TPBs, would this be the best way to go:

The History of the DC Universe
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 1
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 2
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 3
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 4
Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups Vol. 1
Crisis on Infinite Earths

Are these in the correct order? Are there any TPBs that I'm missing that I should include in this list?

I like to read them in this order:

Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups Vol. 1
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 1
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 2
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 3
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 4
Crisis on Infinite Earths
The History of the DC Universe

The team ups volume contains the first Silver Age appearances and the History is the Post-Crisis version of events.

[InvinciBill]

I like to read them in this order:

Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups Vol. 1
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 1
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 2
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 3
Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 4
Crisis on Infinite Earths
The History of the DC Universe

The team ups volume contains the first Silver Age appearances and the History is the Post-Crisis version of events.

Cool - Thanks.

Is there any TPBs I can add to this list?

[Paul Newell]

Cool - Thanks.

Is there any TPBs I can add to this list?

Not that I can think of.

The Crisis on Multiple Earths books are really just background. But enjoyable background. :)

[ke99]

The Batman of Earth-2 was dead at the time of COIE.

Any idea of where when this happened, ie what issues refer to this, or show it happening?

Also, whats the deal with the 3 lex luthors in COIE? I thought there were only the one from golden age and the one from modern superman?

[Green Goblin]

What was the Anti-Monitor's motivation for destroying the multi-verse in the first place?

belive or the Guradians of Owa were responabile for reating him because they wouldn't let him see the start of creation which lead them to forming the manhunters then later the Green Lantern Corp they were also later spilt into faction one faction didn't want anything to do while the other faction want a more direct confrontation with evil and piked kyle ranyer to be the new green latern at the time hope that helps a bit

[DoctorDoom]

Just read this, thanks for the info. And now I know!

[Kara Zor El]

[I]
Also, whats the deal with the 3 lex luthors in COIE? I thought there were only the one from golden age and the one from modern superman?

The other Luthor was from Earth 3 and was a hero married to Lois Lane, he fought the Crime Syndicate. He dies at the begining of COIE but his son Alexander Luthor is sent to the Monitor, and helps defeat the Anti-Monitor, he is also the main badguy in Infinite Crisis and is written to be the doppleganger of Lex Luthor in that story. Which has anoyed many fans but strengthened the story.

[whitey museum]

WONDER WOMAN question:

Ok, so I carefully went through all the questions in this FAQ thread. I'm pretty sure this hasn't already been asked so here goes...

How did the DCU get a Wonder Woman back following COIE? I mean Wonder Woman I was wiped from existence by the Anti-Monitor, while Wonder Woman II was devolved back to clay form.

So in what book, or story arc, in what comic does Wonder Woman get written back into existence, and how?

[Paul Newell]

In Wonder Woman v2 #1 by George Perez. She starts as a cmpletely new character in issue #1.