Earth-Two

Infobox comics location
no

imagesize=
caption=
publisher=DC Comics
debut="Flash" #123 (1961)
creators=Gardner Fox
dimension=y
residents=Justice Society of America
Seven Soldiers of Victory
All-Star Squadron
Infinity, Inc.
races=Humans
locations=
subcat=
altcat=Earth-Two
sortkey=*

Earth-Two is a fictional universe appearing in American comic book stories published by DC Comics. First appearing in "The Flash" #123 (1961), Earth Two was created to explain how Golden Age versions of characters such as The Flash could appear in stories with their Silver Age counterparts. Its continuity includes DC Golden Age heroes, including the Justice Society of America, whose careers began at the dawn of World War II, concurrently with their first appearances in comics. Earth-Two, along with the four other surviving Earths of the DC Multiverse, are merged into one in the 1985 miniseries "Crisis on Infinite Earths".

History

Flash of Two Worlds

Characters from DC Comics were originally suggestive of each existing in their own world, as superheroes never encountered each other. However, this was soon changed with alliances being formed between certain protagonists. Several publications, including "All-Star Comics" (publishing tales of the Justice Society of America), "Leading Comics" (publishing tales of the Seven Soldiers of Victory) and other comic books introduced a "shared-universe" among several characters during the 1940s until the present day.

Alternative reality Earths had been used in DC stories before, but were usually not referred to after that particular story. Also most of these alternative Earths were usually so vastly different that no one would confuse that Earth and its history with the so called real Earth. That would change when the existence of another reliable Earth was established in a story titled "Flash of Two Worlds" ["The Flash" (vol. 1) #123 (1961)] in which Barry Allen, the modern Flash later referred to as Earth-One (the setting of the Silver Age stories) first travels to another Earth, accidentally vibrating at just the right speed to appear on Earth-Two, where he meets Jay Garrick, his Earth-Two counterpart.

Superman, Kal-L is the first costumed superhero to surface on Earth-Two. Most of his history is based on his initial appearance, ignoring later Golden Age and early Silver Age history. In order to distinguish him from the primary version of the character, this Superman is called "Kal-L", using the spelling of Superman's Kryptonian name in his early appearances. He was specifically introduced as an Earth-Two character in "Justice League of America" #73 (1969). Most superheroes from the Golden Age later followed this trend.

Destruction

"Crisis on Infinite Earths" (1985-1986) was an effort by DC Comics to clean up their continuity, resulting in the multiple universes combining into one. Since then, a handful of characters originating from Earth-Two have consistently remained part of the merged Earth, including Power Girl, Jay Garrick, and Alan Scott. Superman and Lois Lane from Earth-Two, Superboy from Earth Prime, and Alexander Luthor, Jr. from Earth-Three were transported into a ghost-like "paradise dimension" tangential to the new universe.

Following the end of the known Multiverse, more alternate realities were discovered. Even though Earth-Three was destroyed in the Anti-Monitor's anti-matter wave attacks, a new Crime Syndicate (called the Crime Syndicate of Amerika rather than the old America) developed in the antimatter universe of Qward which was far larger than the Earth-Three group. After the Kingdom event, Hypertime and divergent realities were revealed but never supposed to be accessed as stated in the Zero Hour event and later revealed when a directly parallel Flash (Walter West aka the "Dark Flash") entered the mainstream DC Universe and threatened to destroy it. These alternate realities are usually addressed as "Elsewhere" and "Elseworld" stories.

Infinite Crisis

Kal-L, Lois Lane, Superboy-Prime, and Alexander Luthor returned during "Infinite Crisis". Unknown to Superman, Luthor's plan was to resurrect the Multiverse. He wanted to mix and match elements from each reality to create a "perfect world." The fallout of the conflict brought the short lived return of Earth-Two and the deaths of Superman, Lois Lane and Luthor Jr. of Earth-Three. It is unclear what happened to the Wonder Woman of Earth Two. Inexplicably, Earth-Two was the only returning world that was devoid of people, except the Justice Society, Superman, and Lois. The world appeared to be new and recently manufactured, instead of completely resurrected.

Before their "deaths," each felt they were being pulled somewhere.

Earth-Two characters

The following is a list of Earth-Two superheroes¹ that have an Earth-One counterpart.

fnb|1Jim Corrigan of Earth-Two was a murdered police detective who served as the human host for the Spectre. His Earth-One counterpart was a Metropolis police officer who often assisted "Daily Planet" cub reporter Jimmy Olsen and superhero Black Lightning.

fnb|2During the 1970s and 1980s, the series "The Brave and the Bold" published a number of stories in which Wildcat teamed up with a character who appeared to be the Batman of Earth-One. In each of these stories, it was apparent that the two characters were from the same Earth. Since the JSA's Wildcat was clearly from Earth-Two, it was suggested that these stories took place on "Earth-B", in a reality separate from DC's mainstream continuity. However, subsequent appearances in other titles verified that the Wildcat from "The Brave and the Bold" was indeed from Earth-One, and that his appearances in "B&B" took place on Earth-One as well.

fnb|3A number of villains had counterparts on Earth-One, including The Joker, The Penguin, Two-Face, The Toyman, The Prankster, etc. Generally speaking, the older Earth-Two versions were phased-out or incorporated into their younger, Earth-One versions following "Crisis on Infinite Earths"
.

Unique features

In the universe of which Earth-Two resides, Quebec was an independent nation autonomous from Canada, South Africa had abolished apartheid sooner, and the Atlantean countries of Poseidonis and Tritonis were ruled by a queen, not a king (along with its inhabitants displaying surface dweller features and no capacity for underwater survival, as the Atlantis continent had been raised).

In addition, masked crimefighters are introduced decades earlier than in other universes later identified within DC Comics, and these participated in such historic conflicts as World War II. Franklin Delano Roosevelt founded both the Justice Society of America and the All-Star Squadron. Other events taking place decades earlier include the destruction of Krypton and the advent of advanced technology including interstellar transportation and time travel. Contrasting with Earth-One's 30th century, there is no superheroic organization such as the Legion of Super-Heroes in existence during that time period.

Thousands of years ago, the Guardians of Earth-One's Universe expelled the vast majority of magic from their universe, sending it to Earth-Two's. This resulted in a predominance of magic and a weakening of scientific laws within Earth-Two's universe.

Major Earth-Two events

ilver Age and Bronze Age

*"The Flash" (vol. 1) # 123 (1961)- "The Flash of Two Worlds" Barry Allen meets Jay Garrick; First appearance of Earth-Two.
*"Justice League of America" #55 (1967) - First appearance of Richard Grayson; Robin is initiated into the Justice Society following Batman's retirement.
*"Justice League of America" #73 (1969) - First appearance of Kal-L.
*"Justice League of America" #82 (1970) - First appearance of Earth-Two Batman.
*"All Star Comics" # 58 (January/February 1976) - First appearance of Power Girl.
*"All Star Comics" # 69 (December 1977) - First appearance of Helena Wayne.
*"Adventure Comics" #462 (April 1979) - The death of Batman.
*"Justice League of America" #171 (October 1979) - Mister Terrific (Terry Sloane) is murdered.
*"Wonder Woman" #300 - First appearance of Lyta Trevor, later to become Fury of Infinity, Inc.; revelation that Wonder Woman abandoned her secret identity after marrying Steve Trevor.
*"All-Star Squadron" #25 (September 1983) - First appearance of Infinity, Inc.
*"The Brave and the Bold" #200 (July 1983) - Final appearance of the Earth-Two Joker.
*"America vs. The Justice Society" #1-4 (January-April 1985) - Based upon entries from the diary of the deceased Batman, the World War II-era members of the Justice Society stand accused of being Nazi agents, and are placed on trial for treason. This limited series recounts the entire history of the JSA prior to 1985.

Crisis on Infinite Earths

*"Crisis on Infinite Earths" (1985):
**The destruction of the multiverse, including Earth-Two and the first appearance of "new" Earth.
**Infinity Inc. #27, (October 1985) - Earth-Two survivors Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor live on Mount Olympus as immortals.
**Earth-Two survivors Kal-L & Lois Lane-Kent leave for an unknown paradise dimension.
**Robin and Huntress die in the final conflict in "Crisis on Infinite Earths "#12, and are erased from existence and the memories of the final surivivors of the "Crisis on Infinite Earths".
**Psycho-Pirate remains on the new Earth. He is one of the few who remembers the multiverse. He is admitted to an insane asylum on New Earth.
*"All-Star Squadron" #60 (July 1986) and "Legend of Wonder Woman" #4 (August 1986) - Mekanique and the goddess Aphrodite, who have been using their powers to hold back the full effects of the Crisis for their own purposes, allow the Crisis' reality-changing effects to take hold. All characters except the Psycho-Pirate lose their memories of pre-Crisis history. The Earth-2 Aquaman, Batman, Green Arrow, Huntress, Robin, Speedy, and Wonder Woman all cease to exist, along with all memory of their existence.

Post-Crisis

*Power Girl remains, but she is retconned into an Atlantean and her memories of her Earth-Two existence are erased.
*Hippolyta Trevor (Fury) is also retconned in the new history as she is no longer the daughter of the Earth-Two Wonder Woman, but rather the daughter of Helena Kosmatos.
*"The Kingdom" (1999) - First appearance of Kal-L post-"Crisis". Hypertime and divergent timelines are revealed to still exist by Rip Hunter.
*"Infinite Crisis" (2005-2006) - Earth-Two returns.
**The return and deaths of Kal-L and Lois Lane Kent, and disappearance of the Earth-Two Wonder Woman. The final words of each mention they are being drawn somewhere. Kal-L also says "They're still out there."
**Power Girl's origin as an Earth-Two survivor revealed.
*"JSA" - In the aftermath of the events of "Infinite Crisis", the Earth-Two Batman is encountered as a ghost by members of the current Justice Society ("JSA" #85, 2006). To date, the pre-Crisis Robin, Catwoman, and the Huntress have not made appearances.

Post- 52 version

At the end of the comic book crossover series "Infinite Crisis", the realigned world created is called "New Earth" (which is also known as "Earth-1") In the final issue of the later series "52", it is revealed that 52 duplicate worlds have been created and all but New Earth have been altered from the original incarnation.

It made its first appearance in a single panel of "52" Week 52 where it resembled the pre-Crisis Earth-Two, where a newspaper article says that this world's Superman and Power Girl are missing. This reflects Earth-Two Superman's death in Infinite Crisis, and the revelation during Infinite Crisis that Power Girl came from Earth-Two.

Recently, the Flashes of New Earth (Jay Garrick and Wally West) briefly glimpsed this world with Robin and Huntress in action (during their travel with the Cosmic Treadmill) and Monarch selected Jay Garrick of this earth (amongst others) in the .

Based on comments by Grant Morrison, this alternate universe is not the pre-Crisis Earth-2. [cite web
url = http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=111900
title = "THE 52 EXIT INTERVIEWS: GRANT MORRISON"
accessdate = 2007-05-12
last = Brady
first = Matt
date = 2007-05-08
publisher = Newsarama]

In the "Justice Society of America Annual #1" (July 2008), by Geoff Johns and Jerry Ordway, Power Girl travels to Earth-2, which appears similar to the pre-crisis Earth-Two. However, in this world Batman only recently died, while in the original Earth-Two story line he died in 1979. This is, in fact, one of the multiple Earths created during the 52 story line in which Mr. Mind altered the multiple realities of the DC universe, but from the perspective of its inhabitants it was never destroyed in the original "Crisis", and was the sole Earth in existence until the "Infinite Crisis". Power Girl initially believes she is home at least (the history of the modern and classic Earth-2 being nearly the same), but Earth-2's native Power Girl arrives and declares her an impostor, making the "Power Girl", whoemigrated from New Earth, not a part of this Earth and considered high priority to JSI. [ [http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080623-JSAOrdway.html Jerry Ordway - Traveling Back to DC's Earth 2] , Newsarama, June 23, 2008]

Power Girl, still on the run, seeks the help of Michael Holt. On Earth-2, his wife never died with his unborn child, Holt was never driven to near-suicide, and he was never inducted into the JSA, opting instead for an academical career as the foremost researcher on the parallel universes theory.

References