A Brief History of the DC universe, very brief

Crisis on Infinite Earths is perhaps the ultimate DC story of all time.  Or perhaps not.  It was designed to wipe away years of continuity in the universe and effectively rewrite it. To give the creators a blank slate by getting rid of story elements that didn’t appeal to new readers.  It wasn’t the first DC reboot and of course it wasn’t the last. 

DC comics continuity began in 1938 with Action Comics #1.  It introduced the first modern superhero, Superman (pretty obvious with the name).  Since he was introduced several more superheroes were created and a Golden Age of Comics began.  Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, The Sandman, The Atom, and etcetera followed.  They enjoyed a popular following until  superherocomics died of in the 40s with only Batman and Superman to carry on the torch (the stories that followed were rather campy and should not be mentioned here but were sadly enjoyed by Grant Morrison).

In the late 50’s DC tried again with superheroes and said hey let’s just take a name like the Flash and create a whole new hero.  Same powers as the previous Flash, but whole new name and look.   Barry Allen was born and so was the Silver Age of Comic Books.   The Green Lantern was also restarted with Hal Jordan (Is Hal short for Halbert?)  The Justice League followed, Batman became a TV star (though incredibly goofy), and Superman became a great movie, just  don’t watch  numbers 3 and 4 as your mind will hurt.

So flash forward to 1985 and DC had several Earths and storylines going.  There was Earth-1 with it’s Silver Age heroes.  Earth-2 and the Golden Age continuing and it’s heroes in their geriatric years.  There was Earth-3 with a bunch of villians running amok.  Earth- well you get the picture.  It was pretty hard to follow. 

Also too many Supers. There was Superman, Supergirl, Superboy, Superdog, Supercat, Superhorse, and I think there was Supermonkey at one point.  There was also the original Superman from the Golden Age.  So lots of Supers, which made Superman looked like a face in the crowd.  A crowd that could easy destroy you without batting an eye. 

So for the 50th Anniversary of DC, the editorial staff decided to blow continuity up and start anew.  What they gave us was a crossover to start all other crossovers, Crisis on Infinite Earths.  Also a lot of people were killed, but we’ll get to that later.

Coming soon:  A review of Crisis on Infinite Earths.