From: sl859@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: DC Earth Helps... Thanks!
Date: 26 Aug 92 22:14:29 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

************************************************************************
*Hi all ,                                                              *
*	Well here are three responses that were sent directly to me    *
*about the DC Earth for anyone who cares.  I appreciate all the help   *
*sent to me or posted to explain DC's crisis and the earths merge      * 
*thing.  I do think that they did have a crisis and so it looks like   * 
*they chose a good name for the whole fiasco!                          * 
*	Anyway here are the replies...                                 * 
*						wReam...               *
*P.S.  I will probably stick with my comics, it just seems like theres *
*too much to catch up on, and I am not one to hunt for back issues of  *
*anything!                                                             *
*                                                                      *
************************************************************************

>	I know that some of you out there claim that the DC earth crisis
>is easy to understand, and all, but for me who has only two or three DC
>comics in his collection, and the only one who attempted to explain the
>crisis stuff to me was a friend a few years back...  AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!
>... Needless to say I have no idea how it works.  So is there someone out
>there capable of explaining this crisis multi-earth thing to me from the
>ground up, because right now it sounds like a bunch of hog-wash!  Perhaps
>this is a FAQ.  But I have never experienced the DC comic concept (or at
>least had a clue as to how it functioned!)


	This started in the 1960's, when DC decided to account for the fact
that some of its heroes (Superman, Batman, WW) were active in WW II but hadn't
aged, and others (GL, Flash) now had new incarnations.  The explanation was
that parallel worlds existed.  In Earth-1 (the mainstream DC world), heroes
had been around for at most ten yrs and the ~space age" Flash and GL were
current.  In Earth-2, heroes began just before WWII and the older Flash and GL
were resident.  Soon, the Earth-2 team (Justice Society) and the Earth-1 team
(Justice League) were meeting once a year.  

	It was a kludge, but it actually worked quite nicely.  For example, in
"our" world Dick Grayson had to remain a young Robin (remember, this was back
in the olden days) and Clark Kent had to remain single. On Earth-2, however,
Batman was retired and an adult Robin (in a long pants costume) protected
Gotham City,  Clark and Lois were happily married, and a "Mr. and Mrs.
Superman" concerning the Earth-2 couple was a fun little feature in one of the
Superman comics. My favorite was the story in which Clark was offered the
editorship of the Daily Star; he wanted to turn it down (it would take too
much time from being Superman); Lois wanted him to take it ("We could use the
money.").  

	A few years before Crisis, DC brought out two wonderful characters who
were eradicated by the loss of Earth-2.  Power Girl was the Earth-2 Supergirl,
who arrived late on earth because her ship took a wrong turn through a space
warp.  Not the shrill caricature in JLE, this was a person: stubborn,
independent, prone to leap to conclusions but aware she often misjudged
people.  Huntress was the daughter of Batman and a reformed Catwoman, who
became a costumed hero to avenge the murder of her mother (under circumstances
which near-shattered her father).  

	Of course, with the Crisis, these two had to go.  Huntress was killed
and retrocactively reincarnated as a mobster's daughter.  PG was retconned
into an Atlantean, and was never the same since.  

	In fact, Frank Miller's broad "Dark Knight" was predated by the 70's
depiction of an Earth-2 Bruce Wayne, battered and depressed by years of
fighting crime.  Frankly, the earlier version was better.  Earth-2 gave
writers a lot of freedom, as they didn't have to to worry about screwing up
the marketing of icons.  

	In the ~new Earth", JSA existed in the 40's and JLA/I/E in the present
era.  John Ostrander did a fair job of accounting for the two Hawkmen in
"Hawkworld".  Only the present Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman existed,
which is a damn shame as they were a lot more fun with a few decades on them.

Mitchell Maltenfort	Northwestern Unversity	Chicago, Illinois

"Mean, cruel, nasty, paranoid, antisocial... but basically happy."

Internet: mgm@nwu.edu		Bitnet:mitchm@nuacvm.acns.nwu.edu


************REPLY # 2************************

The short version.  There was a golden age of comic books.
Superman, Batman, Hawkman, Flash, Green Lantern.
c. 1950 sales plummet.  all superhero titles except those
fronted by Supes, Bats, and Wonder Woman fail.
c. 1955 Julie Schwartz decides to revive old superheroes in new 
versions.  Barry Allen/Flash, Hal Jordon/Green Lantern etc.
c. 1962 Flash breaks dimensional barriers and travels to
alternate dimension/reality.  He meets Jay Garrick, the
Golden Age Flash,  the golden age heroes live in the other
dimension christened Earth 2, the main earth is Earth 1
Earth Prime is us or workable substitute  The Fawcett
heroes (Shazam etc.) li8ve on Earth-S.
Just a system of alternate worlds. An old sf concept.
c.1985 DC decides system is too complicated.  Crisis
smushes history and dimensions together into one retcon
world.  They keep making changes.  
If this doesn't help, let me know and I'll try again.

--
Ipsa scientia potestas est.   Gravity-it's not just a good idea
22             - Roger Bacon     it's the law. - Sir Isaac Newton

******************REPLY #3 after my reply********************
> Mitchell,
> 	Thanks for the reply.  I am interested in learning specifically
> about Aquaman, and so your explanation is really helpful, when put into
> context with others I have received and read.  Thanks for taking a sec to
> explain it.  If you have anything to tag on feel free to do so because
> after all ...  " Email is Life! "  
> 						wReam...
> 
> P.S.  Waxing philosophical, and running out of wax...
> 
	As far as I know, the Earth-2 Aquaman's only contemporary appearance
was the issue of All-Star Squadron where the crisis finally caught up to the
JSA and he was erased.  He got exactly one panel.

	Thanks for letting me blow off some steam.  I've wandered away from
comics over the years, largely because the imagination left when the money
came in.  Looking back, my favorite stories and characters were Earth-2. 
Well, my comic collection's sold and the comics have sold out, but I still got
my memories.  

-- 

Mitchell Maltenfort	Northwestern Unversity	Chicago, Illinois

"Mean, cruel, nasty, paranoid, antisocial... but basically happy."

Internet: mgm@nwu.edu		Bitnet:mitchm@nuacvm.acns.nwu.edu