Earth-89

**Earth-89** is a reality in the multiverse. It is where movies based on Earth-1 superheroes take place.

## History

When movies about Earth-1's superheroes were made, the creators had no idea that in fact these movies too were real, albeit in a universe other than their own. But exist they do. And of course, reflecting the fact that many of Earth-1's superheroes have secret identities, their counterparts on Earth-89 are often different people entirely, with their real names, backstories, and even sometimes personalities being changed.

In total, a dozen movies set on Earth-89 were made and released, to varying levels of critical reception. They were all later released together as a boxed set. The specific films are:

* **The Night Shadow Quadrology (*Night Shadow, Night Shadow II: Wrath of the Wraith, Night Shadow III: Dark City,* and *Night Shadow IV: Dark Triumph)***
* **The American Son Trilogy (*American Son, American Son Returns,* and *American Son: The Struggle for Peace*)**
* **The Bronze Samurai**
* **Comet's Trail**
* **Velocity Vs. Deathstreak**
* **The Dragon and the Devil**
* **The Challengers of Evil**

## Reception

Overall, the movies have received mixed or positive reviews. The first two Night Shadow movies, first two American Son movies, and *Comet's Trail* in particular are well regarded, generally seen as being among the definitive superhero movies. *The Dragon and the Devil* has also been lauded as an excellent example of a multi-national collaboration between American and Chinese filmmakers. Reception to the third Night Shadow movie and *The Bronze Samurai* was more mixed, with many considering the latter a somewhat shallow action film and the former suffering from "third movie curse", though both films have their devoted advocates. The fourth Night Shadow movie though, is widely seen as a solid return to form and a good epilogue for the main trilogy. The third American Son movie is widely regarded as the weakest of the films, but still seen as having a campy charm in its own way. Conversely, the Challengers of Evil movie is lauded as a successful and satisfying culmination of multiple previous films, all of the different superheroes banding together to face a shared threat.

Not all were fond of the movies however, a notable scorner being award-winning film director Marvin Snide, who insisted that the movies were "not true cinema" and likened them to carnival rides.

## Notable Inhabitants

* **American Son (George Jacobs):** Played by Christopher Reeve. Due to American Son's identity and history being publicly known, he and American Beauty bear the most resemblance to their Earth-1 counterparts, with the main differences with them mostly corresponding to their relations with other Earth-89 inhabitants. Even then, their stories closely followed what happened on Earth-1.
* **American Beauty (Jessica Bertoletti):** Played by Catherine Zeta-Jones. Also relatively similar to her Earth-1 counterpart, save that she is depicted as being more receptive to Silver Claw's interest in her, a decision made because the film-makers thought it would add more drama.
* **Night Shadow (Herbert "Herb" Spiegelman):** Played by Dennis Moskowitz (an actor who seems to only exist on Earth-1). Due to Night Shadow carefully guarding his identity, the filmmakers were forced to come up with something on their own (never knowing it was all real on Earth-89). Here, Night Shadow is still a poor Jewish youth from Chicago, but is shown to be initially angrier and more rebellious and directionless than Bobby Blumenthal. He is initially very brutal as a crime fighter before gradually tempering his methods. The decision to make Night Shadow more violent polarized fans and, on Earth-1, those who knew the real Night Shadow, but Campbell's portrayal nevertheless built up a dedicated following, and most critics liked the first two films in any case (but were more divided on the third).
* **The Midnight Dame (Emma Burns):** Played by Jennifer Connelly. Like Night Shadow drastically different from the Earth-1 Midnight Dame, shown here to be a non-Jewish woman named Emma Burns who Herb becomes infatuated with. Initially the filmmakers were unsure whether she would actually become Midnight Dame, but after she got the damsel in distress role two films in a row, it was felt that her becoming Midnight Dame was a necessary move, and is one of the few things about the third film that even its harsher reviewers praised.
* **Silver Claw (Anthony Martin):** Played by Alan Rickman. Closer to his Earth-1 counterpart than most due to some of Silver Claw's true history and motives being known to the public on Earth-1. Nevertheless, there were some differences, such as the changing of his first name to "Anthony" and his having a more intimate relationship with American Beauty.
* **The Wraith (Unknown):** Played by Jeremy Irons. Night Shadow's dapper and well-dressed archenemy, here portrayed as a man whose real name is unknown, as the film-makers felt that being more mysterious with his identity would help to make him more menacing.
* **The Comet (Wayne Freeman):** Played by Jeffrey Wright.
* **Gwei-Long / Devil Dragon (Xiaojiang Feng):** Played by Zhang Ziyi.
* **Senpuu (Hanzo Hattori):**
* **Hauptmann Kipinski:** A sadistic Nazi captain and one of the main villains of the first Night Shadow movie, being in essence Herr Mietusch's counterpart on Earth-89.
* **Velocity (Arnold Palmer):**
* **Deathstreak (Max Donovan):**
* **August Kincaid:**
* **George Spiegelman:** Played by Dustin Hoffman. Herb's father, whose murder serves as a major catalyst for Herb's transformation into Night Shadow.

## Trivia

* The Earth's number is a reference to 1989, the year the Tim Burton Batman movie came out. The release year for the second Night Shadow movie being 1991 is a reference to the real life 1991 superhero movie *The Rocketeer,* which also featured Jennifer Connelly*.*
* The third American Son movie's title and weak reception are references to the infamous fourth Superman movie *Superman IV: The Quest for Peace*
	+ Likewise, Earth-89's American Son being played by Christopher Reeve is a reference to that actor having played Superman, who American Son is a parody of.
* Earth-1's Dennis Moskowitz and Jennifer Connelly formed an "off-camera" relationship over the course of the three movies getting made, leading to them becoming a couple in lieu of Earth-95's Jennifer Connelly, who is married to Paul Bettany.