Media Release — With ACTION COMICS #9, two acclaimed guest artists will explore an alternate Earth and the story of its Kryptonian protector. Multiple Eisner Award-winning artist Gene Ha will be a guest artist for the primary plot, penned by regular series writer Grant Morrison. And fresh from his recent work on THE SHADE miniseries, artist Cully Hamner will illustrate the issue’s back-up story, written by Sholly Fisch.
Parallel worlds come to the forefront of DC COMICS-THE NEW 52 “Second Wave,” with titles such as EARTH 2 and WORLDS’ FINEST exploring the adventures of heroes on alternate Earths. ACTION COMICS #9 sets up the multiverse with a standalone story of a Superman from another Earth, who must fight a monster from yet another parallel world. But this isn’t just any monster; it’s a Superman surrogate known as Superdoom, twisted into an unstoppable agent of evil. The back-up story will also feature an adventure of this alternate Superman, set on his parallel Earth. Regular series artist Rags Morales will return for ACTION COMICS #10 in June. End Media release
Well by the look of the media release and the fact that DC is bringing back the Justice Society in Earth 2 and Worlds Finest featuring Power Girl and the Huntress the Multiverse is alive and well at DC. That is something that fans where wondering and DC is answering with new and different versions of there heroes and villains. DC seems to write stories about the multiverse more than any other comic book publisher. Marvel has the two Universes that it mainly deals with the regular Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe. While they occasionally use the concept of multiple universes they tend to deal with these two. Some Marvel comics refer to the main Marvel Universe as Earth 616.
Most references to Earth-616 appear in Marvel UK titles, in Excalibur, or in Marvel reference texts such as the guide to Alternate Universes (2005). In addition, there are a number of other references to Earth-616: In Marvel 1602 #6 (March 2004), Uatu the Watcher refers to the universe as Earth-616. In Marvel Knights 4 #15 (April 2005), Earth-616 is mentioned. In Uncanny X-Men #462 (September 2005), Earth-616 was mentioned also. There were other references also but Marvel tends to not elaborate on the mulitivese and some in Marvel don’t like the designation of Earth-616.
Former Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada and Executive Editor Tom Brevoort have each stated their dislike for the term Earth 616.
“I can tell you for sure that those of us actually working on the books virtually never use the term — and I kind of wince inside whenever I hear somebody use it. It just sounds so stupid to my ear, and so counter to the kind of mindset we try to foster in regard to the stories we create and the thinking we try to employ.” Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort.
“I never use it, I hate the term pure and simple and agree with Tom’s assessment of it. I can’t remember ever hearing it in the office and only really see it used online for the most part. I think the term really came into vogue when the Ultimate Universe came into prominence, but in my world, the language and distinctions are simple, there is the Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe. Anything other than that reeks of all that DC Earth 1, Earth 2, Earth Prime stuff which I’ve never really taken to, but then again, I got into DC when they got rid of all that stuff so it was from and for a different era than my own. ” Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada.
Now DC on the other hand has a clear history of trying to fix continuity issues by creating Crisis series to fix there problems. Crisis on Infinite Earths (April 1985 – March 1986) was inspired by earlier crossover stories involving the multiple parallel Earths of the Multiverse, such as “Crisis on Earth-Two” and “Crisis on Earth-Three”, but instead of lasting two to five issues and involving members from many superhero teams from many parallel worlds, it involved virtually every significant character from every parallel universe in DC’s history. It in turn inspired the titles of four subsequent DC crossover series: Zero Hour: Crisis in Time (1994), Identity Crisis (2004), Infinite Crisis (2005–2006), and Final Crisis (2008).
Now after Flashpoint 2011 they created The New 52 and did a reboot of all things and we are in the process of finding out what that means to the DC Comic world of the present. Writers and editors are creating all things new and some trends of the old DC remain the same. The multiverse will be a main part of the New DC 52 and the DC comic creators will have to do it the DC way and try to please a very competitive market and comic reading public. I feel change is good and see many changes in the direction of the comic world, but there are distinct differences in that don’t seem to change. Marvel is having the same challenges in pleasing the entertainment public and they will change also but there will hopefully always be a Marvel way of doing comics. That is what choice is all about. Competition makes things better and we vote with our pocket book. Tell me what you think about the New 52 and Marvel because you are part of the future in comics. Stay tuned comic faithful for more. 🙂 Walt