Let's Try Again: Tracking the 52 Worlds (and Beyond!)

[Myskin]

The ending isn't meant to be "grim" though. It's a throwback to one of Siegel&Shuster's original ideas for SUPERMAN's origin, before they came up with the "doomed planet Krypton".

Well, it's not precisely happy, though... I mean, in a way there is more hope in the ending of DKR

[Myskin]

Anyway: after this, is there any doubt that Morrison should be considered THE architect of DC Universe? In a way, he already is, but he should have even more artistic freedom than he has.

[Jody Garland]

You've got a point. I'm going to look at the different combinations starting with the Y Axis. I'll also be making some educated guesses with these, so take it with a grain of salt.

Earth-0 and Earth-33 are opposite one another by virtue of being by themselves. They make sense together- the DCU and the real world. It's a simple pairing.
An unknown Earth and Earth-29 (Bizarro World) are paired. I'm going to be honest, I can't imagine what an opposite of Bizarro world would be, especially one that straddles order and chaos.
Earth-45tm (Superdoom) and Earth-2 are opposite one another. It's interesting, but I can't think of a definitive reason why they'd be paired. Maybe because on one Earth, there were no heroes until Superman was made, and on the other the Superheroes that are responsible for the entire genre live, albeit rebooted?
Earth-9 (Tangent) and Earth-34 are opposite one another. No idea for this one, though I wonder if it doesn't have to do with radiation, given that Tangent's world was nuked and Earth-34 is green. Maybe this is the new home of the Atomic Knights, a more disastrous yet brighter take on nukes?
Earth-48 and Earth-1. Zero idea.
Earth-4 (Charelton) and Earth-5 (Fawcett). This one is interesting on a variety of levels. Morrison is doing a recursive allusion with the Charleton world by making it into a Watchmen pastiche. In it, the Peacemaker assassinates the President. The kind of world where a superhero assassinates a politician is very much the opposite of the much brighter world where the Marvel Family live, and which Morrison has described his take on as being Pixar-esque. In addition, the two companies are arguably DC's largest acquisition in terms of companies they've absorbed.
Earth-50 and Earth-36. No ideas on these two, considering the former might not be Wildstorm anymore and the only known thing about the latter is it hosts the Red Runner.
Earth-35 (unknown) and Earth-20 (Pulp). This one is also an unknown, considering the former is at the moment mysterious.
Earth-41 and Earth-17. another unknown.The latter was the Atomic Knight world before Flashpoint.
Earth-31 (Miller) and Earth-20 (Red Son). Already mentioned this one. One probably unintenial part about it is the former is by Miller, the latter Millar.
Earth-39 (Wally Wood?) and Earth-8 (Angor). Some potential here- a world of analogue superheroes vs. a world likely predominantly sci-fi, horror and/or true crime.
Earth-7 and Earth-22 (Kingdom Come). Earth-7 is pretty unknown, so no idea.
Earth-51 (Kirby) and Earth-6 (Stan Lee). This one goes without saying. In addition, both seem to have force fields around them. A result of the New Gods tampering with them?
Earth-37 and Earth-32. Both unknown. The former was the world of Howard Chaykin's Batman Thrillkiller. Maybe this is the Chaykin world Morrison mentioned? Anybody notice 'letter-tones dots' on the Earth?
Earth-26 (Captain Carrot) and Earth-44 (Dino Cop). Makes sense- mammals as funny animals on one, dinosaurs on the other.
Earth-15 and Earth-23 (Celebrity Superheroes). Not sure. The former was a destroyed world in Countdown, and it still looks destroyed here.
Earth-40 (Anti-pulp) and Earth-47 (Dreamworld?). this is an interesting world. Visibly, Earth-40 is dark and monochromatic, Earth-47 is tie-dyed. The former is presumably based on pulp, which originates in the 30s, the latter in 60s. There's probably other ways I'm not even thinking of.
Earth-3 and Earth-16 (Supersons). Both different kinds of analogues? One utopia, the other distopia?
Earth-11 (Genderswapped) and Earth-43 (Nightmare). I have no idea on this one. It's pretty weird.
Earth-12 (DCAU) and Earth-38. Unknown. Earth-38 looks a bitter darker tinged than the animated-looking Earth-12, though.
Earth-18 (Justice Riders) and Earth-19 (Gaslight). Period pieces on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Gritty cityscapes contrast with the dusty American Southwest. Both use steampunk (Earth-18 in Multiversity). Lots of stuff here.
Earth-10 (Nazis) and Earth-42. No idea. Am I the only one who thinks Earth-42 looks almost claymation?
Earth-13 (Magic?) and Earth-21 (New Frontier?). Both guesses on Pre-Flashpoint terms, I've got little to guess about this one.

Hope that's not to much wild mass guessing and meaningless analysis for the thread.

[Myskin]

I don't want to be too rigid on this point, since I don't think that Morrison thought of a "vs" combination for every opposite earths. But IMHO some "combinations" makes more sense if we use the centre of the map (House of Heroes) as the point of reference. For example:
Earth-20 and Earth-40. We already know that.
Earth-2 and Earth-3. They are the most famous of all the parallel earths. Plus, historically speaking, one is the "good" earth while the other one is "evil" (their relationship is similar to the Earth-20/Earth-40 one).
Earth-5 and Earth-10. A good joyful earth against a grim one, plus: they are very popular earths, too, and can't some of Captain Marvel's enemies be considered a parody of nazism?
Since the opposite of Earth-4 is Earth-42, I am wondering if it is some kind of jungle earth (it's very green), the opposite of watchmen's hypertechnological world.

[Jody Garland]

Heck, if we look at all quadrants, Earths 5, 4 and 10 are in the same place, and all were prominent Pre-Crisis worlds folded into Earth-Clutter after Crisis. Maybe Earth-42 is the world of Lady Quark.

[resipsaloquitur]

I've also been wondering for while now if the Earths aren't grouped in pairs, but quads. Every world has an opposite, sure, but they also have some twisted reflections. If we imagine the map folded in four, we wouldn't just have mirrored pairings but four of them. The only exception are the Axis worlds: 14, 0, 33, 29, and 6, 7, 22, and 51.

I am not sure how these quad groupings work yet, as some of the connections might be superficial. For example, Earths 2, 3, 16, and 45 form a possible group. Maybe these Earths all represent various absences of the Silver Age heroes? -2 is the Golden Age where the big heroes died, -3 is the evil counterparts, -16 is the replacement generation, and -45 is no heroes at all?

Another grouping is 4, 5, 10, and 42. Maybe these represent various stages of superhuman control: -5 is a happy world where heroes just save people, -4 is a Watchmen world where heroes exceed their mandate, -10 is a world where heroes are Nazi conquerors, and...nobody knows what 42 is yet.

I think we're onto something here, but I can't quite figure it out yet.

[Myskin]

Well, one thing I would like to know is why the earths are numbered as they are. I mean, it's obvious that they are not using cardinal or ordinal numbers. There doesn't seem to be a real logic behind it. I am wondering if the criterion involves harmonics or quantum physics, but that is beyond my knowledge.

[Clairaudient Freedom Soldier]

Update: Earth-13 is a "goth, perpetual twilight [world] where the Demon leads the Justice League ..."

[Thor-Ul]

Fair enough, I haven't actually gotten to read Red Son yet. Looking at the map again, though, I did notice its opposite the Millerworld, which makes sense, given DKR's Superman.

Also, I really like the idea of adding Quantum Storm to the Speeding Bullets world. I liked a lot of the throwaway characters in Countdown Arena. It was a fun, if mindless, mini.

It was fun as a trainwreck is fun. It had some moments but a also had a lot of contradictions, as an Hal Jordan GL in the Batman Beyond world. There are some ideas than simply must be forgotten/discarded if the whole must have sense.
Add Quantum Storm to a Speeding Bullet world would follow the pattern of this multiverse where different elements of different worlds are put together in a theme world. Same as the Victorian/Steampunk Batman world is going to include elements of others similar themed worlds. Not sure, but has Morrison mentioned he was to put Amazonia's WW and Gaslight Bats together in the same world? Maybe memory is playing me games.
[EDIT]: So now we got clear than Superdemon isn't from e-17 but from e-13. That's better, a little less confusion.

[scary harpy]

Well, one thing I would like to know is why the earths are numbered as they are. I mean, it's obvious that they are not using cardinal or ordinal numbers. There doesn't seem to be a real logic behind it. I am wondering if the criterion involves harmonics or quantum physics, but that is beyond my knowledge.

I also find it interesting that whole numbers are used to label the earths. What is the significance of Earth 0?

[resipsaloquitur]

Ok, I'll update -13 later; editing is hard to do on my phone. Looks like they're keeping -13 as a Vertigoish world, but I won't call it that just yet. Wonder if that's Superdemon's world?

If they keep the "In Darkest Knight" world, they could put Quantum Storm and Super-Bat there. Though something would have to change--maybe Clark and Bruce are both raised by the Waynes, or maybe Ma and Pa Kent are rich Smallvillians who are gunned down by a hood. Meanwhile, Barry Allen crashes into a different set of chemicals which make him Plastic Man, and instead of Steve Trevor crashing on Paradise Island, it's J'onn J'onnz and Diana has to escort him back to Mars.

[scary harpy]

I think 3 is the magic number.

Recall the original three earths that started it all: Earth 2, Earth 1 and Earth 3. Earth 2 was the beginning; Earth 1 was the update and Earth 3 was it’s opposite number. From that humble beginning, the multiverse grew.

Assuming that Earth 0 has some significance that separates it from the others, the other 51 earths can be divided by 3 into sets of 17. What does this mean? Only Grant knows.

[Melwicker]

I wonder if the inhabitants of Earth-0 are aware of our Earth (Earth-33) yet. Or if any of the other Earths are aware of our Earth.

[Myskin]

I also find it interesting that whole numbers are used to label the earths. What is the significance of Earth 0?

I don't think that this depends on Morrison: some details were established years ago, like the fact that the "official" earth is Earth-0 and the numberings of the most popular earths (2, 3, 4, 5, 10 and few more).
But there is no doubt that Morrison decided the numbers of the least important earths (that is, at least 30 of them) and the position on the map. By the way, I am very happy to see that there is not a real hierarchy among the earths, and earth-0 and Earth-33 are NOT at the center of the map.

[Myskin]

It was fun as a trainwreck is fun. It had some moments but a also had a lot of contradictions, as an Hal Jordan GL in the Batman Beyond world. There are some ideas than simply must be forgotten/discarded if the whole must have sense.
Add Quantum Storm to a Speeding Bullet world would follow the pattern of this multiverse where different elements of different worlds are put together in a theme world. Same as the Victorian/Steampunk Batman world is going to include elements of others similar themed worlds. Not sure, but has Morrison mentioned he was to put Amazonia's WW and Gaslight Bats together in the same world? Maybe memory is playing me games.
[EDIT]: So now we got clear than Superdemon isn't from e-17 but from e-13. That's better, a little less confusion.

There was a misunderstanding between Earth-17 and Earth-13 even at the time of Final Crisis and 52 (the Maxi-series). As far as I remember, earth-17 is a postatomic earth (where the Atomic Knights live) and Earth-13 is the Vertigo-like one. I remember that there were more details in one of the special one-shots which came out with Final Crisis, but I don't remember it well (only that SuperDemon came from the planet Kamelot)