Is the Metaverse the new Hypertime? *Doomsday Clock #10 spoilers*

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Back in the late 1990s, Grant Morrison and Mark Waid tried to introduce a new way of approaching continuity that incorporated all prior published comics into something they called Hypertime. The general idea was that the mainline continuity was a giant river that ebbed and flowed through Hypertime, but that sometimes that main river would change course and split off to form separate streams that could flow back into that river depending upon the needs of the story being told. When Morrison, Waid, Millar & Peyer’s Superman Now! proposal was unceremoniously shot down by DC Editorial, Morrison & Waid soon jumped ship to Marvel, while Millar went off to Wildstorm, and the whole Hypertime concept was largely forgotten about.



Morrison eventually returned to DC and applied the main principle of Hypertime to his Batman run, which incorporated long ignored elements from all of Batman’s history. Since then, more and more DC creators have been using this “Everything happened, it’s all canon” philosophy to continuity, most significantly Bendis with Superman and King on Batman, using the chaotic post-Rebirth continuity as an excuse to use elements from all parts of these characters’ long and often contradictory histories.

Geoff Johns has taken that one step further with the latest issue of Doomsday Clock by giving this all encompassing view of DCU history a new name, the Metaverse. This Metaverse is ever changing and updating itself to stay vital, even to the point of defending itself against the attacks of Dr. Manhattan by releasing Wally West from imprisonment and merging the Pre-Flashpoint Lois & Clark with their New 52 counterparts.

What do you think p? Is the Metaverse simply a rebranded Hypertime or is it something else?

[Man_of_Tomorrow]

The basic purpose for both is the same because all the creators want pretty much the same thing.... To have all the toys available and to be able to use the stories they grew up with.

[kjn]

Didn't the Metaverse concept also introduce fan and market expectations as a feedback system?

[baltiroo]

I think the concept of metaverse is quite interesting and tying it to Superman is quite an easy mark to make it work. In our review for Doomsday Clock #10 we talk a bit about how that impacts the story moving forward.