Confused: When was the Infinite Multiverse restored?

[Crisis]

At first it seemed that the Infinite Multiverse was restored with Convergence because they negated the first Crisis...and within that context of negating it...we just shifted out view from Earth-1 Mostly to The then Main Universe.

Then it seemed like we got confirmation of this in Doomsday Clock but the original Earth-1 is renamed Earth-1985.

Then we got Death Metal....which seems like we yeah this is the real restoration of the Pre-Crisis multiverse plus more....(not sure what the more is).

now with Dark Crisis....it's once again restored...

Can someone explain?

[GreyFox]

* Convergence seems to have been mostly ignored and forgotten. One can perhaps rationalize that Brainiac lied.
* The Multiverse parts from Doomsday Clocks also seem to have been ignored.
* For Death Metal, the main effects seem to have been heroes remembering all the past timelines, and also the creation/revelation of an 'omniverse' of extra multiverses. However, the idea that this omniverse seems to have included the Pre-Crisis multiverse re-created was never explicit (and was shown to be wrong).
* Finally, Dark Crisis 'officially' re-created the Pre-Crisis multiverse, but none of the major Pre-Crisis earths have been shown yet.

[superduperman]

DC has this weird thing where they'll "restore" the infinite multiverse and then kind of forget they did it and then do it again in the next Crisis. It's one of those things where every writer wants to put their own "mark" on the multiverse by claiming they're the ones who restored it. A lot of it stemmed from too many people at the top fighting with each other over what they wanted and who gets to decide what counts. I know Didio had a thing where he would sabotage ideas he didn't like. Whether or not stuff like Earth 52 and Earth 1985 are still around is up for debate. I don't think Convergence was ever meant to be permanent. Waid tried to do this as far back as the late nineties with Hypertime but no one ever used that either. The pattern seems to be that someone comes up with a way to restore it but no one else wants to use it and come up with their own version instead. This is why they need better management at the top. Pick a "restoration" and stick with it. I know they were working on an official "list" a while back that included things like the Super Friends show and Injustice and Superman 78 and Batman 89 being in the same universe. It just seemed so arbitrary.

[ducklord]

At first it seemed that the Infinite Multiverse was restored with Convergence because they negated the first Crisis...and within that context of negating it...we just shifted out view from Earth-1 Mostly to The then Main Universe.

Then it seemed like we got confirmation of this in Doomsday Clock but the original Earth-1 is renamed Earth-1985.

Then we got Death Metal....which seems like we yeah this is the real restoration of the Pre-Crisis multiverse plus more....(not sure what the more is).

now with Dark Crisis....it's once again restored...

Can someone explain?

Doomsday Clock, I think, is sort of the odd man out in this bunch, as it had less to do with the Multiverse, and more to do with the Metaverse. Earth-1985, as I understand it, is the blanket label for a previous incarnation of the DC Metaverse. It encompasses the pre-Crisis state of the multiverse, and has not been explored meaningfully since, well 1985. There are similarly preserved versions of the Metaverse for the Golden Age and the New52 (and maybe others).

At least, that's how I read it.

Of course, in an infinite multiverse, there probably IS a parallel universe that's just like the Earth-1 of the Earth-1985 Metaverse, but it's best not to overthink it

[CaptCleghorn]

DC has this weird thing where they'll "restore" the infinite multiverse and then kind of forget they did it and then do it again in the next Crisis. It's one of those things where every writer wants to put their own "mark" on the multiverse by claiming they're the ones who restored it. A lot of it stemmed from too many people at the top fighting with each other over what they wanted and who gets to decide what counts. I know Didio had a thing where he would sabotage ideas he didn't like. Whether or not stuff like Earth 52 and Earth 1985 are still around is up for debate. I don't think Convergence was ever meant to be permanent. Waid tried to do this as far back as the late nineties with Hypertime but no one ever used that either. The pattern seems to be that someone comes up with a way to restore it but no one else wants to use it and come up with their own version instead. This is why they need better management at the top. Pick a "restoration" and stick with it. I know they were working on an official "list" a while back that included things like the Super Friends show and Injustice and Superman 78 and Batman 89 being in the same universe. It just seemed so arbitrary.

This is pretty much it. DC's been in a standard Crisis mode since 2015's Rebirth. The writer of the month comes up with their own plan which lasts up until someone else changes it.

[jaygon]

The actual reasons are well outlined above.

For fun, I like to interpret the revised continuity as follows:

Convergence took place in the New 52 continuity and once the event had ended, we returned to the continuity of the New 52. Although the New 52 still appeared much the same as it had pre-Convergence, the past of the multiverse had been altered by those heroes who had travelled back in time and prevented the collapse of the Infinite Multiverse at the end of COIE.

Those heroes did not restore the pre-crisis Infinite Multiverse to its original state/structure in the present DCU, but rather prevented its collapse at the point in time in which it had originally happened.

Numerous events/crises subsequently took place in the then-current continuity, culminating in the Flashpoint event which created the New 52 continuity. It is mentioned specifically in Convergence that the core 52 earths of the New 52 Multiverse evolved specifically from 52 of those pre-crisis Infinite Multiverse earths.

It would appear that, during some or many of the crisis events which did occur, the remainder of those infinite earths became cut off from the 52. Whether this happened in a revised version of Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis or during Flashpoint itself is not clear.

The remainder of the pre-crisis Infinite Earths, separated from the now-core 52, became Multiverse-2 and those core 52 earths, as separate from the infinite earths became Multiverse-1.

During the Multiversity event (post-Convergence version) Multiverse-2 was discovered by the Gentry and was reduced to the carcass-state which Pariah eventually discovered. In the original post-COIE continuity there was no carcass/remnants of the destroyed Infinite Multiverse…..it had simply never existed.

As mentioned, DDC dealt with the Metaverse and the archival earths such as Earth-1985 were copies of those original pre-crisis earths and remain unexplored, presumably outside the structure of the multiverse.

The Omniverse, as originally described, may have included an exact copy of the pre-Crisis multiverse but did not physically resurrect the original to its 1985 state. The Omniverse did contain the carcass of the original Multiverse-2 after it had been devoured by the Gentry. The Omniverse may have included the DDC archival earths. It was never explored.


Pariah effectively resurrects Multiverse-2 during Dark Crisis from its carcass state but the core-New 52 earths are also re-inserted/re-created at the centre of the restored Infinite Multiverse making it complete once more, albeit slightly altered on 52 worlds.

[superduperman]

DC always makes these things way more difficult than they need to be. Just have an infinite multiverse and say all previous versions of the DCU are on one of these Earths. Pre-Crisis, post Crisis, New 52, whatever. But there's always this fear that some fans will wonder when "their" version will be the official version again. DC made a lot of editorial mistakes over the last 20 years. They can't undo that. But they can mitigate that by saying "Look, we screwed up. But your favorite universe is still out there somewhere. We probably aren't going back to it anytime soon, but half your collection isn't worthless now either". I think this is the thing that angers fans the most is the idea that they collected all these issues for nothing. I think Johns at least tried to understand this with DDC. Yes, it matters if you bought a bunch of books that aren't canon anymore. Marvel doesn't have this problem.

[Stanlos]

DC has this weird thing where they'll "restore" the infinite multiverse and then kind of forget they did it and then do it again in the next Crisis. It's one of those things where every writer wants to put their own "mark" on the multiverse by claiming they're the ones who restored it. A lot of it stemmed from too many people at the top fighting with each other over what they wanted and who gets to decide what counts. I know Didio had a thing where he would sabotage ideas he didn't like. Whether or not stuff like Earth 52 and Earth 1985 are still around is up for debate. I don't think Convergence was ever meant to be permanent. Waid tried to do this as far back as the late nineties with Hypertime but no one ever used that either. The pattern seems to be that someone comes up with a way to restore it but no one else wants to use it and come up with their own version instead. This is why they need better management at the top. Pick a "restoration" and stick with it. I know they were working on an official "list" a while back that included things like the Super Friends show and Injustice and Superman 78 and Batman 89 being in the same universe. It just seemed so arbitrary.

Which begs the question of just what is it about the Multiverse they like or want?

[CaptCleghorn]

Which begs the question of just what is it about the Multiverse they like or want?

A multiverse allows writers to come up with an alternate Earth at their convenience. Also, if it's an Earth DC is not fond of (like the old school Earth Two), they are free to ignore it completely.

[blunt_eastwood]

None of these stories reconcile with each other, so don't bother trying. You can pick whichever story you want to be canon.

I personally have picked Doomsday Clock because I liked the story, and the metaverse concept was simple to understand, and paid homage to Superman by making him the center of all of the universes.

[D.Z]

It was restored in Dark Crisis.


People misread and misunderstood Convergence.

[Stanlos]

I guess for me, part of the problem is pondering what was wrong with the Post Crisis model of having the one verse spanning out of Crisis and the Elseworlds Imprint to do whatever novel idea whether one-offs, themed annuals or whatever. It was flexible and successful. The most I could find on Why was the zdiDidiot saying he didn't like the Elseworlds getting more buzz than the main continuity

[blunt_eastwood]

People misread and misunderstood Convergence.

Please elaborate on this. I don't think anyone understood Convergence.

[wonder39]

None of these stories reconcile with each other, so don't bother trying. You can pick whichever story you want to be canon.

I personally have picked Doomsday Clock because I liked the story, and the metaverse concept was simple to understand, and paid homage to Superman by making him the center of all of the universes.

DDC made the most sense... New Earths created to house previous continuities when a reality shattering event creates a new continuity.... ( Though to me, it makes sense for new Earths to be created to house the new continuity, leaving the previous intact... But potayto potahto...lol)

It's easy to explain. It makes sense. It preserves the previous and lets the new be created.

All this meta Omni multi hyper dark -a -verse stuff is just verbal mast***"***n.

DC needs to just move on from destroying the multiverse and focus on now.

[wonder39]

Please elaborate on this. I don't think anyone understood Convergence.

Convergence basically said that yes, these worlds existed, but had changed.

So while the Multiverse existed, those realities changed to reflect what was going on currently ( which means basically nothing...lol)

What it should have done was just restore the Multiverse. The proper, original Multiverse.