The different Earths need to be divided

[Jim Kelly]

We still have a problem if we can't make a distinction between the different continuities and we have to waste time trying to distinguish one version of an Earth from another.

Even though Hypertime manufactured a mechanism for changing continuity on one Earth, Mark Waid still gave us the concept of the Kingdoms and we were shown that there's a great big Multiverse out there filled with possibilities.

We still have to have a way of dividing up those possible Earths that doesn't leave us feeling very confused. I liked Hypertime but I think the reason it failed to take off was because it's too difficult. My visual metaphor for Hypertime is steel wool--that's what it looks like to me. If you could pull the strands of steel wool apart and straignten them, then you'd see clear lines, but they're all bundled together and it's hard to tell one strand fom the other.

[Dataweaver]

I disagree with the steel wool analogy. At the heart of Hypertime is the notion of a dynamic multiverse, with new worlds constantly coming into existence, transforming, or ceasing to be. More recently, Morrison has likened it to champagne bubbles; again, the picture is of a dynamic, ever-changing environment rather than a static one. And that dynamism is what makes it hard to catalog.

I agree with Glenn Simpson that what's needed for a catalog is a two-axis system: one axis to identify the era, and a second axis to identify which world in that era. That's what my versioning model is intended to provide: v0 is the Golden Age; v1 is the original Multiverse; v2 is the post-Crisis/pre-Flashpoint Multiverse; and v3 is the post-Flashpoint Multiverse. Each has its own labeling scheme, with v2 and v3 mostly aligning with each other while v1 only somewhat aligns with the others. That can't be helped.

[Jim Kelly]

The steel wool analogy is the one that's in my head and it would be hard to remove it. It's stuck there. I don't expect other people to use it--I'm just explaining the concept as it came to me when I read it in those books back in 1999 (or thereabouts). The way that Mark Waid explained the lines of continuity folding over each other and going back and forward in time and coming around again--that's the image that came into my head. Some people get lynxes, others get light bulbs, I got a darned bundle of steel wool.

[colonyofcells]

Maybe the hypertime concept will be used again to explain the 3 Jokers and the 3 pairs of Lois and Clark : 1. superwoman and powerless Clark, 2. pre flashpoint Lois, Clark and Jon, 3. new 52 Lois and dead superman.

[Jim Kelly]

Before the Crisis, they would just have Green Lantern or the Spectre do something and then what happened is just an illusion and now everybody remembers things different. Or Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptlk have assumed the identities of the Catwoman and the Black Flame who have assumed the identities of Batgirl and Supergirl---because those magical imps were always sweet transvestites from transexual 5th dimensia.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.