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During the "Silver Age" of DC Comics (1956 onward I think) they started doing new versions of heroes like the Flash and the Green Lantern. It was made clear that these weren't just a new generation, but that they read about the originals in comic books. So the "Golden Age" heroes (from the late 30s onward) weren't just older, they existed in some kind of fictional alternate dimension.
In a groundbreaking crossover story, probably called "Crisis on Earth-Two", it was discovered that the Flash could vibrate thru into the other universe and interact with the earlier generation of heroes.
The older dimension, with timeless illogicality, was Earth-Two. The new one was Earth-One.
Escapades...ensued.
There were a number of other alternate earths introduced, including off the top of my head Earth-3 where the heroes were villains (Owlman, Ultraman, Power Ring) ... and this confusing continuity carried on until,
in 1986,
DC Comics decided to clean it up with a final CRISIS ON INFIINITE EARTHS that basically destroyed all the worlds but one, and made it that most things you'd ever read in comics "never happened".
From 86, DC worked with a post-Crisis, supposedly streamlined universe, broken only by experiments like Morrison's Animal Man series.
Until (?) 1999, when in response to fan pleas for a return to the old multiverse, they introduced "Hypertime"... a pseudo-science device that meant the previous universes still existed and could be accessed in special circumstances.
I haven't really read DC comics much since 2000 so I don't know how much this device was used.
That's my take on it anyway, clearly rushed and without references but basically correct I hope. |
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