How I Would Have Solved DC's Big Crisis, Part 1: Leading up to the Crisis

"Worlds will live. Worlds will die. And the DC Universe will never be the same."

Promotional ads for Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Art by George Perez and Dick Giordano; ©1984, 2020 DC

Those were pretty big statements to make, but DC began promoting their first company-wide crossover with tagline in 1984. Crisis on Infinite Earths was the culmination of work begun as a project at least two years earlier as a history of the DC universe. Comics historian Peter Sanderson was hired to read every DC comic ever published as part of that project. What was originally going to be a straightforward DC history soon became two separate projects: Crisis, which would be 12 issues in length with the final two issues being a concise history of the DC universe, and Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe.

The origins of the project are fairly clear. DC editor Len Wein is believed to have answered a fan's letter in a Green Lantern letter column that admitted that DC's continuity was a little messy (I'm paraphrasing), with some stories simply not fitting into DC's known multiverse. I'll admit that there were some inconsistencies. DC's continuity wasn't as simple as Marvel's at that time. But the Marvel universe at that time was less than 25 years old while the DCU was approaching 50.

But truth be told, the DCU wasn't that confusing. There were basically five earths that DC told stories on, and a couple others that made the occasional appearance. Those earths were:

• Earth-One: home of the Justice League of America, the New Teen Titans, the Outsiders, the Doom Patrol, and -- in the future -- the Legion of Super-Heroes
• Earth-Two: home of the Justice Society of America; the Seven Soldiers of Victory; Infinity, Inc., and -- in the past -- the All-Star Squadron
• Earth-Three: home of the Crime Syndicate
• Earth-C: home of Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!
• Earth-C Minus: home of Just'a Lotta Animals
• Earth-S: home of Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family, Shazam's Squadron of Justice and other Fawcett characters, and Kid Eternity (who was originally published by Quality Comics)
• Earth-X: home of the Freedom Fighters, heroes originally published by Quality Comics who migrated to Earth-X from Earth-Two
• Earth-Prime: "our earth," one with no heroes to speak of, though a couple did appear over the years

Did Bob Haney's stories in The Brave and the Bold and World's Finest Comics defy definition? Well, some of them did, such as those in which Sgt. Rock appeared. And how about those Super Sons?

The sergeant's first appearance took place during World War II, which would place the story on Earth-Two, but the yellow oval around the bat on Batman's chest was indication that the story featured the Earth-One Batman. And then there were stories co-starring Sgt. Rock that took place in the present. But Batman also met Kamandi and worked in the daytime when Batman and Detective Comics featured the return of the Creature of the Night aspect of the Batman. Readers generally consigned those stories that didn't really fit to an Earth-B, named for Bob Haney.

So really, did having two Supermen, two Batmen, two Robins, two Wonder Women, etc., muddy the waters that much? Especially considering that when DC reintroduced the multiverse in 2006, there were far more than two or three Supermen, Batmen, or Wonder Women?

But I'm getting ahead of myself . . ..

Next: The Crisis!