Earth-Two

Earth-Two is a fictional universe appearing in American comic book stories published by DC Comics. First appearing in The Flash #123 (1961), Earth-Two was created to explain how Silver-Age (Earth-One) versions of characters such as the Flash could appear in stories with their Golden Age counterparts. This Earth-Two continuity includes DC Golden Age heroes, including the Justice Society of America, whose careers began at the dawn of World War II, concurrently with their first appearances in comics. Earth-Two, along with the four other surviving Earths of the DC Multiverse, are merged into one in the 1985 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Flash of Two Worlds
Flash v1 123.jpg #123 (September 1961) Characters from DC Comics were originally suggestive of each existing in their own world, as superheroes never encountered each other. This was soon changed with alliances being formed between certain protagonists. Several publications, including All Star Comics (publishing tales of the Justice Society of America), Leading Comics (publishing tales of the Seven Soldiers of Victory) and other comic books introduced a "shared universe" among several characters during the 1940s until the present day. Alternative-reality Earths had been used in DC stories before, but were usually not referred to after that particular story. Most of these alternative Earths were usually so vastly different that no one would confuse that Earth and its history with the so-called real Earth. That would change when the existence of another reliable Earth was established in a story titled "Flash of Two Worlds" in which Barry Allen, the modern Flash later referred to as Earth-One (the setting of the Silver Age stories) first travels to another Earth, accidentally vibrating at just the right speed to appear on Earth-Two, where he meets Jay Garrick, his Earth-Two counterpart. He claims Gardner Fox's dreams were tuned into Earth-Two. Superman "Kal-L" is the first major reliable costumed superhero to surface on Earth-Two, discounting earlier part-time heroes such as Dr. Occult. Most of the following costumed mystery-men history is based on the Earth-Two Superman's initial appearance, where these previously independent operating heroes begin to reliably interact. In order to distinguish him from the later primary version of the character, this Superman is called "Kal-L", using the spelling of Superman's Kryptonian name in his early appearances. He was specifically introduced as an Earth-Two character in Justice League of America'' #73 (1969). Most superheroes from the Golden Age later followed this trend of operating publicly, while wearing distinctive costuming and interacting in a largely shared universe. The primary characters of Superman and Batman still largely worked independent of team environments.
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Infinity, Inc., a group made up of the children and heirs of the Justice Society, was introduced in All-Star Squadron #25 (September 1983). There was an eponymous comics series starring the group, which ran from March 1984 through June 1988.

Destruction: Crisis on Infinite Earths
Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985–1986) was an effort by DC Comics to clean up their continuity, resulting in the multiple universes combining into one. Since then, a handful of characters originating from Earth-Two have consistently remained part of the merged Earth, including Power Girl, Jay Garrick, and Alan Scott. Superman and Lois Lane from Earth-Two (along with Superboy from Earth Prime, and Alexander Luthor, Jr. from Earth-Three) were transported into a ghost-like "paradise dimension" tangential to the new universe.

Following the end of the known Multiverse, more alternate realities were discovered. Even though Earth-Three was destroyed in the Anti-Monitor's anti-matter wave attacks, a new Crime Syndicate (called the "Crime Syndicate of Amerika") developed in the antimatter universe of Qward, which was very different in background and power base from the pre-Crisis Earth-Three group, though same in the number of members. After the Kingdom event, Hypertime and divergent realities were revealed, but never supposed to be accessed, as stated in the Zero Hour event. They were later revealed when a directly-parallel Flash (Walter West aka the "Dark Flash") entered the mainstream DC Universe and threatened to destroy it. These alternate realities are usually addressed as "Elsewhere" and "Elseworld" stories.

Infinite Crisis
Kal-L, Lois Lane-Kent, Superboy-Prime, and Alexander Luthor returned during Infinite Crisis. Unknown to Kal-L, Luthor's plan was to resurrect the pre-Crisis Multiverse. He wanted to mix and match elements from each reality to create a "perfect world". The fallout of the conflict brought the short-lived return of an Earth-Two copy and the deaths of Kal-L, Lois Lane-Kent and Luthor Jr. of Earth-Three. It is unclear what happened to the aged Diana Trevor, the Earth-Two Wonder Woman, though she faded from her ghostly existence. Inexplicably, Earth-Two was the only returning world that was devoid of most people, except the Justice Society, Kal-L, and his wife Lois Kent. This world was a copy, new and recently manufactured by Alexander Luthor, Jr. of pre-Crisis Earth-Three, instead of resurrected. This copy Earth-Two was recombined with the primary Earth to form the primary DC reality termed as "New Earth".

Post-52 version
At the end of the Infinite Crisis limited series, the realigned world is called "New Earth". In the final issue of the 52 weekly series, it is revealed that fifty-two duplicate worlds have been created and all but New Earth have been altered from the original incarnation. The post-Crisis Earth-2 made its first appearance in a single panel of 52 Week 52 where it resembled the pre-Crisis Earth-Two, where a newspaper article says that this world's Superman and Power Girl are missing. The Flashes of New Earth (Jay Garrick and Wally West) briefly glimpsed this world with Robin and Huntress in action (during their travel with the Cosmic Treadmill as shown in Justice Society (vol. 3) #11) and Monarch selected Jay Garrick of this Earth (amongst others) in a Multiversal arena tournament. Based on comments by 52 co-writer Grant Morrison, this alternate universe is not the pre-Crisis Earth-Two.

This separation between the pre-Crisis Earth-Two and post-Crisis Earth-2 is formally established in Justice Society of America Annual #1 (2008) with a story titled "Earth 2, Chapter One: Golden Age", where the New Earth Power Girl arrives on post-Crisis Earth-2. Thinking that she has had her most longing desire fulfilled of "returning home" to her long destroyed source reality of pre-Crisis Earth-Two somehow by Gog, Power Girl crash lands unconscious on the closest parallel of the 52 Multiverse, post-Crisis Earth-2, which appears similar to the pre-Crisis Earth-Two. She is found by the post-Crisis Earth-2 Huntress, who thinks her to be her long-missing best friend, the Power Girl native to this world. In this new reality, the Justice Society of America has merged with Infinity, Inc. and is now known as Justice Society Infinity. Initially, Power Girl believes she has returned home, until the missing post-Crisis Earth-2 Power Girl reappears and declares that the other Power Girl is an impostor and has caused the disappearance of the post-Crisis Earth-2 Superman which results in the post-Crisis Earth-2 Power Girl and the Justice Society Infinity to go after the New Earth Power Girl.

The Power Girl of New Earth recruits the post-Crisis Earth-2 Michael Holt, who is a physics professor and father and has never become a costumed hero, to help her return to her source Earth. Holt constructs a device similar to the Cosmic treadmill used by Barry Allen to open a portal to New Earth. The Power Girl of New Earth returns home, followed by the Justice Society Infinity, who kidnap her and take her back to post-Crisis Earth-2. During the confrontation, Green Lantern and Jade are initially confused when they see each other, as the post-Crisis Earth-2 Jade's father, Alan Scott, is dead, and New Earth's Jade is dead as well. The JSI interrogate Power Girl for information on the post-Crisis Earth-2 Superman's whereabouts. The post-Crisis Earth-2 Power Girl assumes that the Superman the New Earth Power Girl said was dead was the post-Crisis Earth-2 Superman (rather than Kal-L who was killed by Superboy-Prime) and that the New Earth Power Girl had killed him. The Justice Society of New Earth arrives to stop her torture. Starman reveals that the re-creation of the Multiverse led to the creation of a Power Girl and Superman native to this new universe, post-Crisis Earth-2 and that the post-Crisis Earth-2 Superman is still alive. The Power Girl of New Earth then returns home along with her Justice Society but with no apology from her counterpart nor from the post-Crisis Earth-2 Huntress for their actions against her.

The New 52
The Earth-2 concept has been revived as part of the publisher's The New 52 event, following another reboot of the DC Multiverse. The universe is covered in two series; Worlds' Finest, which focuses on the adventures of the Huntress and Power Girl on New Earth and which is currently (as of 2013) written by Paul Levitz, and Earth 2, written by James Robinson, which features the formation of the Justice Society. Robinson describes the new Earth 2 as a complete reboot of the concept, with superheroes only just now appearing, similar to the "young hero" concept for the New 52 continuity, and with revamped costume designs.

In Earth 2, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman gave their lives in order to repel the Apokoliptan invasion, leaving behind a world with no heroes. Supergirl and Robin (Helena Wayne) end up stranded in the mainstream universe towards the end of the invasion. When the Earth-2 Grundy threatens the world, three new heroes team up to defeat him: the Flash (Jay Garrick), Hawkgirl (as Kendra Saunders), and Green Lantern (Alan Scott), now revamped to be gay. In later issues, Mister Terrific from the mainstream universe joins the team. Other heroes who have made appearance include Dr. Fate (Khalid Ben-Hassin), the Atom (Al Pratt, now nuclear-powered), the Red Tornado, the Sandman (Wesley Dodds), Mister Miracle, and Big Barda. Villains include Grundy, a now-villainous Terry Sloane, Wotan, and Steppenwolf. Writer James Robinson will leave the series with issue #16.

Unique features
In classic Earth-Two stories, Quebec is shown to be an independent nation autonomous from Canada. Among other deviations from real world history, South Africa had abolished apartheid sooner, and the Atlantean countries of Poseidonis and Tritonis were ruled by a queen, not a king (along with its inhabitants displaying surface dweller features and no capacity for underwater survival, as the Atlantis continent had been raised).

In addition, masked crimefighters are introduced decades earlier than in other universes later identified within DC Comics, and these participated in such historic conflicts as World War II. Franklin Delano Roosevelt founded both the Justice Society of America and the All-Star Squadron. Other events taking place decades earlier include the destruction of Krypton and the advent of advanced technology including interstellar transportation and time travel. Thousands of years ago, the Guardians of Earth-One's Universe expelled the vast majority of magic from their universe, sending it to Earth-Two's. This resulted in a predominance of magic and a weakening of scientific laws within Earth-Two's universe.

Earth-Two characters
The following is a list of Earth-Two superheroes that have other earthly counterparts (most often Earth-One) or who immigrated from Earth-Two.

Other media
An Earth 2 skin pack was released as downloadable content for Injustice: Gods Among Us. It included alternate skins for the Flash, Hawkgirl, and Solomon Grundy based on the appearances of Jay Garrick, Kendra Saunders and Grundy in New 52.

A pre-order skin pack for the upcoming Batman: Arkham Origins video game will include two Earth 2 skins for Batman, both based on New 52: one depicting the original Batman, Bruce Wayne; the other depicting the new, black-and-red Batman.