Earth-One

     

Reality names were reused several times. See also Earth-1, Earth 1, Earth -1. Earth-One was the designation for an Earth, and the Universe it inhabited, that existed prior to the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

History

Earth-One itself was populated by various individuals who resembled those of its primary Multiversal counterpart, Earth-Two. Some were direct parallels to their predecessors (ex. Superman (Earth-One) and Superman (Earth-Two)), some less so (ex. the Atom (Al Pratt) and the Atom (Ray Palmer)). The two Earths were closely linked in terms of parallel development, although Earth-Two individuals usually predated their Earth-One counterparts by a few decades.

The primary superheroes were limited to the Western heroes of the 1800s and few others, until Superman arrived from Krypton and ushered in a new age of heroes. On this Earth, Superman had a career as Superboy and teamed with the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th century.

From the perspective of the Earth-One Universe, the first travel to another parallel universe occurred when the Flash (Barry Allen) accidentally changed his vibrational frequency to match that of Earth-Two, where he met Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash. That meeting resulted in years of interaction between the original super-hero team, the Justice Society of America, and their younger Earth-One counterparts, the Justice League of America.

As Barry Allen was the first traveler, the honor of naming the two Earths fell to him - his universe's Earth was called Earth-One, Jay Garrick's became Earth-Two. As noted years later by the elder Superman, they (the JSA) were too polite to mention that they were around first ^[3].

As Allen explained to Garrick in their first meeting:

"..I vibrated so fast -- I tore a gap in the vibratory shields separating our worlds! As you know -- two objects can occupy the same space and time -- if they vibrate at different speeds!

My theory is, both Earths were created at the same time in two quite similar universes! They vibrate differently -- which keeps them apart! Life, customs -- even languages -- evolved on your earth almost exactly as they did on my Earth! Destiny must have decreed there'd be a Flash -- on each Earth!

" ^[4]

Events

10 billion years ago

Krona, a Maltusan, built a machine to discover the secrets of the very creation of the Universe. He watched through his portal a gigantic palm with a broth of stars in his hand as the machine exploded. Because of this act, the Multiverse and the Universe of Antimatter (the home of the Weaponers of Qward) had been retroactively created.^[5].

9 billion years ago

Driven by guilt over Krona's actions, the Maltusans created the Manhunters, which they then replaced with the Green Lantern Corps. However, due to differences on how to deal with the evil created by Krona, the Maltusans split into the Guardians of the Universe and the Controllers. Shortly after this, the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor were "born".^[6] They fought each other for 1 million years with a simultaneous attack knocking them both out for 9 billion years.^[7]

3,5 billion years ago

A precursor to the Green Lantern Corps which wore energy pistols was formed in Oa. These "Proto-Green Lanterns" would exist until circa 40000 years ago, when their pistols were substitued by Power Rings.^[8]

1 billion years ago

• The Demons Three (Abnegazar, Rath and Ghast) ruled Earth until they were trapped by the Timeless Ones.^[9]
• The Xan, a race of humans from another planet, establish a super-civilization on Earth, living in celestial cities built by advanced science. As a specialized builder of robots and androids, his greatest achievement is Eternal, a giant half-robot, half-android built to live forever, energized by cosmic radiation, and given the full knowledge of the Xan in his artificial brain. Incredibly wise and powerful, Eternal planned to conquer Earth for himself. Before he could do so, a cloud of space gas hit Earth, gas that the Xan knew could kill them. Eternal traveled to the Earth's core to find Absorbium, the only element that could counter the space gas, but the absorbium caused Eternal to be paralyzed for 1 billion years.^[10]

100 million years ago

• Tommy Tomorrow, his co-pilot Brent Wood and Prof. Schmidt, all of the 21st century, are temporarily trapped in the Age of Dinosaurs by a meteor manipulated by Cronos in 1977. They fight Tyrano Rex, a dinosaur evolved to reach intelligence by the meteor.^[11]

~65 million years ago

• A meteor that collided on Earth begins a process of extinction of the dinosaurs and several other species.

145000 BC

In Pre-Deluge Atlantis, Ahri'ahn was born as the son of two sorcerers, Calculha, follower of the Light, and Majistra, mistress of darkness. He is raised by his father in Atlantis while his brother Garn Daanuth was raised by his mother in Mu. Both are initiated into the mysteries of witchcraft.^[12]

43000 BC

A great civilization, rich in magic and technology, leads to the formation of Atlantis. The earliest Homo magi were the Pre-Deluge Atlanteans, and the greatest among them was Arion, the supreme sorcerer of Atlantis.^[13].

38000 BC

• Rori Dag of the planet Rojira becomes the first Green Lantern equipped with a Power Ring.^[14]
• Not very much time after this event, three Proto-Green Lanterns chase a criminal named Jinn to Earth, where an accident with a Power Battery and a thunderbolt puts the four of them in animation suspended for 40,000 years. ^[8]

30000 BC

Anthro.

11848 BC

Modern civilization begins on Krypton.

1200 BC

• The Amazons, led by Hippolyta, migrate to Paradise Island after being briefly enslaved by Hercules; another group of them, led by Atalanta, migrate to the Amazon rainforest.
• Helen of Troy.

1000 BC

Zha-Vam.

~40 BC

The Homo magi find a hidden land in Turkey in an attempt to keep their lineages pure.^[15]

31 BC

Cleopatra brought to the present by Rip Hunter.^[16]

1st century

Blackbriar Thorn is trapped in a wooden form to escape from Roman legions.

AD 55

The Golden Gladiator, a Roman hero.

6th century

• King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table;
• Merlin the magician brings Superman and Batman from the year 1966 to this time to help King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table to retake Camelot after a group of shape-changing aliens personified them, and the two heroes officially become Knights of the Round Table as Sir Superman and Sir Batman before returning to their own time.^[17].
• Morgana le Fey destroys Camelot; Etrigan the Demon is summoned from Hell by Merlin and fused into Jason Blood.

8th century

Vikings arrive at what would be America and take Arak of the Quontauka tribe to Europe.

10th century

• The Viking Prince
• Scheherazade brought to the present by Rip Hunter.^[16]

14th century

Super-Chief, the first (Native) American hero.

16th century

Andrew Bennett becomes a vampire.

17th century

Metropolis founded.^[18]

18th century

Kraklow, a Polish sorcerer, is visited by Rip Hunter; Victor Frankenstein creates his monster.^[19]

19th century

Wild West heroes: Jonah Hex, Bat Lash, Cinnamon, El Diablo, Scalphunter, Nighthawk, El Papagayo, Pistolera, Quentin Turnbull, Pow Wow Smith; an outlaw's son is adopted by an alien and becomes Terra-Man.

20th century

1904

Jonah Hex, aged 68, is killed by George Barrow.^[20]

~1941

In mid-June, Blackhawk Island was destroyed by Heinrich Himmler with an ICBM-mounted nuclear weapon.^[21]

1950s

• In some point in time, Superboy leaves Smallville and becomes Superman;^[22] Bruce Wayne debuts as Batman;

1958

Gotham City was flooded, sufficiently deep to enable operation of a miniature submarine, by embittered ex-scientist Victor Danning, using the city's own water supply.^[23]

1959

In February, an embryo of what a year later would become the Justice League was formed when General Blanx and his group of White Martians went after the Martian Manhunter following his trail through a beam created by the hero in order to probe Mars. Unable to kill J'onn, Blanx tried to dominate Earth instead, which forced a group of heroes to organize in order to stop this threat without causing public fanfare: Superman, Batman and Robin, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, the Vigilante I, Plastic Man, the Blackhawks, Roy Raymond the Television Detective, the Challengers of the Unknown, Robot Man I, Rex the Wonder Dog, and Congorilla. The case is muffled to avoid panic in the American population.^[24]

1985

• January, 1: Harbinger, disguised as Destiny, shows the Superman of Earth-One images of the reality that would be formed if the remnants of the Multiverse were to survive the Anti-Monitor's attack. This was meant as a test of Superman's fortitude in the face of despair, as Superman is shown the death of his cousin, the defeat of Batman by Bane, Hal Jordan's descent into madness and an assault on the fabric of time, his own death at the hands of Doomsday, and the genocide of New Krypton, among other things. Nevertheless, Superman still resolves to fight for the future.^[25]
• Crisis on Infinite Earths

Possible Future Events

It should be noted there was no "set" future for Earth-One, but rather a series of possible futures.^[26]. As a result trips into "the future" were, in reality, a trip into a future for Earth-One.

21st century

Tommy Tomorrow; Star Hawkins and Ilda.

22nd century

The Space Ranger; the Star Rovers; the Space Cabbie

23rd century

The Great Wars of the XXIII Century happens.^[27] A group of Amerinds leave Earth to colonize a world named Starhaven.^[28]

25th century

Eobard Thawne discovers the Flash's costume in a time capsule and devises a way to make a costume that gives him super-speed with which he goes on a crime spree. The Flash arrived in the 25th century to stop the atomic clock buried in the capsule from going off like an atomic bomb and defeated Thawne.^[29]

30th century

Earth-One had at least two possible 30th centuries: the Legion of Super-Heroes and Kamandi.^[30] The Time Trapper channeled the power of the Green Lantern Corps to eliminate all futures except the Kamandi one and Superman was manipulated into fixing the problem by a Green Lantern.

51st century

In the far future, criminals who had been found guilty of particularly heinous crimes were sentenced to be sent to Earth of the 51st century, which was, during that period of history, a desolate planet. On one such occasion, a thief known as Mazdan was sent into this dystopian future via a golden time capsule. However, after an accident occurred, he was sent into the past instead, where, during the mid-20th century, the Flash foiled his robberies and sent him back to his future time period in order to be sentenced for his crimes.^[31]

122nd century

In the year 121,970 Earth is a desolate world poisoned by an atomic war.^[32]

8241st century

In one future, in the year 824,057 the Sun turned red and become hotter, causing drought to the point that atomic power had to be used to manufacture water, but eventually this proved ineffective and everyone left the planet. Superman was tricked into the 10,001th century of this future by the Superman Revenge Squad, but was able to gain aid from robot duplicates of Superman's friends and enemies and made his way to his Fortress of Solitude. Using the materials there, he returned to his own time.^[33]

10,000th century

• Human civilization reverted back to the Middle Ages; Lord Satanis and Syrene.

10,001th century

In another future, Earth is rendered a globe of toxins thanks to 1 million years of pollution, war, and abuse. Superman, unable to stand some garbage robots destroying his adopted home planet due to it being an eyesore, drives off the garbage robots and uses his superpowers to restore Earth to a livable state.^[34]

Revised History

During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Earth-One was destroyed. The New Earth that emerged after the Big Bang possessed elements of Earth-One's history, along with elements similar to that of Earth-Two, Earth-Four, Earth-S, and Earth-X. However, Earth-One was the basic template for the new reality and, in most cases, individuals native to Earth-One superceded counterparts from other Earths and erased them from history in becoming the only versions native to New Earth. This caused future conflict when Superman of Earth-Two, Alex Luthor, and Superboy-Prime abandoned their paradise-dimension and initiated the events of Infinite Crisis out of the belief that Earth-One was fundamentally corrupting and, therefore, was the reason for New Earth's perceived decline. However, the events of Convergence restored it to the Multiverse. In the Post-Flashpoint Multiverse, Earth-One carries the designation of Earth-1985.^[35]

Geography

Cities

Several of Earth-One's most famous cities have no direct counterparts on "nearby" parallel worlds such as Earth-Two or Earth-S. Examples include:

• Gorilla City
• Ivy Town
• Midway City

Nation-states

A significant number of modern nations, populated by regular human beings, existed uniquely on Earth-One, and many of these had no direct counterparts on "nearby" parallel worlds such as Earth-Two or Earth-S. Examples include:

• Borotavia
• Dalsidi, a North African city of despised outcasts.
• Granaco, a Balkan monarchy until at least the 1960s. Adjacent to Modora.
• Markovia
• Moldacia, a European monarchy until at least the 1970s.
• Modora, a Balkan nation adjacent to Granaco.
• Peccador, a South American former dictatorship, became a republic in 1959.
• Qurac
• Rutovia, a European monarchy until at least the 1960s.
• Tala, a Himalayan monarchy until at least the 1960s.
• Vlatava
• Xenovia, an island monarchy until at least the 1960s.
• Zandia

Unusual Geography

A significant number of alien outposts, secret kingdoms, and lost civilizations existed uniquely on Earth-One, and many of these had no direct counterparts on "nearby" parallel worlds such as Earth-Two or Earth-S. Examples include:

• Abyssia, an underground monarchy accessed from a secret location in Switzerland. The ruling elite of this kingdom had telekinetic super-powers.
• Aqua, an undersea kingdom.
• Atlantis and Tritonis
• Caramanga, a site of Incan ruins in South America where an American archaeologist disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
• Dinosaur Island
• Lost City, on a small island in a dense fog, a city that has been separated from the world for centuries, ruled by a queen.
• Lost Land, in the mountains, an abandoned outpost of an alien civilization.
• Lunaria, a hidden alien civilization, existed within Earth's Moon, capable of manipulating Earth's climate.
• An unnamed, untouched medieval town in the Swiss Alps, where no snow falls. The people of this town seem to be immortal, and their leader, Rafsu, has telekinetic super-powers.
• Neptunia, formed when a piece of the planet Neptune broke off, flew across the Solar System, and landed on Earth, forming an undersea city, called Neptunia.^[36] Neptunia had a very close analog of itself on Earth-Two.
• Paradise Island
• Skartaris
• Sunken Island, a 700-year-old Mongolian settlement inside a submerged island in the Pacific Ocean.
• An uncharted tropical island in the Atlantic Ocean, the site of a 900-year-old Norman/Saxon settlement.
• An undiscovered civilization, beneath the Earth's surface, which created a robot in the image of Superboy.

Residents

Main List

Science

The properties of matter, laws of physics, and principles of chemistry were very different on Earth-One from those of our own world, or of "nearby" parallel continuums either. For example, elements such as Amnesium, Batmanium (Element 206), Cavorite, Illium 349, Kryptylium, Staggium, Supermanium, Trolium, Vaxxium, Xium, and Zuunium exist on Earth-One and New Earth, while seemingly not existing on Earth-Two. Not only are different sets of elements and materials available, but different sets of physical laws prevail. For example, there is no record of a "Speed Force" at work in Earth-One, and some technology there is based on alchemy.

Alchemy

• 1948 Desmond's alchemical discoveries, including the Philosopher's Stone.^[37]

Biology

• 1959, Loren's De-Evolution Ray,^[38]

Gravitic Physics

• 19(??), Hall's Nth-metal Antigravity Equipment,

Metallurgy

• Elements such as Amnesium and Europium exist on Earth-One and New Earth, while seemingly not existing on Earth-Two.
• Amazonium, Kryptonite, and Nth Metal exist on Earth-One, and in several "nearby" parallel universes, such as Earth-Two and Prime Earth, while seemingly not existing on others, such as Earth-S and the Quality Universe.

Engineering

Many devices, gadgets, vehicles, and weapons were built on Earth-One that could never have been built or made to work on our own world.

Robotics

• 1962, Magnus's Responsometer and his Metal Men,^[39]
  • Magnus also established Elementics, a synthesis of chemistry and robotics, as a scientific discipline.

Sensors, Computers, Communications, Cybernetics

• 1948, Amazonian Mental Radio,^[40]

Vehicles

• 1958, Amazonian Invisible Airplanes,^[40]

Notes

• The Earth-One Universe is not known to have existed to the general populace of New Earth. It was part of the Pre-Crisis Multiverse.
• Inconstancies regarding certain "Earth-One" stories with Earth-One continuity resulted in many stories being retroactively assigned to a parallel Earth with Earth-Thirty-Two being the largest of these. More over continuity issues between Earth-Two and the actual Golden Age character suggested the existence of an Earth-Two-A. As a result it is unclear if Earth-One's first appearance really was More Fun Comics #101 or that was actually a Earth-Two-A story.
• Detective Comics #327 has been designated by DC as the first appearance of both the Earth-One Batman and Gotham.
• Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium lists an "Earth-B2" which refers the reader back to an nonexistent Earth-Forty-Six listing. What this reality was and how it differed from "Earth-B" (Earth-Twelve and Earth-Thirty-Two) is unknown.
• Because the differences between Earth-One and Earth-Thirty-Two characters is relatively minor, the DC Comics Database has decided to use the Earth-One versions for the details that are identical.
• Earth-Two superheroes appeared on Earth-One beginning with The Flash #123. The concept of Earth-Two and Earth-One was developed by writer Gardner Fox after an initial concept by Julius Schwartz.
  • However, Schwartz's initial idea was that the original Golden Age characters existed in "Earth 1" and the current Silver Age characters in "Earth 2". This concept was mixed up, resulting in the current universe designation.^[41]
• Despite the nearly identical names, "Earth One" is a totally different reality.

See Also

• Characters from Earth-One
• Other things related to Earth-One
• Earth-One's Comic Appearances
• Reality Gallery: Earth-One

Links and References

References