At the recent Emerald City Comic Con, James Robinson made some interesting comments in regards to his book Earth 2. In a report from CBR, he talks about his efforts to continue the world building that we’ve been seeing in the title, and states the following in regards to the introduction of Captain Steel that will be seen in The Annual: “It’s one of the pieces of what DC and I are planning…little pieces building and building into what will be a major event for DC in 2014.” Hmm…a major event in 2014 involving a parallel Earth? I smell and CRISIS brewing. No, not one that will reboot things yet again, but one that will allow DC’s creators to have fun with our beloved characters on a multiversal scale.

You see, before we had this:

We had this:

Before DC used the concept of a CRISIS to rewrite history, they used it as a way to do an annual team-up of the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America who lived on Earths 1 and 2 respectively. According to the first volume Crisis on Multiple Earths, it all began in 1963. Two years had passed since Barry Allen stumbled upon the discovery of Earth 2 and his parallel counterpart Jay Garrick. Fans in that time loved the idea of parallel worlds and wanted even more. With that, the very first CRISIS took place. It was known simply as “Crisis on Earth-One” and their were plenty more that followed.

Besides giving fans the chance to see two of the greatest superhero teams fight side by side, it allowed DC to explore worlds like Earth 3, where the evil version of the Justice League lived.

Or Earth X, where the Nazis actually won WWII and heroes called the Freedom Fighters fought an endless battle.

Many more Earths, and their heroic protectors were introduced as well. Now, these adventures took place in the Silver Age, and since Crisis on Infinite Earths effectively ended these kinds of adventures in the DCU, we haven’t had a chance to see what modern day story tellers can do with the concept. Okay, so technically we did have Countdown to Final Crisis, but that whole project felt thrown together and was just plain awful. While it did showcase a number of parallel worlds, it suffered from crummy storytelling and inconsistent artwork. Additionally, it wasn’t a JLA/JSA team-up so I’m not going to count it.

Ah, If only the Countdown has started at Zero. Anyway, with the characters most associated with the Justice Society effectively back on Earth 2, is DC planning on starting these classic team-ups once again? Grant Morrison’s long anticipated Multiversity is set for release later this year (supposedly). The title itself implies that it’ll introduce us to some of the parallel worlds found in the New 52. However, since the series is only going to be 8 issues, I’m guessing Mr. Morrison won’t have too much time to really dive into any particular world. It seems to me that would leave plenty of room for a slew of new Crises to help us get to know the other worlds of the New 52 Multiverse.

Now, this is obviously all just a guess on my part and I know that one quote isn’t really much to go on. However, this would be a terrific opportunity to finally get to see more of DC’s new multiverse on a consistent basis. And besides, who wouldn’t want to read the Justice League and the Justice Society kick ass all over the multiverse?

Yours in the multiverse,

-mikyzptlk