Comic Book History: The Crisis on Infinite Earths in the DC Universe

In 1961, the Silver Age, Flash - whose secret identity was Barry Allen - met his Golden Age counterpart, Jay Garrick, in Flash #123. Talk about a can of worms? To explain this paradox the writers came up with a very inventive concept, Earth-2. Earth-2 was the earth in the multiverse (are you listening Brian Greene?) where all the Golden Age characters in DC comics' history lived. The stories and adventures of those heroes were recounted in alternate comics and annually the Justice League of America crossed over to Earth-2 to team up with the Justice Society of America. I remember reading these tales and I looked forward to them every year.

This would confuse a lesser comics reader. A meek geek would be frightened. Not I. I kept notes. See, Earth-2 was where the heroes of the 1940s lived and their children were the superheroes of modern (circa 1980s) times. It was cool. I actually read about the Earth-2 heroes with more passion than Earth-1 (except Teen Titans, but that's for another post!) The All-Star Squadron was the team of heroes on Earth-2 who came together to fight the Axis powers in the 1940s on their earth. The JSA was an organization of heroes within that larger group.

On Earth-1 you'd follow the stories of the "real" Superman and Wonder Woman and Batman. They were part of the JLA. It could be considered that these characters were the ones you were familiar with and the JSA characters were the ones your grandfather read about. (Your Dad being too cool to ever have read comics.)

Again, to me, keeping all these Earth straight wasn't a problem. I had the charts right there up on my bedroom wall.