Multiversal Geography: Checking Against Reality

So the Multiversity Guidebook is out and we can finally check how many of my guesses about the various Earths were right. For reference, there are separate articles for 0-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40 and 41-51. Unfortunately, it doesn't have any information on other things in the Multiverse, which I'd discussed in two articles, Light Side and Dark Side. But gift horses and all that. We got 52 Earths confirmed (well 45, 7 are still "Unknown Worlds" created by an Inner Chamber of 7 Monitor Magi for an as-yet unrevealed purpose), how did we do back when we were just staring blankly at the map?

Earth-0 is New Earth, we knew that.

Earth-1 is that stupid Earth-Prime from the JMS, Johns, etc. graphic novels. It glows orange because it's "still cooling". Damn it, I really wanted Morrison to melt this thing.

Earth-2, Earth-3, no surprises there. Earth-4 is Charlton, 5 is Thunderworld, yeah yeah.

We can now confirm Earth-6 as the Stan Leeverse, got that one. Earth-7 is now an echo of Earth-8, so both are meant to be analogous to Marvel. I suppose that means 7 is Ultimate Marvel. It's the first of the Earths I didn't "get". Earth-9 is Tangent Earth as predicted, and of course Earth-10 is Earth-X. Continuing with the places that didn't really change since the last continuity upheaval, Earth-11 is the reverse-gender Earth, and 12 is the future of Batman Beyond (not sure how that fits into Futures End, don't need to know).

Earth-13 I'd guess to have some connection to Vertigo concepts, but this isn't quite that. A supernatural Earth where the Demon is basically Superman, and oh geez, Fate?! And "Hellblazer" from that crazy Kirby tribute in Morrison's Doom Patrol? That's hilarious. I hope there's a Mr. E and a Doctor 13 like that as well.

Moving right along, we have Earth-15 which was destroyed at the end of Countdown, still destroyed, which means it's the great tragedy of the Multiverse that Countdown still happened. 16 is the world seen in The Just, where superheroes won the peace. My information on 17 was muddled because I'd put Superdemon on it, but it still features a Great Cataclysm as I thought. Except one that happened in 1963. Now the Atomic Knights of Justice protect humanity, at least some of them Challengers of the Unknown. Hm.

A few easy guesses: 18 for Justice Riders and 19 for Gotham by Gaslight and other Victorian Elseworld stories. 20 we've seen in the Society of Super-Heroes special. 21 is New Frontier. 22 is Kingdom Come. 23 we knew to be the more diverse Earth of President Superman. 26 is the cartoon Earth of Captain Carrot, easy. I like the detail where it says the planet was destroyed, but because of cartoon physics, it bounced back. And how it put a little bandage on the Earth's face.

29 was another obvious one. It's blocky shape makes it Bizarroverse. The hammer and sickle make Earth-30 easy to spot as the one in Red Son. 31 looked like a Frank Miller Dark Knight Returns thing to me, but I'm happy to see I was wrong. Instead the pirate world of Captain Leatherwing is here. Awesome. Earth-32 is also fun; my research did say it would be the Earth from In Darkest Knight, but Morrison's added more Justice League amalgams in addition to the Batman/GL. I still don't know why the continents are all wrong though.

33 had been announced as the new Earth-Prime, no surprise. Then it gets weird with the worlds I really couldn't guess at. Earth-34 is, to my eyes, an analogue of Astro City. Took me a while to see it, but now it's unmistakable.

It's so obvious when you think about it. Cosmoville. But it was Jack-in-the-Box's colors that did it for me. Anyway, the analogs continue with Earth-35 which is evidently Supreme, and 36 is analogous to Big Bang Comics. None of which I guessed, but a reader did. I DID guess that 37 would be Thrillkiller-Earth, but not that Morrison would stage Chaykin's Twilight there.

Earth-38 was an unknown, but turns out it's where John Byrne's Generations took place. Worthy. I was right to say Earth-39 had a Wally Wood connection, but it wasn't some kind of space opera thing; rather, it's an analog of THUNDER Agents. Earth-40 was, of course, seen as the opposite of Earth-20.

We were right to think Earth-41, with its Liefeld lines, was the analog to Image's superhero universe. 42 is still where the L'il Leaguers live, no change there. 43 is still Red Rain. Earth-44 is a new one, with Doctor Will Tornado building a robot version of the JLA. 45 is of course where his trademarked, corporate Superman nightmare is from. Happy to see I was right about Earth-47; it IS the home of Sunshine Superman and the Love Syndicate. Also: Prez and Brother Power!

Earth-48 was a mystery to me - we thought maybe ABC Comics? - but that triangle is not Tom Strong's. Instead, this is the former Earth-6 where Lady Quark is from. And Forerunners. Yeah, whatever. If it has an ABC connection, it's that it sounds a lot like Top Ten.

Two left. Earth-50 I thought would be some kind of Wildstorm Earth, but it's where the Justice Lords live; you might remember this alternate League from the Justice League cartoon. It DOES have a Wildstorm connection, of course, because the Lords act like The Authority. And finally, there's Earth-51, which was always going to be Kirby-Earth, and so it is, with an amalgam of all of Kirby's DC concepts: Great Disaster, OMAC combined with Ben Boxer, and New Gods thrown in as well.

I didn't do too bad, but then I can't take too much credit. The information was there in the research, and it was up to Morrison not to shuffle the cards too much from the last time the universe was reordered.

So what's the Earth you'd most like to see explored in a special, mini or series? For me, it's probably 32 because I love amalgamation. I'm less interested in all the analogs; they're not particularly viable, being derivative of derivatives. But I'll let you weigh in.