Hello and welcome to Comic Drake where I talk
about comic books and my name is Drake!
The map of the local DC multiverse is a really
fascinating concept and eventually, I do want
to do a video going in depth and talking about
every little thing contained within it, but
that’s been done by pretty much every single
comic book creator out there on the internet.
So I want to focus on something a little bit
different today.
I haven’t seen a video done on THIS subject
before so I’m interested in seeing what
y’all think.
The creator of the DC multiverse map, Grant
Morrison, is responsible for some of the more
crazy and out there concepts in DC Comics,
but this map is incredibly fascinating because
it’s filled with all of these philosophical
and metaphysical concepts.
So buckle in since today, we’re going to
be taking a look at the meta of it all and
taking an obnoxiously deep dive into the DC
multiverse’s map.
Before we get started, I need to make it very
clear that the map of the local DC multiverse
is a 2D representation of a non two dimensional
concept.
In all actuality, this map is more like a
symbolic thing as opposed to legitimate physical
placement because in DC Comics, all of the
universes actually inhabit the same physical
space, but at different vibrational frequencies.
You see in DC Comics, any number of objects
can occupy the same physical space as others
as long as they’re all vibrating at different
frequencies.
After all, that’s how The Flash frequently
vibrates through walls which is no coincidence
considering that the concept OF the multiverse
was actually introduced in the groundbreaking
storyline “The Flash of Two Worlds” in
The Flash #123 in 1961.
In it, Barry Allen is performing a bunch of
tricks for a fundraiser until he mysteriously
vanishes and appears in another universe,
specifically Earth-Two.
When Barry encounters the Flash of this universe,
Jay Garrick, he comes to the conclusion that
both universes must occupy the same space,
but at different frequencies.
What’s fascinating though is that music
is ALSO just vibrations.
In fact, Grant Morrison himself has stated
on a panel at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con
that he sees the DC multiverse as a sort of
song.
"So I was always fascinated by the fact that
the DC universe is a musical engine and it’s
made of vibrations and all the worlds vibrate
at different frequencies.
Now imagine if you have *unintelligible* make
music.
It would make a song in fact and that was
the song that Superman was whistling at the
end of Final Crisis.
You know, he was singing a song of the multiverse.”
This concept of musical notation even carries
over into our real world!
In 1864, English chemist, John Newlands, categorized
the sixty two known elements at the time into
eight musical based groups based on their
physical properties.
This was his “Law of Octaves” and even
though he was ridiculed at the time, Newlands’
work was acknowledged years later and he is
credited at the discoverer of Periodic Law
for the chemical elements.
Now the reason I bring this up is because
the DC multiverse map seems to be periodical
in much the same way as the Periodic Table
of Elements in that you can kind of get the
properties of the various elements based solely
on where they lie on the table and the DC
multiverse map works the same way, but with
universes!
Grant Morrison has said that the multiverse
map is divided into quadrants and that a universe’s
placement matters.
The most commonly accepted theory is that
the quadrants act as a sort of alignment chart
with Order and Chaos representing the typical
“Lawful and Chaotic” scale and The Pit
and The Pinnacle representing the Good and
Evil or the light hearted and serious sales
accordingly.
For example, it was revealed in the deluxe
hardcover edition of Multiversity that some
of the worlds fall into special groupings
such as the “Cartoon Rim”.
These fall into the Pinnacle/Chaos quadrant
and is reflected by their lighthearted, but
more chaotic nature such as Earth 26 which
is home to Captain Carrot and his Zoo Crew
that works on “cartoon physics”.
Opposite of that is a group of worlds called
The Otherworlds over in Pit/Order.
This includes such worlds as Earth 4 which
is a representation of The Watchmen series,
but with Charlton Comics characters instead
which fun fact, Watchmen was originally set
to be based on.
Anyway, this world is more rooted in order
and typically more serious by nature.
But if that wasn’t enough, there are two
sets of “Arcs”, the Light and Dark Arcs
and the Bizarro and Unnamed Arcs.
The Light and Dark Arcs connect the seven
unknown universes that Grant Morrison intentionally
left open for new creators.
At the time of this recording though, the
only one of those worlds to have been revealed
is Earth 14 which we saw briefly in Superman
Vol 4 #15 in 2017.
It was home to the Justice League of Assassins
before they were killed by a mysterious force.
While the rest of the worlds along the Light
and Dark Arcs are unknown at the moment, it
can be guessed that they share similarities
with each other.
This is because of the other two Arcs.
For example, the Bizzaro Arc seems to play
with usual expectations of characters since
it starts at Earth 30 which is based on the
Superman: Red Son story where Kal-L lands
in soviet Russia instead of Kansas.
There’s also Earth 32 which features mashup
characters like Bat-Lantern, Earth 11 which
is gender swapped, the Arc briefly touches
Earth 21 which is the setting of the DC: The
New Frontier series, and Earth 29 which is
the Bizzaroverse which makes a lot of sense.
Another example is the Unnamed Arc which features
universes rooted in grim and dark motifs including
Earth 31 the post-apocalyptic pirateverse,
Earth 37 which is the setting of the Batman:
Thrillkiller series, Earth 43 which is a vampireverse,
it briefly touches Earth 13 which has an occult
version of the Justice League, and finally
it’s back at the Bizzaroverse of Earth 29.
Now, there’s actually four more Arcs on
the map which weren’t featured in the annotations
in the Multiversity hardcover.
Because of this, I haven’t really seen any
discussion about them online so this is REALLY
uncharted territory.
Okay, so these Arcs seem to be paired off
in opposite concepts.
For example, this Arc mostly deals with despair.
It briefly touches Earth 22 which is the setting
of the Kingdom Come series where heroes are
losing touch with the general populace.
Then there’s the unknown world of Earth
26 which doesn’t really tell us much, but
it is followed by the alignment swap world
of Earth 3.
Then there’s the vampireverse of Earth 43
again right before Earth 44 where superheroes
don’t exist in the first place which required
the construction or robot doppelgangers, and
this ends us in Earth 39 with the spies of
W.O.N.D.E.R. who are addicted to the super
technology that’s slowly ruining their lives.
Opposite of that however is this Arc which
seems to represent hope.
It briefly touches the stand in for the Ultimate
Marvel universe which was originally meant
to be a return to Marvel’s roots without
being bogged down by continuity.
Then there’s the pirateverse of Earth 31
featuring Captain Leatherwing and his crew
sailing the seas bringing safety wherever
they can.
It also briefly touches the new version of
the Golden Age Earth 2 before passing into
the unknown Earth 40 and DC’s stand in for
the MAIN Marvel universe, Earth 8.
That finally passes through the cartoon world
of Earth 26 and becomes the unique Arc that
passes through Kwyzz.
This radio world is something that we’ve
covered before on the channel, but here’s
a refresher.
It was only featured in one storyline where
the Flash, Wally West, had to race his supposed
imaginary friend, Krakkl, in an attempt to
save both of their worlds.
So what about the other two Arcs?
Well this one seems to line up well with authority
including the godlike superheroes of Earth
22’s Kingdom Come and the powerful USSR
that we saw in Earth 30’s Red Son.
It also briefly passess Earth 45, a corporate
controlled world policed by the mega corporation,
Overcorp’s, evil entity called Superdoom.
Then there’s the unknown world of Earth
46, the spies of W.O.N.D.E.R.
again over in Earth 39, and finally ends with
the Metal Men of Earth 44.
That leaves us with the last Arc which seems
to represent anarchy.
Of course, it passes through the Ultimate
Marvel pastiche of Earth 7 and the unknown
Earth 24, but it also lightly touches Earth
16.
This universe had the heroes actually defeat
evil as a whole and the children and sidekicks
of the Justice League grew up to take over
the mantles of their predecessors.
However, without bad guys to fight, these
kids act like celebrities and are obsessed
with their social followings.
Oh yeah, and there’s also the gender swapped
Earth 11, the cartoon Earth 26, and the main
Marvel pastiche of Earth 8 which are all worlds
that we covered earlier.
I want to make it very clear that nothing
about these Arcs has been confirmed and we’re
probably not going to get any information
about them in any real official source from
DC Comics so I’m probably just talking out
of my butt here, but what’s really fascinating
is that the DC multiverse map actually seems
to be containing some real world knowledge!
These Arcs appear to be in the shape of the
Fibonacci Sequence, perfect golden ratios
that appear all over nature and even Jon Snow’s
butt.
In fact, many cultures see the Fibonacci Sequence
as “sacred geometry” which ascribes meaning
to several naturally occurring geometrical
phenomena.
In fact, one of the most famous forms of sacred
geometry is the Flower of Life, a shape made
up of evenly spaced, overlapping circles,
which are arranged in a flower-esque formation.
This design can be seen in ancient works from
all over the world and in the notes of great
minds like that of Leonardo da Vinci!
In fact, some depictions of the Flower of
Life actually fit nicely over the DC multiverse
map with the three circles perfectly separating
the main fifty two universes, the Sphere of
Gods, and the Source Wall.
This is very fitting considering that many
who believe in sacred geometry believe that
the Flower of Life represents space and time
which is fitting because that is exactly what
the DC multiverse map is meant to depict.
There is a LOT of information on this map
and I can go on and on, but I want to leave
that to more focused videos where I can really
give them the time that they deserve, but
if you’ve liked anything of what you’ve
seen today then I highly encourage you to
get a copy of the map for yourself and analyze
it!
Maybe you’ll find something that I didn’t!
Anyway, if you made it this far then you probably
liked the video so why not watch another one
or even consider subscribing if you want to
get notified (maybe) of when these come out?
So hopefully I’ll see you next time and
hopefully you learned a little something new
about this crazy nonsense that is the DC Comics
multiverse!
