The end is nigh in the DC Universe. The Multiverse - a concept so familiar in comic books it really needs no explanation - is changing, and that change may be coming sooner than we think.
Even in the early days of comics, there was the Multiverse. A vast series of self-contained worlds each with their own version of comic book superheroes, separate from each other, with travel only possible for a select few. The idea of alternate worlds arrived with Wonder Woman #59 in 1953 when Wonder Woman encountered a different version of herself. It wasn’t until a few years later, however, that the Multiverse as most readers think of it today, was born when DC Comics rebooted many of their stories and characters. Now, different versions of characters lived separately from their new versions, in-tact and continuing their daring-dos in other universes that the heroes occasionally traveled between. Voila - the Multiverse!
In Legion of Super-Heroes #11, an otherwise normal comic casually mentions “what was then known as the multiverse”. The small line has certain readers perking up - it’s just one more kernel of information in an intriguing series of clues that something big may be happening. The speculation stems from comments made by Dark Nights: Metal writer Scott Snyder, who, when speaking about comics history, opined that “it all happened, it all matters”. Even this year’s Justice League #39 lifted a panel from the previously non-canon Doomsday Clock, stating it was “disconnected from your reality altogether but still deeply felt and impactful”. But how? How can a non-canon event affect a canon one? How can it all matter and connect when the Multiverse separates them?
The answer may lie in the Dark Multiverse Snyder invented - a new dimension created and fed by fear - in a constant state of construction and destruction, building and crumbling. What could have been just another universe jack-hammering its way into the main DC Universe, was painted as something else—a sub-level of existence, created like a universe-sized tulpa. This idea suggests that the Multiverse is more mercurial than previously believed, where the effect of events ripple outward, sloshing into other stories in ways audiences hadn’t previously noticed.
The idea that the main Multiverse could become something more like the Dark Multiverse is an intriguing concept and certainly one still up for some debate. While the canonicity of some of Snyder’s recent work has put the influence of his ideas into question, a Multiverse shake-up has historically meant big things for comic books and comic book readers. Regardless, the suggestion of an amorphous Multiverse without the same ability to hand-wave away events to other universes is certainly a change that would be interesting to see.
