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!