I love — LOVE! — parallel world stories. So the DC comics of my youth were practically custom-made for me, what with the various multiple universes and different versions of each character therein. As a kid, I already knew about Earth-One and Earth-Two, but today’s Memory Monday comes from the story that introduced me to Earth-Three.
In 1985, DC discarded its parallel worlds cosmology and reduced things to a single Earth. Their rationale? That multiple universes were “too confusing” for readers.
Yeah, right. Check out the panel below, as Lex Luthor quickly explains the multiverse, and tell me this is “too confusing.” Somehow, 11-year-old Barry was able to understand it just fine…
Yeah. Confusing. Right.
(From DC Comics Presents Annual #1, 1982. Story by Marv Wolfman. Art by Rich Buckler and Dave Hunt.)