Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected].
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
In popular culture, it goes back to DC comics, specifically Flash #123 in September of 1961.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_of_Two_Worlds
First, a little comic book history... DC set the standard for Superhero comics in 1938 when they introduced Superman. Following that was the creation of character after character.
This was called "The Golden Age" of comics.
The 1950s rolled around and superhero books kind of faded away, replaced by crime and horror books. This drew the attention of Frederic Wertham, a child psychologist, who sought to blame all of societies ills on comic books.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent
This inspired the creation of the Comics Code Authority which controlled what could and could not be published.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority
2 years after Seduction of the Innocent, DC re-booted superhero comics with Showcase #4, introducing a new version of a Golden Age character called The Flash:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Age_of_Comic_Books
Shortly after that, just like many characters appearing after the introduction of Superman 20 years earlier, a whole host of new characters appeared in the Silver Age, all approved by the Comics Code.
By 1961, DC was facing questions from fans about "Wait, how can there be two Flashes? Or two Green Lanterns? Where are the original characters?"
To explain this, they invented the concept of "Earth 1" and "Earth 2".
All the current characters and stories were happening on Earth 1, all the Golden Age characters and stories were on Earth 2.
Two planets separated by a vibrational difference, a difference that the Flashes of both worlds were able to cross.
And so Flash #123 introduced the whole Earth1 / Earth 2 concept in 1961.
Following that, they set up an annual crossover event between the Justice League (Earth 1) and the Justice Society (Earth 2), as a "CRISIS ON EARTH..."
Thanks for writing this, it's cool lore.