WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Dark Nights: Metal by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion and FCO Plascencia, on sale now.
For years, DC Comics has been trying to rebuild its Multiverse.
In 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths set out to reduce the DC Universe into one comprehensive world. And while that move helped make things a lot less confusing, it also removed much of the magic the Silver Age introduced into comics. In the decades since the first Crisis, the DC Universe has undergone numerous expansions and contractions. It's been a long journey, but now the Multiverse is back, bigger, more dangerous and more interesting than ever, all thanks toDark Nights: Metal.
Building a Better Multiverse
Following the events of Infinite Crisis, which reintroduced the Multiverse 20 years after the original Crisis did away with it, DC Comics set out to rebuild what had once been undone, albeit in a manner that was little more manageable than it was the first time around. Instead of infinite worlds, there were a mere 52 defined universes. The next few years were devoted to the establishment and exploration of this new Multiverse in several event series -- 52, Countdown and Final Crisis.
The publisher tripped and stumbled in the beginning, but eventually, it all seemed to be moving along. Then the New 52 reboot happened in 2011, and DC's universe was even smaller than ever. Despite the contraction, the publisher gave Grant Morrison full control over reimagining the Multiverse, but it wasn't until 2014 that his project The Multiversity finally saw publication.
Morrison's project didn't just explore new worlds, it built a foundation and infrastructure that could keep the DC Multiverse from falling off the rails again. It was established that 52 realities existed inside the Orrery of Worlds, which itself seemed to exist inside some sort of bubble. Every alternate world, higher concept, and godlike being existed inside a finite space, which is a fascinating concept... but didn't leave much room for growth.
The Problem with the Multiverse
Perhaps the biggest weakness of the original DC Multiverse was also its greatest strength. Infinite universes meant infinite possibilities, and that eventually caused the publisher to become bogged down with inconsistencies as continuity became more and more tangled. A stronger editorial grasp on the concept could have kept things in enough order to prevent DC from feeling it had to reboot and streamline things, which we hope will happen in the wake of Metal.
DC's establishment of 52 universes was meant to keep a handle on the endless possibilities of creativity, but it also gave us a lot of filler. After all, that's a lot of different universes to establish all at once. Morrison did a good job laying down the bedrock, but in a lot of instances, the worlds never became anything more than abstract concepts that still haven't been fleshed out.
Earth 12 is the Batman Beyond universe, but how is this any different from the Batman Beyond series that takes place in the future of the main DC Universe? Earth 32 is just made out of character mash-ups, while a number of DC's classic stories, like Kingdom Come and The Dark Knight Returns, were given an entire world all their own. Then there are a series of Earths that are just pastiches of other comic book companies' fictional universes.
These are all well and good on their own, but if there's a finite amount of worlds, why fill them out with so many, for lack of a better word, recycled concepts? In order to correct these limitations, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo set out to create an entirely new Multiverse, and they did so while managing to avoid overwriting what had already been established.
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While the DC Multiverse gives the publisher the structure it has craved for decades, the Dark Multiverse allows creators to have infinite possibilities across infinite worlds once more. The Dark Multiverse was built, by definition, to give creators fleshed out and expendable (yes, expendable) worlds to play with. Given that these worlds are born to die, it's easy for future stories to establish a world, explore it, and then destroy it without seriously impacting DC's overarching continuity.
Dark Nights: Metal introduced us to the potential of infinite storytelling possibilities. It wasn't just "Here are the evil Batmen from the Dark Multiverse" -- each of the Dark Knights came from a unique world with its own backstory and flawed characters. These Earths went beyond the Dark Knight's basic concepts -- Batman has the Speed Force, Batman is Doomsday -- and actually built emotion around the characters and gave each world a sense of soul. It is this storytelling potential that made it necessary for the Dark Multiverse to survive for another day.
This is the kind of world building that DC and its army of creators needs to build on and apply to the rest of the Multiverse. Worlds need to be more than just doppelgangers of Astro City and a play on Rob Liefeld's Awesome Universe. Give these Earths some kind of meaning, some kind of fatal flaw or unique conflict. Give these worlds a soul all their own, and then they will become pieces in the toy box that other creators will want to play with.
The Future of an Expanded Multiverse
Metal introduced the idea of a 53rd universe, and even though there's no answer for it in the series, it opened up the possibility that there are actually infinite worlds out there. In Metal's finale, the heroes blew a hole through the Source Wall (a literal cosmic obstacle blocking the DCU from the rest of reality), creating a more expansive universe and exposing even more hidden mysteries than we ever knew about. This gives DC the pure potential it needs to release exciting new stories on a regular basis. Perhaps now is a good time for that Multiversity Too project that Morrison has been hinting at for a while.
It has taken decades, but DC might finally be where it wants to be when it comes to the Multiverse. The structure of Morrison's Multiversal map from The Multiversity combined with the infinite chaos of the Dark Multiverse, all of which is set against a newly expanded Multiverse, has established the strongest cosmic landscape that DC Comics has ever truly had.
In fact, DC now has the best Multiverse in the industry, even mores than the one Marvel established in the wake of its Secret Wars event in 2016. It's time to stop wading in the shallows and dive right in, the time for DC to push new titles that will explore the edges of creation, like Justice League, Justice League Dark, Justice League Odyssey, The Terrifics and New Challengers will hopefully do.