Earth-One

Earth-One is a fictional reality designation featured in comic books published by DC Comics. It is used to distinguish the ever-changing internal continuity of the greater DC Universe and generally refers to events chronicled in DC's superhero fantasy comic titles published during the late Silver Age and early Bronze Age era. The reality first came about in 1961 in a story called "The Flash of Two Worlds", which was published in Flash, Volume 1 #123. In the story, the main character of the Flash (Barry Allen) traveled to an alternate reality where upon he met his Golden Age predecessor, Jay Garrick. This story cemented the fact that the DC Comics tales of the 1930s-1940s took place in a different shared reality as that of the later comics produced after Showcase #4 in 1956, which was the first appearance of the Flash. The reality was first identified as Earth-One in it's following appearance in Justice League of America #21.

Although Flash #123 was the first canonical appearance of Earth-One, it's first chronological appearance can be backtracked to January, 1945 in More Fun Comics #101. This was the first appearance of Superboy who is exclusively an Earth-One character. However, this does not mean that every comic issue published after 1945 takes place on Earth-One.

The Earth-One reality was the primary setting of the DC Universe from 1956 up until the multiversal crossover event, Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985-86, which saw the end of the multiverse and the emergence of a new shared reality, often referred to as New Earth. Crisis on Infinite Earths was used as a springboard to prompt a soft reboot of DC Comics continuity wherein the publishing histories of many of it's main characters was updated, altered, or in some cases ignored altogether. While many key characters and teams such as the Flash and the Teen Titans emerged from the Crisis relatively unscathed, others received a complete continuity overhaul, in particular, Superman and Wonder Woman. Other notable characters, such as the Batman and Green Lantern received updated origin stories, but many elements of their pre-Crisis histories were left intact. Since DC Comics did not establish a completely universal reboot of their continuity, many historical elements of it's principal characters were left with loosely defined back stories.

Heroes
In the Earth-One reality, the premiere superhero team was the Justice League of America. It's founding members consisted of Earth's greatest costumed heroes including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter. While protecting the galaxy against a bevy of different threats, the heroes themselves also had their hands full in their own adoptive cities, but always found time to respond to the call of duty whenever the world needed the JLA.

Superman operated out of Metropolis, where he worked under the guise of mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent. As the last son of the dead planet Krypton, Superman used his solar-powered abilities to fight up against threats such as scientific genius Lex Luthor, the alien robotic tyrant Brainiac, the crazed doppelganger Bizarro as well as villains like Metallo, the Prankster and Mister Mxyzptlk.

Very near to Metropolis was Gotham City - home to the Caped Crusader, the Batman and his teenage sidekick, Robin. Batman was in reality millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne and Robin was Bruce's ward, Dick Grayson. Using wits, guile and an inexhaustible supply of bat-related paraphernalia, they solved crimes in Gotham against the likes of the Joker, the Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face, Mister Freeze and Clayface.

Wonder Woman divided her time between her duties as an Amazon on Paradise Island, her civilian identity as Diana Prince and her Washington, D.C.-based adventures as the costumed Wonder Woman. The most notable items in Wonder Woman's war against villainy was her magic lasso, which could force anyone bound by it to tell the truth, and her invisible robot plane, which allowed her to cross great distances unseen. She also bore the Bracelets of Submission, which could magically deflect bullets and other offensive attacks.

Not all superheroes worked out of major metropolitan cities. One small community of note is Ivy Town, nestled in the southeastern region of Connecticut. Professor Ray Palmer discovered that the properties of a piece of white dwarf star matter could alter the size of a living organism. Fashioning a belt regulator for himself, Palmer became the "Tiny Titan" known as the Atom.

The midwestern city of Central City was the base of operations of police forensics scientist Barry Allen, better known to the superhero community as the Flash. Along with his teenage sidekick Kid Flash, the Scarlet Speedster defended Central City against a literal Rogues Gallery of colorful costumed criminals such as Mirror Master, Captain Cold, the Weather Wizard, Heatwave and the Trickster.

Another midwestern community worthy of note is Midway City. Two alien police officers from the planet Thanagar named Katar and Shayera Hol worked as the curators of the Midway City Museum. This was only their day job however. When trouble arose, they donned their Nth metal wings and assumed the identities of Hawkman and Hawkwoman.

Over on the West Coast of the United States was Coast City. Test pilot Hal Jordan routinely patrolled the streets and skies of Coast City as the masked cosmic super-cop Green Lantern. Although Hal meted out justice to many terrestrial threats such as Goldface and the Shark, the majority of his duties lied beyond the planet Earth. As a member of the Green Lantern Corps, Hal was responsible for safeguarding all life within his designated space sector. It was in this capacity that Green Lantern dealt with his most dangerous threats, such as the former Green Lantern, Sinestro.

Teams
Although the Justice League of America was the country's premiere superhero team, they were not the only group out there. Another team worthy of mention are the Teen Titans, which was comprised of the young sidekick partners of veteran heroes. The original line-up consisted of Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad. The team quickly grew to include Wonder Girl and Speedy. Eventually, a West Coast branch of the group came about, appropriately named Titans West.

One of the more unsung superhero teams in the DC Universe are the Doom Patrol. Headed up by wheelchair-bound super-scientist Niles Caulder, the Doom Patrol was a hodge-podge of "misfits", who felt that their own disabilities branded them as outcasts from society and so they decided to band together to survive in a world that hates and fears them. Sound familiar? It should. Not three months after the Doom Patrol made their debut in the pages of My Greatest Adventure #80, DC's rivals at Marvel Comics introduced the X-Men - a group of mutants who were ostracized by the modern world and led by a telepathic invalid super-genius named Charles Xavier.

In the early 1980s, veteran Justice League member Batman grew disenfranchised with the group's initiative and quit to form his own team, the Outsiders. The Outsiders first appeared in the final issue of The Brave and the Bold and consisted of Black Lightning, Geo-Force, Katana, Metamorpho and Halo. Batman put the team together in order to rescue Wayne Enterprises VP Lucius Fox who had been kidnapped by a Markovian dictator named Baron Bedlam.

Although most of the well-established superhero teams were active during the modern era, the largest gathering of like-minded crime-fighters had another ten centuries to go before they would be born. In the 30th century, industrialist R.J. Brande brought together three super-powered teens code-named Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad. They would become the founding members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, the largest and arguably one of the most legendary teams of all time. As licensed agents of the United Planets, their jurisdiction took them beyond the planet Earth and included numerous worlds across the galaxy.

Other Earth-One based teams include the Metal Men, the Challengers of the Unknown, the Secret Six, the Sea Devils, the Suicide Squad, the Forgotten Heroes and the Blackhawk Squadron.

Notes & Trivia

 * Another version of Earth-One was created during the rebirth of the Multiverse during the 52 event. Although this Earth-One bore many similarties to the original Earth-One, it was in fact a separate reality.