Earth-2's "differences" from Earth-1

[JulianPerez]

Originally, the idea was that Earth-2 was a parallel earth and Earth-1 was our "real" earth. Gardner Fox, for instance, in the first "Flash of Two Worlds" was stated as being a resident of Earth-1, and the person that wrote the original Flash comics.

As it was apparent that Earth-2 was not our "real" earth, there was a lot of freedom to make Earth-2 vastly different.

The guy that did the most in terms of giving Earth-2 identity was Roy Thomas. For instance, in his INFINITY, INC., we learn that on Earth-2, apartheid was over in South Africa (something that had yet to happen either on Earth-1 or the "real" world). Also, the president of the United States in INFINITY INC. was a woman.

(Incidentally, this is why the claim of Roy Thomas being mysoginistic bugs me:  because it just isn't true. True, the Scarlet Witch was never given much to do until Englehart came along, but Roy the Boy went out of his way to create strong female characters, especially in the later period: Firebrand, from INFINITY INC. comes to mind, as does Liberty Belle.)

However, as far back as the sixties JLA/JSA Team-Ups, there were little clues that Earth-2 was an "alternate" and "different" earth. Some of the Dennis O'Neil/Dick Dillin-era Team-Ups featured types of technical advancement on Earth-2: for instance, space stations.

[MatterEaterLad]

You know, its interesting what people expect from "new worlds"...when I was a kid in the 60s reading the Earth 2 stories, I (mistakenly) assumed Fox meant that Earth 2 was not only separate in space but that it characters were actually from the late 40s or early 50s, meaning that Earth 1 and 2 had a time gap as well...later, it became apparent that writers had other ideas, but I wonder what Gardner Fox meant when he started the concept...

I do know that I thought that Earth Prime was a neat idea, a way to represent real life and the real world writers, but eventually it got clogged with its own super hero, a separate time line with nuclear war (at least for a while) and then Superboy Prime...

[JulianPerez]

You know, its interesting what people expect from "new worlds"...when I was a kid in the 60s reading the Earth 2 stories, I (mistakenly) assumed Fox meant that Earth 2 was not only separate in space but that it characters were actually from the late 40s or early 50s, meaning that Earth 1 and 2 had a time gap as well...later, it became apparent that writers had other ideas, but I wonder what Gardner Fox meant when he started the concept...

If Gardner Fox meant something different, he changed his mind around the time of the first JLA/JSA team-up: there, he makes mention of the fact that on Earth-2 time had passed: he even says that the JSAers had "a gray hair or two."

[MatterEaterLad]

Yeah, I probably just didn't pick up enough titles, but the characters didn't seem that much older in appearance...I remember a 1970 issue when the JSA and the JLA were battling the "creators" and their pink "cargo nets", and the opening scene had Superman of Earth 2 caught by one of the nets...I couldn't see much difference in the look of his uniform or any grey hair in the art...maybe Doc Midnite had grey hair under his head covering, but his face and everyone else's looked pretty young to me.

[Johnny Nevada]

Yeah, I probably just didn't pick up enough titles, but the characters didn't seem that much older in appearance...I remember a 1970 issue when the JSA and the JLA were battling the "creators" and their pink "cargo nets", and the opening scene had Superman of Earth 2 caught by one of the nets...I couldn't see much difference in the look of his uniform or any grey hair in the art...maybe Doc Midnite had grey hair under his head covering, but his face and everyone else's looked pretty young to me.

That teamup was published in 1970; by the Crisis on Earth-X teamup, the writers decided to actually draw the JSAers looking older, and thus Kal-L sports his famous greying sideburns/temples in that tale for the first time...

[MatterEaterLad]

Yeah, that's kind of what I meant, a gradual artistic creep, by the later years, Earth 2 Supes even had a different S shield...

Actually, I missed a lot of JLA/JSA teamups in the 60s, and like I said, I was just a kid, most stories just seemed to flow OK with my mistaken assumption that the JSA-ers were actually from an Earth that was separate in time and picking up when they went "off the air" in the late 40s...

[TELLE]

I'm pretty sure there was a retcon in there somewhere about a secret formula or eternal life, a la Tarzan.  Or is that a new thing.

There is also the famous continually revised DC-superhero aging formula, which escapes me.

[MatterEaterLad]

Those retcons kind of confuse me too...I'm not sure if the "Spear of Destiny" had anything to do with it, though I do remember that the late 70s had stories about their post War retirement after appearing before Congress...way after my comics time.

I DO remember thinking that Black Canary looked pretty smokin' when she came to Earth 1, I never thought she was pushing 50...