DC Comics established Earth-Prime as the reader’s world. It was basically the same as the real world, with no super-heroes, and allowed DC characters to interact with a world in which they were fictional characters. It also allowed the comics’ writers and editors to write themselves into stories. In 1985, as DC was dismantling the multiverse concept with Crisis on Infinite Earths, they established the existence of a Superboy on Earth-Prime, just before they destroyed the universe. This Superboy returned after a 20-year absence as one of the main villains in Infinite Crisis.

Flash #228 (1974), “How I Saved the Flash,” featured writer Cary Bates traveling to Earth-1 and meeting the Flash. Up until this point, the conceit had been that on Earth-Prime, comic writers would dream about super-heroes’ adventures on Earth-1, just as Earth-1′s writers would dream about heroes on Earth-2. In this story, the connection went the other way, too: Earth-Prime’s Cary Bates was able to influence events on Earth-1 by sheer force of will, which he called “plotting power.”

Now, Infinite Crisis Secret Files (2006) revealed that many of the seemingly random changes in DC continuity over the last 10–20 years were caused by Superboy-Prime trying to escape from limbo. Every time he punched the barrier separating them from the DCU, something would change. The Doom Patrol would appear out of nowhere, Donna Troy would get another origin, Jason Todd would come back to life, Lex Luthor would have grown up in Smallville, etc.

Notice, though: Superboy-Prime and Cary Bates-Prime are from the same universe, and both were able to alter reality in the mainstream DC universe.

I’m not sure what’s scarier: the fact that I noticed the connection, or the possibility that Geoff Johns, Marv Wolfman, or someone else involved with Infinite Crisis may have deliberately used this Superboy because of it.

Originally, Power Girl was created to be the Supergirl of Earth-2, the universe in which all of DC’s golden-age stories were set. DC allowed time to pass on Earth-2, though they kept their main universe in a perpetual “now.” After Crisis, DC declared Superman was the only survivor of Krypton, so they cleared out Supergirl, the bottled city of Kandor, etc. But they kept Power Girl around. She was explained away as a survivor of pre-flood Atlantis, given false memories of being Superman’s cousin. The origin served for nearly 20 years, but Power Girl remained a second-stringer. So? After suggesting a number of possibilities, her new origin is her original origin: she really is Superman’s cousin from Earth-2, and somehow survived the Crisis.

It’s telling that Donna Troy is best known by her real name. She started out as Wonder Girl, adopted sister of Wonder Woman. After Crisis, Wonder Woman was re-introduced as a new hero, but Wonder Girl had been running around with the Teen Titans for the last few years. The result: a new origin where she was adopted by the Titans of Greek mythology, and after she learned the “truth” she took on a new name and costume as Troia. Then she lost her powers. Then she joined a Green Lantern-like group of space sherrifs called the Darkstars. Then she quit. Then she got a new origin as a magical duplicate of Wonder Woman, and became Troia again. Then DC killed her off for pure shock value. Now she’s back, linked again to the Titans of Myth. Her background: all of her origins are true. She’s the sum of all possible Donna Troys from the pre-Crisis multiverse!

The new origins do have something in common: both are linked to the multiverse that existed before Crisis on Infinite Earths—a fact that looks likely to become important in the unfolding Infinite Crisis.

Back in 1985, when Crisis on Infinite Earths was first published, I was reading these ongoing DC books on a regular basis:

• The New Teen Titans
• Tales of the Teen Titans

That was it. I was also reading Groo the Wanderer and Transformers.

In 2005, with Infinite Crisis arriving, I am reading these ongoing DC books on a regular basis:

• Teen Titans
• The Flash

The more things change…

There were times in the early 1990s that I was reading 5-10 books a month, all DC. New Titans, Flash, Starman, Hawk and Dove, Justice League Europe, L.E.G.I.O.N., Darkstars. I even read Legion of Super-Heroes during the “five years later” period.

So what happened?

Well, thinking about it, most of those books were strongest while I was in high school. And, more importantly, most of the books I’m reading these days are fantasy or horror, not super-heroes. Most of the super-hero books I do read are cross-genre books. Astro City is told from the ordinary guy’s point of view. Noble Causes is a super-hero soap opera. Planetary is metafiction about the past century’s adventure stories. Supreme Power is a cynical look at how the “real world” might deal with the sudden appearance of super-powered beings. Powers is about cops dealing with powered-up heroes and villains.

That leaves Flash, Teen Titans and Astonishing X-Men. Flash and Teen Titans because I’m a long-term fan, and Astonishing because of Joss Whedon. (Seriously, I’ve only bought one other X-book in the 21 years I’ve been reading comics: The X-Men/New Teen Titans crossover.)

DC and Marvel mainly publish mainstream super-hero books. Anything else either gets published under another label (like Vertigo or Wildstorm) or has to look elsewhere to get printed. End result: very little of what I want to read gets published with a DC logo on it.

Tamaran’s story unfolded during the 1980s in The New Teen Titans and The Omega Men (which featured Kory’s brother). Koriand’r returned home to help stop a civil war, but then her sister wrested the throne from their father. Komand’r (a.k.a. Blackfire) surprised everyone by becoming a much better—and fairer—ruler than anyone expected. Eventually Kory returned home to stay.

As The New Titans wound its way to a close in 1996, the story returned to Tamaran, now embroiled in a new war—one which ultimately destroyed the planet. The survivors settled on an uninhabited world to rebuild, dubbing it New Tamaran. (New Teen Titans #126-230, 1996)

Then things got nasty.

Just a few months after the final issue of The New Titans, DC published a prologue to the year’s big crossover, The Final Night. The sun-eater, before setting its sights on Earth, destroyed New Tamaran utterly, with no time for an evacuation. Starfire, exiled just hours before by her suddenly-evil-again sister, was believed the only survivor.

Fast forward a few years. Starfire talked the Titans into helping repel an invasion by the Gordanians, but it quickly became clear that it was the Tamaraneans who were invading the homeworld of their former conquerors. The Titans’ Tempest (formerly Aqualad) found a diplomatic solution and convinced the Gordanians to share the world of Karna with the displaced Tamaraneans—as long as Koriand’r took her place as ruler. (The Titans #16-18, 2000)

So of course, the following year’s big crossover event, Our Worlds At War, starts off with what? Karna being destroyed by Imperiex. (Our Worlds At War Secret Files, 2001). Starfire returned to Earth, a queen without a people.

The Tamaraneans have had three worlds destroyed out from under them in the last ten years (closer to two or three in story time). The rag-tag survivors may number as low as the hundreds or thousands by now.

I’ve seriously come to the conclusion that, if DC needs to destroy a recognizable planet in order to establish a threat that’s headed toward Earth, they’ll pick the latest planet the Tamaraneans have settled on.

(Maybe they should hook up with Pariah.)

So now we’ve got two “event” series taking place in space: The Rann-Thanagar War and The Return of Donna Troy. There appear to be two groups of Tamaranean survivors involved. One has fallen under the thrall of the original Titans of Greek mythology. (Troia’s origin established that they had been exiled into space when Zeus took over.) They’re off conquering planets for the Titans under the belief that they’re protecting the universe from Rann and Thanagar. The other, led by an inexplicably-resurrected Blackfire, has allied themselves with Thanagar with the intent to betray them at the last minute and take Rann for themselves.

If they succeed, you can bet on Rann getting destroyed a few months later in Infinite Crisis.